User::I...lection(3)

📦

version 4.00 · 9 versions

💖 NAME 💖

Okay bestie, gather round: this is User::Identity::Collection — the base class for collecting roles of a user. It's a Perl module, it lives in section 3 of the manual (library functions, iykyk), and it's giving "the mom friend who organises everyone's stuff". 🎀

🧬 INHERITANCE 🧬

The family tree, no cap:

User::Identity::Collection — is a User::Identity::Item 🫶
User::Identity::Collection is extended by:
- User::Identity::Collection::Emails
- User::Identity::Collection::Locations
- User::Identity::Collection::Systems
- User::Identity::Collection::Users

So it's the parent, and those four are its iconic children. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Here's the vibe in code, literally:

use User::Identity;
use User::Identity::Collection;
my $me    = User::Identity->new(...);
my $set   = User::Identity::Collection::Emails->new(...);
$me->addCollection($set);

# Simpler
use User::Identity;
my $me    = User::Identity->new(...);
my $set   = $me->addCollection(type => 'email', ...)
my $set   = $me->addCollection('email', ...)

my @roles = $me->collection('email');  # list of collected items

my $coll  = $me->collection('email');  # a User::Identity::Collection
my @roles = $coll->roles;
my @roles = @$coll;                    # same, by overloading

my $role  = $me->collection('email')->find($coderef);
my $role  = $me->collection('location')->find('work');
my $role  = $me->find(location => 'work');

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The User::Identity::Collection object maintains a set user related objects. It helps selecting these objects — which is partially common to all collections (for instance, each object has a name so you can search on names), and sometimes specific to the extension of this collection. It's giving ✨organised chaos✨ in the best way.

Currently imlemented extensions are 🦋

people is a collection of users
whereabouts are locations
a mailinglist is a collection of email addresses
a network contains groups of systems

Extends DESCRIPTION in User::Identity::Item.

🎀 OVERLOADED 🎀

overload: "" stringification — Returns the name of the collection and a sorted list of defined items.

» example:

print "$collection\n";  #   location: home, work

overload: @{} array dereference — When the reference to a collection object is used as array-reference, it will be shown as list of roles.

» example:

my $locations = $ui->collection('location');
foreach my $loc (@$location) ...
print $location->[0];

💅 METHODS 💅

Extends METHODS in User::Identity::Item.

🫶 Constructors

Extends Constructors in User::Identity::Item.

`$class->new( [$name], %options )`

The option rundown, straight from the source table:

-Option     --Defined in          --Default
 description  User::Identity::Item  undef
 item_type                          <required>
 name         User::Identity::Item  <required>
 parent       User::Identity::Item  undef
 roles                              undef

Breaking it down, one by one:

description => STRING — defined in User::Identity::Item, default undef
item_type => CLASS — default <required>. This is the CLASS which is used to store the information for each of the maintained objects within this collection.
name => STRING — defined in User::Identity::Item, default <required>
parent => OBJECT — defined in User::Identity::Item, default undef
roles => $role|@roles — default undef. Immediately add some @roles to this collection. In case of an ARRAY, each element is passed separately to addRole(). So, you may end-up with an ARRAY of ARRAYS each grouping a set of options to create a role. 💀 (fr fr, nested arrays go brrr)

🦋 Attributes

Extends Attributes in User::Identity::Item.

$obj->description() — Inherited, see Attributes in User::Identity::Item
$obj->itemType() — Returns the type of the items collected.
$obj->name( [$newname] ) — Inherited, see Attributes in User::Identity::Item
$obj->roles() — Returns all defined roles within this collection. Be warned: the rules are returned in random (hash) order. Not me warning you twice about the ordering 😭

🌈 Collections

Extends Collections in User::Identity::Item.

$obj->add($collection, $role) — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$obj->addCollection( $object | <[$type], %options> ) — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$obj->collection($name) — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$obj->parent( [$parent] ) — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$obj->removeCollection($object|$name) — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$any->type() — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item
$obj->user() — Inherited, see Collections in User::Identity::Item

👑 Maintaining roles

$obj->addRole($role|([$name], %options)) — Adds a new role to this collection. $role is an object of the right type (depends on the extension of this module which type that is) or a list of %options which are used to create such role. The options can also be passed as reference to an ARRAY. The added role is returned. 🫶

» example:

my $uicl = User::Identity::Collection::Locations->new;

my $uil  = User::Identity::Location->new(home => ...);
$uicl->addRole($uil);
$uicl->addRole(  home => address => 'street 32' );
$uicl->addRole( [home => address => 'street 32'] );

Easier ✨

$ui      = User::Identity;
$ui->add(location => 'home', address => 'street 32' );
$ui->add(location => [ 'home', address => 'street 32' ] );

$obj->removeRole($role|$name) — The deleted role is returned (if it existed). Bye bestie 👋
$obj->renameRole( <$role|$oldname>, $newname ) — Give the role a different name, and move it in the collection. Glow-up arc.
$obj->sorted() — Returns the roles sorted by name, alphabetically and case-sensitive.

🔥 Searching

Extends Searching in User::Identity::Item.

`$obj->find($name|CODE|undef)`

Find the object with the specified $name in this collection. With undef, a randomly selected role is returned. 🎲

When a code reference is specified, all collected roles are scanned one after the other (in unknown order). For each role,

CODE->($object, $collection)

is called. When the CODE returns true, the role is selected. In list context, all selected roles are returned. In scalar context, the first match is returned and the scan is aborted immediately. Improves base, see Searching in User::Identity::Item.

» example:

my $emails = $ui->collection('emails');
$emails->find('work');

sub find_work($$) {
   my ($mail, $emails) = @_;
   $mail->location->name eq 'work';
}
my @at_work = $emails->find(\&find_work);
my @at_work = $ui->find(location => \&find_work);
my $any     = $ui->find(location => undef );

😭 DIAGNOSTICS 😭

The error messages, and what they're actually trying to tell you:

Error: cannot create a $type to add this to my collection. — Some options are specified to create a $type object, which is native to this collection. However, for some reason this failed. Cast by addRole()
Error: cannot load collection module for $type ($class): $@ — Either the specified $type does not exist, or that module named $class returns compilation errors. If the type as specified in the warning is not the name of a package, you specified a nickname which was not defined. Maybe you forgot the 'require' the package which defines the nickname. Cast by addCollection()
Error: cannot rename $from into $to: already exists. — Cast by renameRole()
Error: cannot rename $from into $to: doesn't exist. — Cast by renameRole()
Error: nvalid collection $name. — The collection with $name does not exist and can not be created. Cast by add()
Error: this $object is not a collection. — Cast by addCollection()
Error: wrong type of role for $collection: requires a $expect but got a $type. — Each $collection groups sets of roles of one specific type ($expect). You cannot add objects of a different $type. Cast by addRole()

Not every error here is your fault, but the rename ones lowkey always are 🙈

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

This module is part of User-Identity version 4.00, built on December 12, 2025. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/ 🌈

📜 LICENSE 📜

For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this was User::I...lection(3) from User Contributed Perl Documentation, running on perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-01-17 — slay, no cap, go read it again if you forgot the flags 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from

fedora 44: perl-User-Identity 4.00-2.fc44 · GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0-Perl
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-14: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms