NAME

Text::BibTeX::File - interface to whole BibTeX files

SYNOPSIS

   use Text::BibTeX;     # this loads Text::BibTeX::File

   $bib = new Text::BibTeX::File "foo.bib" or die "foo.bib: $!\n";
   # or:
   $bib = new Text::BibTeX::File;
   $bib->open ("foo.bib") || die "foo.bib: $!\n";

   $bib->set_structure ($structure_name,
                        $option1 => $value1, ...);

   $at_eof = $bib->eof;

   $bib->close;

DESCRIPTION

Text::BibTeX::File provides an object-oriented interface to BibTeX files. Its most obvious purpose is to keep track of a filename and filehandle together for use by the Text::BibTeX::Entry module (which is much more interesting). In addition, it allows you to specify certain options which are applicable to a whole database (file), rather than having to specify them for each entry in the file. Currently, you can specify the database structure and some structure options. These concepts are fully documented in the Text::BibTeX::Structure manpage.

METHODS

Object creation, file operations

new ([FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]]]): Creates a new Text::BibTeX::File object. If FILENAME is supplied, passes it to the open method (along with MODE and PERMS if they are supplied). If the open fails, new fails and returns false; if the open succeeds (or if FILENAME isn't supplied), new returns the new object reference.
open (FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]]): Opens the file specified by FILENAME, possibly using MODE and PERMS. See the IO::File manpage for full semantics; this open is just a front end for IO::File::open.
close (): Closes the filehandle associated with the object. If there is no such filehandle (i.e., open was never called on the object), does nothing.
eof (): Returns the end-of-file state of the filehandle associated with the object: a true value means we are at the end of the file.

Object properties

set_structure (STRUCTURE [, OPTION => VALUE, ...]): Sets the database structure for a BibTeX file. At the simplest level, this means that entries from the file are expected to conform to certain field requirements as specified by the structure module. It also gives you full access to the methods of the particular structured entry class for this structure, allowing you to perform operations specific to this kind of database. See CLASS INTERACTIONS in the Text::BibTeX::Structure manpage for all the consequences of setting the database structure for a Text::BibTeX::File object.
structure (): Returns the name of the database structure associated with the object (as set by set_structure).
preserve_values ([PRESERVE]): Sets the ``preserve values'' flag, to control all future parsing of entries from this file. If PRESERVE isn't supplied, returns the current state of the flag. See the Text::BibTeX::Value manpage for details on parsing in ``value preservation'' mode.

AUTHOR

Greg Ward <gward@python.net>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2000 by Gregory P. Ward. All rights reserved. This file is part of the Text::BibTeX library. This library is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Text::BibTeX::File - interface to whole BibTeX files