=head1 NAME 

Spoon::Base - Generic Spoon Base Class

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use Spoon::Base '-Base';

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Base class for application plugins.  Provides basic functionality to all
modules inheriting from this class.

=head1 SUBROUTINES

These subroutines are meant to be called bare, not as an object-method call.

=head2 trace

See Spoon::Trace::trace().

=head2 conf(name, default)

Returns the configuration value for "name", if it can be found in
the config ($self->hub->config).  Returns $default, otherwise.

=head1 METHODS

=head2 hub

Return the application's hub object.  See Spoon::Hub.

=head2 init

Inherited by all subclasses.  Put your class initialization stuff here.

=head2 assert(boolean)

Die if the supplied argument is false.

=head2 t([label])

Calls Spoon::Trace::mark().  See Spoon::Trace.

=head2 clone

Copies a class instance.  The copy is only a shallow one.

=head2 is_in_cgi

Returns a boolean, indicating whether we were called from a CGI interface.

=head2 is_in_test

Returns a boolean, indicating whether we were called from a test suite.

=head2 have_plugin(class_id)

Tries to load a plugin.  See Spoon::Hub::load_class().

=head2 plugin_directory

Returns your plugin's directory.  You can use this directory to store state.

=head2 env_check(variable_name)

Sanity check: ensure the specified variable exists in %ENV.  If the variable
is not found, dies with a useful error message.

=head2 dumper_to_file(filepath, variable1 [, variable2...])

Uses Data::Dumper to save a dump of one or more variables to the specified
file.

=head2 has_utf8

Returns a boolean, indicating whether utf8 is available on this platform and
version of perl.

=head2 utf8_encode(string)

Encodes the string in utf8, if utf8 is available.  Otherwise, returns $string
unmodified.  See Encode::encode().

=head2 utf8_decode(string)

Decodes the string from utf8, if utf8 is available.  Otherwise, returns $string
unmodified.  See Encode::decode().

=head2 uri_escape(string)

Escapes all invalid URI characters.  See CGI::Util::escape().

=head2 uri_unescape(string)

Unescapes all invalid URI characters.  See CGI::Util::unescape().

=head2 html_escape(string)

Escapes all reserved characters.  The result is suitable for including verbatim
in an HTML document.  See CGI::escapeHTML().

=head2 html_unescape(string)

Escapes all reserved characters.  The result is suitable for including verbatim
in an HTML document.  See CGI::unescapeHTML().

=head2 base64_encode(string)

Encodes the specified string into Base64.  See MIME::Base64::encode_base64().

=head2 base64_encode(base64_data)

Decodes the specified data from Base64.  See MIME::Base64::decode_base64().

=head1 TODO

* Document what Spoon::Base->debug() does. 

=head1 AUTHOR

Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2006. Ingy döt Net. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2004. Brian Ingerson. All rights reserved.

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

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html