• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• Methods
• new($xmldom_element, %options)
• get_tr
• set_tr(@votable_tr)
• Notes on class internals
• WARNINGS
• SEE ALSO
• AUTHOR
• VERSION

NAME

VOTABLE::TABLEDATA - VOTABLE TABLEDATA XML element class

SYNOPSIS

use VOTABLE::TABLEDATA;

DESCRIPTION

This class implements the TABLEDATA element from the VOTABLE DTD. This element is the container for completely self-contained, XML-formatted data tables.

The TABLEDATA element is a Tier 2 element, and is described by the following excerpt from the VOTABLE 1.0 DTD:

 <!ELEMENT TABLEDATA (TR*)>

Methods

new($xmldom_element, %options)

Create and return a new VOTABLE::TABLEDATA object, based on the supplied XML::DOM::Element object, using %options to set the attributes of the new object. If no XML::DOM::Element object is specified, or is undefined, create and return an empty VOTABLE::TABLEDATA object. Return undef if an error occurs.

get_tr

Return a list of the VOTABLE::TR objects for the TR elements which are the children of this TABLEDATA element. Return an empty list if no TR elements are found, or if an error occurs.

set_tr(@votable_tr)

Set the TR elements for this TABLEDATA element using the supplied list of VOTABLE::TR objects. Any previously existing TR elements are first removed. Return the input list on success, or an empty list if an error occurs.

Notes on class internals

• Method names that begin with a leading underscore ('_') are for internal use only, and should not be used outside of the VOTABLE class hierarchy.

• The names of the get_XXX and set_XXX accessors for attributes and elements are derived directly from the names of the attributes or elements. Attribute and element names containing embedded hyphens ('-') use accessors where the hyphen is mapped to an underscore ('_') in the name of the accessor method. This is a necessity, since the hyphen is not a valid name character in Perl.

WARNINGS

• This code (perhaps unwisely) assumes that object internal structure is always maintained. For example, this code assumes that every VOTABLE::TABLEDATA object always has an underlying XML::DOM::Element object. As long as the internal structure is manipulated only by the publicly-available methods, this should be an adequate assumption. If a method detects an aberrant case, a warning message is printed (using the Carp::carp subroutine), and the method fails.

• Similarly, this code assumes that XML::DOM methods always succeed. If a method detects an aberrant case, a warning message is printed (using the Carp::carp subroutine), and the method fails.

• Most attribute set_XXX accessors do not perform validation of the new attribute values. The exceptions are the accessors for attributes with enumerated values; the new value is checked against the list of acceptable values, as defined in the DTD.

SEE ALSO

VOTABLE, VOTABLE::DATA, VOTABLE::TR

AUTHOR

Eric Winter, NASA GSFC (elwinter@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov)

VERSION

$Id: TABLEDATA.pm,v 1.1.1.7 2002/05/21 14:13:34 elwinter Exp $