NAME
    Data::Serializer:: - Modules that serialize data structures

SYNOPSIS
      use Data::Serializer;
  
      $obj = Data::Serializer->new();

      $obj = Data::Serializer->new(
                              serializer => 'Storable',
                              digester   => 'MD5',
                              cipher     => 'DES',
                              secret     => 'my secret',
                              compress   => 1,
                            );

      $serialized = $obj->serialize({a => [1,2,3],b => 5});
      $deserialized = $obj->deserialize($serialized);
      print "$deserialized->{b}\n";

DESCRIPTION
    Provides a unified interface to the various serializing modules
    currently available. Adds the functionality of both compression and
    encryption.

EXAMPLES
    Please see Data::Serializer::Cookbook(3)

METHODS
    new - constructor
          $obj = Data::Serializer->new();

          $obj = Data::Serializer->new(
                                 serializer => 'Data::Dumper',
                                 digester   => 'SHA-256',
                                 cipher     => 'Blowfish',
                                 secret     => undef,
                                 portable   => '1',
                                 compress   => '0',
                           serializer_token => '1',
                                   options  => {},
                                );

        new is the constructor object for Data::Serializer objects.

        *   The default *serializer* is "Data::Dumper"

        *   The default *digester* is "SHA-256"

        *   The default *cipher* is "Blowfish"

        *   The default *secret* is "undef"

        *   The default *portable* is 1

        *   The default *encoding* is "hex"

        *   The default *compress* is 0

        *   The default *compressor* is "Compress::Zlib"

        *   The default *serializer_token* is 1

        *   The default *options* is "{}" (pass nothing on to serializer)

    serialize - serialize reference
          $serialized = $obj->serialize({a => [1,2,3],b => 5});

        Serializes the reference specified.

        Will compress if compress is a true value.

        Will encrypt if secret is defined.

    deserialize - deserialize reference
          $deserialized = $obj->deserialize($serialized);

        Reverses the process of serialization and returns a copy of the
        original serialized reference.

    freeze - synonym for serialize
          $serialized = $obj->freeze({a => [1,2,3],b => 5});

    thaw - synonym for deserialize
          $deserialized = $obj->thaw($serialized);

    raw_serialize - serialize reference in raw form
          $serialized = $obj->raw_serialize({a => [1,2,3],b => 5});

        This is a straight pass through to the underlying serializer,
        nothing else is done. (no encoding, encryption, compression, etc)

    raw_deserialize - deserialize reference in raw form
          $deserialized = $obj->raw_deserialize($serialized);

        This is a straight pass through to the underlying serializer,
        nothing else is done. (no encoding, encryption, compression, etc)

    secret - specify secret for use with encryption
          $obj->secret('mysecret');

        Changes setting of secret for the Data::Serializer object. Can also
        be set in the constructor. If specified than the object will utilize
        encryption.

    portable - encodes/decodes serialized data
        Uses encoding method to ascii armor serialized data

        Aids in the portability of serialized data.

    compress - compression of data
        Compresses serialized data. Default is not to use it. Will compress
        if set to a true value $obj->compress(1);

    serializer - change the serializer
        Currently have 8 supported serializers: Storable, FreezeThaw,
        Data::Denter, Config::General, YAML, PHP::Serialization,
        XML::Dumper, and Data::Dumper.

        Default is to use Data::Dumper.

        Each serializer has its own caveat's about usage especially when
        dealing with cyclical data structures or CODE references. Please see
        the appropriate documentation in those modules for further
        information.

    cipher - change the cipher method
        Utilizes Crypt::CBC and can support any cipher method that it
        supports.

    digester - change digesting method
        Uses Digest so can support any digesting method that it supports.
        Digesting function is used internally by the encryption routine as
        part of data verification.

    compressor - changes compresing module
        This method is included for possible future inclusion of alternate
        compression method Currently Compress::Zlib is the only supported
        compressor.

    encoding - change encoding method
        Encodes data structure in ascii friendly manner. Currently the only
        valid options are hex, or b64.

        The b64 option uses Base64 encoding provided by MIME::Base64, but
        strips out newlines.

    serializer_token - add usage hint to data
        Data::Serializer prepends a token that identifies what was used to
        process its data. This is used internally to allow runtime
        determination of how to extract Serialized data. Disabling this
        feature is not recommended.

    options - pass options through to underlying serializer
        Currently is only supported by Config::General, and XML::Dumper.

          my $obj = Data::Serializer->new(serializer => 'Config::General',
                                          options    => {
                                                     -LowerCaseNames       => 1,
                                                     -UseApacheInclude     => 1,
                                                     -MergeDuplicateBlocks => 1,
                                                     -AutoTrue             => 1,
                                                     -InterPolateVars      => 1
                                                        },
                                                      ) or die "$!\n";

          or

          my $obj = Data::Serializer->new(serializer => 'XML::Dumper',
                                          options    => { dtd => 1, }
                                          ) or die "$!\n";

    store - serialize data and write it to a file (or file handle)
          $obj->store({a => [1,2,3],b => 5},$file, [$mode, $perm]);

          or 

          $obj->store({a => [1,2,3],b => 5},$fh);

        Serializes the reference specified using the serialize method and
        writes it out to the specified file or filehandle.

        If a file path is specified you may specify an optional mode and
        permission as the next two arguments. See IO::File for examples.

        Trips an exception if it is unable to write to the specified file.

    retrieve - read data from file (or file handle) and return it after
    deserialization
          my $ref = $obj->retrieve($file);

          or 

          my $ref = $obj->retrieve($fh);

        Reads first line of supplied file or filehandle and returns it
        deserialized.

TRANSIENCE
    Data::Serializer is aware of Tie::Transient. What this means is that you
    use Tie::Transient as normal, and when your object is serialized, the
    transient components will be automatically removed for you.

    Tie::Transient is not on CPAN, and doesn't look like it ever will be.
    With the advent of attributes from 5.8 this feature should probably be
    deprecated anyway.

    If you would like to use Tie::Transient you can download it directly
    from Brian's site here:
    http://www.maz.org/perl/Tie-Transient-0.05.tar.gz

    With perl attributes in 5.8, this should probably be deprecated.

AUTHOR
    Neil Neely <neil@frii.net>.

    Feature requests are certainly welcome.

BUGS
    Please report all bugs here:

    http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Data-Serializer

TODO
    Phase out support for Tie::Transient

    Extend the persistent framework. Perhaps Persistent::Base(3) framework
    would be useful to explore further. Volunteers for putting this together
    would be welcome.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Neil Neely. All rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

    See http://www.perl.com/language/misc/Artistic.html

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Gurusamy Sarathy and Raphael Manfredi for writing MLDBM, the module
    which inspired the creation of Data::Serializer.

    And thanks to all of you who have provided the feedback that has
    improved this module over the years.

    In particular I'd like to thank Florian Helmberger, for the numerous
    suggestions and bug fixes.

DEDICATION
    This module is dedicated to my beautiful wife Erica.

SEE ALSO
    Data::Dumper(3)
    Data::Denter(3)
    Data::Taxi(3)
    Storable(3)
    FreezeThaw(3)
    Config::General(3)
    YAML(3)
    YAML::Syck(3)
    PHP::Serialization(3)
    XML::Dumper(3)
    JSON(3)
    JSON::Syck(3)
    Compress::Zlib(3)
    Digest(3)
    Digest::SHA(3)
    Crypt(3)
    MIME::Base64(3)
    IO::File(3)
    Tie::Transient(3)

