I had a similar problem. I receive a minimal abstract object and changed it into a specialized one to make life easier. What I did was creating a new class "Labrador" with the superclass "Dog" and a role "LabradorMethodsAndAtributes". Well, in my case it wasn't dogs.

Shortened, adjusted, unrunable code:

my $class_name = "Felidae::Tiger";
    
# Does the class already exist?
return $class_name
    if is_class_loaded($class_name);

# No, create it
my $superclass  = "Felidae";
my $role_name   = "Felidae::Role::Tiger";

# create the Role
my $role = Moose::Meta::Role->create($role_name);

# A leopard does not have stripes but spots
$role->add_attribute( "stripecount",
                      ( is => 'rw',
                        isa => 'Int',
                        ... # builder, lazy etc
                     ) );

my $my_class = Moose::Meta::Class->create(
                            $class_name,
                            superclasses => [$superclass],
                            roles        => [$role_name],
                    );
my $garfield = $class_name->new($felidae_obj);

[download]

Now you have an object which isa "Felidae" and a "Tiger" and does "stripecount".

And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: "Psst!"
(Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

In reply to Re: changing moose object classes on the go by Brutha
in thread changing moose object classes on the go by tomgracey

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