Hi, I am somewhat of a novice, but I am writing a module to access a GEDCOM XML 6.0 file.

# XML::Twig::Gedcom
# Copyright (C) 2004 Jeremy J. Biros
# Perl module for processing a GEDCOM XML 6.0 file
#
package XML::Twig::Gedcom;

use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::Twig;

BEGIN {
    use Exporter   ();
    our ($VERSION, @ISA, @EXPORT, @EXPORT_OK, %EXPORT_TAGS);

    # set the version for version checking
    $VERSION     = 1.00;
   
    @ISA         = qw(Exporter);
    @EXPORT      = qw(&given_name &setup &new);
    %EXPORT_TAGS = ( DEFAULT => [qw(&given_name &setup &new)],
                     Both    => [qw(&given_name)]);
    # your exported package globals go here,
    # as well as any optionally exported functions
    @EXPORT_OK   = qw(first_name setup new);
}
our @EXPORT_OK;

# exported package globals go here

# non-exported package globals go here
our $individual;

# initialize package globals, first exported ones

# then the others (which are still accessible as $Some::Module::stuff)

# all file-scoped lexicals must be created before
# the functions below that use them.

# file-private lexicals go here

# here's a file-private function as a closure,
# callable as &$priv_func;  it cannot be prototyped.
#my $priv_func = sub {
#    stuff goes here.
#};

# make all your functions, whether exported or not;
# remember to put something interesting in the {} stubs

sub new {
  my ($package) = @_;
  my %hash = (GIVEN_NAME  => "Jeremy",
              SURNAME   => "Biros",
              MIDDLE_NAME => "John",
              SEX         => "M");
  bless \%hash => $package;
  $self = @_;
}

# Returns the namepart with level 3
sub given_name {
  my ($self) = @_;
  return $self->{GIVEN_NAME};
}

# Returns the namepart with level 1
sub surname {
  my ($self) = @_;
  return $self->{SURNAME};
}

# Returns the namepart with level 4
sub middle_name {
  my ($self) = @_;
  return $self->{MIDDLE_NAME};
}

# Returns the individual's sex
sub sex {
  my ($self) = @_;
  return $self->{SEX};
}

# Gets the individual's <IndividualRec>
# calls load_individual to process it
sub setup {
  my ($individual_id) = @_;

  # Get the XML for the specified individual
  my $t = XML::Twig->new( twig_roots =>
                          { "IndividualRec[\@Id=\"$individual_id\"]" =
+> \&load_individual }
                        );
  $t->parsefile( 'gedcom.xml');  # parse the individual's node
  $t->purge;                     # free up the memory
}

# Processes the individual and stores all values
sub load_individual{
  my( $t, $individual)= @_;    # arguments for all twig_handlers

  #####################
  # INDIVIDUAL'S NAME #
  #####################
  # only allows for one name, DTD allows for more than one
  my $full_name = $individual->first_child( 'IndivName' );
  my @nameparts = $full_name->children( 'NamePart' );

  foreach my $namepart (@nameparts){
    my $level = $namepart->{'att'}->{'Level'};
     
    # surname?
    if ($level eq '1'){
      my $surname = $namepart->text;
      $self->{SURNAME} = $surname;
    }
    else{
      # given name?
      if ($level eq '3'){
        my $given_name = $namepart->text;
        $self->{GIVEN_NAME} = $given_name;
      }
    }
  }

  ####################
  # INDIVIDUAL'S SEX #
  ####################
  $self->{SEX} = $individual->first_child( 'Gender' )->text;

  # free the memory
  $t->purge;
}

END { }

## YOUR CODE GOES HERE

1;  # don't forget to return a true value from the file
[download]

My problem is, when I create my twig handler in the "setup" function, I don't know how to pass a reference to the object to the load_individual function, so I can set hash values in it. Any help with this question or any comments or critiques would be much appreciated.

Edited by Chady -- copied code from scratchpad into the post.