This is a follow up to my previous RFC (RFC: A YAML config module to be posted to CPAN).

I have now released this config module as Config::Loader version 1.

Config::Loader reads in (and merges) a configuration directory tree, which can contain files with YAML, XML, JSON, INI, Perl and Config::General config data. (Thanks castaway for the pointer to Config::Any.)

(WARNING - I had a version 0.01 on CPAN from 2004 which worked very differently - look for version 1.00)

• Individual keys in the real config data can be overwritten for a dev environment though one (or many) local.(yaml/json/ini/etc) file(s). See the examples/browser.pl

• I've taken hossman's concerns into account by providing an OO interface in addition to the functional interface, and I've made it easier to use the functional style, so:

     OO style
     -------------------------------------------------------
     use Config::Loader();
     my $config    = Config::Loader->new('/path/to/config');
     @hosts        = $config->('db.hosts.session');
     -------------------------------------------------------
  [download]

  OR

  
     Functional style (auto generates your own config class)
     -------------------------------------------------------
     # On startup
     use Config::Loader('My::Config' => '/path/to/config');
  
  
     # Then, in any module where you want to use the config
     package My::Module;
     use My::Config;
  
     @hosts        = C('db.hosts.sesssion');
     -------------------------------------------------------
  [download]

• The config data can be accessed as a normal Perl variable, or for ease of reading, I provide a method for using Template Toolkit style notation, for instance:

     OO style
     -------------------------------------------------------
     @hosts        = $config->('db.hosts.session');
     $hosts_ref    = $config->('db.hosts.session');
     $host_2       = $config->('db.hosts.session.1');
  
     @cloned_hosts = $config->clone('db.hosts.session');  # deep clones 
  +the data
     -------------------------------------------------------
  [download]

     Functional style
     -------------------------------------------------------
     @hosts        = C('db.hosts.sesssion');
     $hosts_ref    = C('db.hosts.sesssion');
     $host_2       = C('db.hosts.session.1');
  
     @cloned_hosts = My::Config::clone('db.hosts.session');    # deep cl
  +ones the data
     $config       = My::Config::object;                       # returns
  + the stored config object
     -------------------------------------------------------
  [download]

  These lookups are memo'ised for speed.

• I have used overload to make these two equivalent:

  
       $config->C('db.hosts.session');
       $config->('db.hosts.session');
  [download]

  Is this overkill? How far back is overloading &{} supported?

I would appreciate any feedback / comments / use of the module.

thanks

clint