since you even used the word "configure", why not make a class variable, and have the Configure sub set that variable (or just write it directly)? You would have to have a lot more protection/error-checking than in this example, but the proof-of-concept could be:

package MyClass;
use warnings;
use strict;

our %Config;

sub Configure {
    %Config = %{$_[0]};
}

sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    my $self = {%Config};
    my %args = @_;
    foreach (keys %args) {
        $self->{$_} = $args{$_};
    }
    return bless $self, $class;
}


package main;
use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

MyClass::Configure( {group => 1, defined => 'values'});
my $x = MyClass->new();
my $y = MyClass->new(extra => 'here');
MyClass::Configure( {group => 2, defined => 0});
my $z = MyClass->new(third => 3);

$/ = "\n";
print Dumper $_ for $x, $y, $z;

[download]

In reply to Re^3: Using a factory class to return objects of the same class by pryrt
in thread Using a factory class to return objects of the same class by Amblikai

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.