item($name)

The singular name of the item that the factory manages. This is used to set the $ITEM package variable for Badger::Factory to use.

items($name)

The plural name of the item that the factory manages. This is used to set the $ITEMS package variable for Badger::Factory to use.

path($name)

A list of module names that form the search path when loading modules. This will set the relevant package variable depending on the value of $ITEMS (or the regular plural form of $ITEM if $ITEMS is undefined). For example, is $ITEMS is set to "widgets" then this method will set $WIDGETS_PATH.

You can specify the path as a reference to a list of module bases, e.g.

    use Badger::Factory::Class
        item => 'widget',
        path => ['My::Widget', 'Your::Widget'];

Or as a single string containing multiple values separated by whitespace.

    use Badger::Factory::Class
        item => 'widget',
        path => 'My::Widget Your::Widget';

If you specify it as a single string then you can also include optional and/or alternate parts in parentheses. For example the above can be written more concisely as:

    use Badger::Factory::Class
        item => 'widget',
        path => '(My|Your)::Widget';

If the parentheses don't contain a vertical bar then then enclosed fragment is treated as being optional. So instead of writing something like:

    use Badger::Factory::Class
        item => 'widget',
        path => 'Badger::Widget BadgerX::Widget';

You can write:

    use Badger::Factory::Class
        item => 'widget',
        path => 'Badger(X)::Widget';

See the permute_fragments() function in Badger::Utils for further details on how fragments are expanded.

names($names)

A reference to a hash array of name mappings. This can be used to handle any unusual spellings or capitalisations. See Badger::Factory for further details.

default($name)

The default name to use when none is specified in a request for a module.