use strict;
use warnings;


package Event; 
    sub new {
        my ($class) = @_;
        my $self = {};
        $self = {
            'Event Type'        => 'Windows 2003',
        };

        bless $self, ref($class) || $class;
        return $self;
    }

 
package Security; 
    our @ISA = qw (Event);
    @PARENT::ISA = @ISA;
    
    sub new {
        my $class = shift;
        my($self) = $class->PARENT::new(@_);        
        $self->{'EventLog'} = 'Security';
        return (bless($self, $class));                                
+  # return object
    }

1;
[download]

@ISA = qw(Event); @PARENT::ISA = @ISA

For my second issue I need to show you the rest of the code, AuditLogReview_Event08.pm:

use strict;
use warnings;

package Event08; 
    sub new {
        my ($class) = @_;
        my $self = {};
        $self = {
            'Event Type'        => 'Windows 2008',
        };

        bless $self, ref($class) || $class;
        return $self;
    }

 
package Security08; 
    our @ISA = qw (Event08);
    @PARENT::ISA = @ISA;
    
    sub new {
        my $class = shift;
        my($self) = $class->PARENT::new(@_);
        $self->{'EventLog'} = 'Security';
        return (bless($self, $class));                                
+  # return object
    }

1;
[download]

And finally, the test script, AuditTest.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;

use AuditLogReview_Event;    # handles 2003 events
use AuditLogReview_Event08;    # handles 2008 events 

EventWindowsHandler('.evt');
EventWindowsHandler('.evtx');

sub EventWindowsHandler {
    my $oEvent;
    my $ext = shift;
    
    if ($ext eq '.evt') {
        $oEvent = Security->new();
    } elsif ( $ext eq '.evtx') {
        $oEvent = Security08->new();    # can I call Security from the
+ AuditLogReview_Event08 file?
    }
    
    print "Processing $oEvent->{'Event Type'} $oEvent->{'EventLog'} ev
+ent.\n";

}
[download]

Now, the thing is, as written when it runs it produces the following:

C:\Users\A209624\Desktop>perl AuditTest.pl
Processing Windows 2008 Security event.
Processing Windows 2008 Security event.

Putting some debugging in there, I see that the Security->new() call goes to the right place, but when it does it's

$class->PARENT::new(@_)

I was able to get the behavior I wanted by changing the my $self = $class->PARENT::new(@_) in each package to

my $self = Event->new(@_);
my $self = Event08->new(@_);
[download]

But I'm still unsure why the first way didn't work correctly.

Thanks!