NAME

HTML::CalendarMonth::DateTool - Base class for determining which date package to use for calendrical calculations.

SYNOPSIS

  my $date_tool = HTML::CalendarMonth::DateTool->new(
                    year     => $YYYY_year,
                    month    => $one_thru_12_month,
                    weeknum  => $weeknum_mode,
                    historic => $historic_mode,
                    datetool => $specific_datetool_if_desired,
                  );

DESCRIPTION

This module attempts to utilize the best date calculation package available on the current system. For most contemporary dates this usually ends up being the internal Time::Local package of perl. For more exotic dates, or when week number of the years are desired, other methods are attempted including DateTime, Date::Calc, Date::Manip, and the linux/unix 'ncal' or 'cal' commands. Each of these has a specific subclass of this module offering the same utility methods needed by HTML::CalendarMonth.

METHODS

new(): Constructor. Takes the following parameters:

year: Year of calendar in question (required). If you are rendering exotic dates (i.e. dates outside of 1970 to 2038) then something besides Time::Local will be used for calendrical calculations.
month: Month of calendar in question (required). 1 through 12.
weeknum: Optional. When specified, will limit class excursions to those that are currently set up for week of year calculations.
historic: Optional. If the the ncal or cal commands are available, use one of them rather than other available date modules since these utilities accurately handle some specific historical artifacts such as the transition from Julian to Gregorian.
datetool: Optional. Mostly for debugging, this option can be used to indicate a specific HTML::CalendarMonth::DateTool subclass for instantiation. The value can be either the actual utility class, e.g., Date::Calc, or the name of the CalendarMonth handler leaf class, e.g. DateCalc. Use 'ncal' or 'cal', respectively, for the wrappers around those commands.

There are number of methods automatically available:

month()
year()
weeknum()
historical()
datetool(): Accessors for the parameters provided to "new()" above.
dow1st(): Returns the day of week number for the 1st of the "year" and "month" specified during the call to "new()". Relies on the presence of "dow1st_and_lastday()". Should be 0..6 starting with Sun.
lastday(): Returns the last day of the month for the "year" and "month" specified during the call to "new()". Relies on the presence of "dow1st_and_lastday()".

Overridden methods

Subclasses of this module must provide at least the "day_epoch()" and "dow1st_and_lastday()" methods.

dow1st_and_lastday(): Required. Provides a list containing the day of the week of the first day of the month (0..6 starting with Sun) along with the last day of the month.
day_epoch(): Optional unless interested in epoch values for wacky dates. For a given day, and optionally "month" and "year" if they are different from those specified in "new()", provide the unix epoch in seconds for that day at midnight.

If the subclass is expected to provide week of year numbers, three more methods are necessary:

dow(): For a given day, and optionally "month" and "year" if they are different from those specified in "new()", provide the day of week number. (0=Sunday, 6=Saturday).
add_days($days, $delta, $day, [$month], [$year]): For a given day, and optionally "month" and "year" if they are different from those specified in "new()", provide a list of year, month, and day once "delta" days have been added.
week_of_year($day, [$month], [$year]): For a given day, and optionally "month" and "year" if they are different from those specified in "new()", provide a list with the week number of the year along with the year. (some days of a particular year can end up belonging to the prior or following years).

AUTHOR

Matthew P. Sisk, <sisk@mojotoad.com>