NAME
    WWW::CPAN - CPAN as a web service

SYNOPSIS
      use WWW::CPAN;

      $meta = WWW::CPAN->fetch_distmeta('Error');

      $cpan = WWW::CPAN->new;
      $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta('Error');
      $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error' });
      $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error-0.13', });
      $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error', version => '0.13' }); # same as above
      $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error', author => 'GBARR', format => 'json' });

      $result = $cpan->search('WWW-CPAN');
      $result = $cpan->search({ query => 'WWW-CPAN', mode => 'dist' });

DESCRIPTION
    Once upon a time, Schwern waved his hands and Graham implemented a
    mechanism to get the meta data from CPAN distributions at
    search.cpan.org.

      http://use.perl.org/~schwern/journal/35203

      http://www.mail-archive.com/module-build@perl.org/msg01157.html

    This module opportunistically implemented a client for this capability.
    One day, hopefully this may be useful.

    A further addition to `WWW::CPAN' API was the `search' method to fetch
    query data from search.cpan.org. This is done by issuing HTTP requests
    like

      http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Romanize&mode=all&format=xml

METHODS
    fetch_distmeta
          $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta($text);
          $meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta(\%params);

        Fetches the meta data (META.yml) of a CPAN distribution.

        Supported parameters:

          dist    - the distribution to look for
          author  - the distribution author
          version - the distribution version

    search
          $res = $cpan->search($text);
          $res = $cpan->search(\%params);

        Performs a query at CPAN and returns it as a (possibly partial)
        result set. The structure of the result is illustrated by the
        example below.

          # result of   WWW::CPAN->search({ query => 'CPAN', mode => 'dist', n => 2 })
          {
            dist    => [
                         {
                           author  => { link => 'http://search.cpan.org/~andk/' },
                           description
                                   => 'query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites ',
                           link    => 'http://search.cpan.org/author/ANDK/CPAN-1.9205/',
                           name    => 'CPAN',
                           released
                                   => '11th November 2007',
                           version => 1.9205
                         },
                         {
                           author  => { link => 'http://search.cpan.org/~dons/' },
                           description
                                   => 'Download and install CPAN modules upon first use',
                           link    => 'http://search.cpan.org/author/DONS/CPAN-AutoINC-0.01/',
                           name    => 'CPAN-AutoINC',
                           released
                                   => '22nd June 2004',
                           version => 0.01
                         }
                       ],
            matches => 108,
            start   => 1
         };

        The known parameters of the query are

          query  - what to look for
          mode   - all | module | dist | author
          n      - page size (should be <= 100)
          s      - start

        The maximum page size (`n') is 100. Larger values are reset into
        100.

    query
          $res = $cpan->query($text);
          $res = $cpan->query(\%params);

        This is a method alias to search. It works just the same.

SEE ALSO
      cpanq
      App::WWW::CPAN

    cpanq is a script which illustrates the retrieval capabilities of this
    module from the command line.

BUGS
    In the distribution test t/03meta.t, when using
    `WWW::CPAN->fetch_distmeta' instead of `WWW::CPAN->new->fetch_distmeta',
    the script crashes (look for the "FIXME" item). Should be fixed in the
    next releases (after I understood what's going on).

    Please report bugs via CPAN RT
    http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=WWW-CPAN or mailto:.

AUTHORS
    Adriano R. Ferreira, <ferreira@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 by Adriano R. Ferreira

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