NAME
    Babble - RSS Feed Aggregator and Blog engine

SYNOPSIS
     use Babble;
     use Babble::DataSource::RSS;

     my $babble = Babble->new ();

     $babble->add_params (meta_title => "Example Babble");
     $babble->add_sources (
            Babble::DataSource::RSS->new (
                    -id => "Gergely Nagy",
                    -location => 'http://bonehunter.rulez.org/~algernon/blog/index.xml',
                    -lwp => {
                            agent => "Babble/" . $Babble::VERSION . " (Example)"
                    }
            )
     );
     $babble->collect_feeds ();

     print $babble->output (-theme => "sidebar");

DESCRIPTION
    "Babble" is a system to collect, process and display RSS feeds. Designed
    in a straightforward and extensible manner, "Babble" provides near
    unlimited flexibility. Even though it provides lots of functionality,
    the basic usage is pretty simple, and only a few lines.

    However, would one want to add new feed item processor functions, that
    is. also trivial to accomplish.

METHODS
    "Babble" has a handful of methods, all of them will be enumerated here.

    new (%params)
        Creates a new Babble object. Arguments to the *new* method are
        listed below, all of them are optional. All arguments passed to
        *new* will be stored without parsing, for later use by processors
        and other extensions.

        -processors
            An array of subroutines that Babble will run for each and every
            item it processes. See the PROCESSORS section for more
            information about these matters.

        -callbacks_collect_start
            An array of subroutines that Babble will run for each and every
            datasource when collecting feeds. The routine must take only one
            argument: a reference to a Babble::DataSource object.

            Calling happens before the collect itself starts.

        -callbacks_collect_end
            An array of subroutines that Babble will run for each and every
            datasource when collecting feeds. The routine must take only one
            argument: a reference to a Babble::DataSource object.

            Calling happens after the collect itself ended.

    add_params (%params)
        Add custom paramaters to the Babble object, which might be usable
        for the output generation routines.

        See the documentation of the relevant output method for details.

    add_sources (@sources)
        Adds multiple sources in one go. All elements of *@sources* must be
        Babble::DataSource objects, or descendants.

    collect_feeds ()
        Retrieve and process the feeds that were added to the Babble. All
        processor routines will be run by this very method. Also, if there
        were any collect callbacks specified when the object was created,
        they will be run too.

        Please note that this must be called before the *output* method!

    sort ([$params])
        Sort all the elements in an aggregation by date, and return the
        sorted array of items. Leaves the work to
        Babble::Document::Collection->sort().

        Parameters - if any - must be passed as HASH reference!

    all ([$params])
        Return all items in an aggregation as an array.

        Parameters - if any - must be passed as HASH reference!

    output (%params)
        Generate the output. This methods recognises two arguments: *-type*,
        which determines what output method will be used for the actual
        output itself, and *-theme*, which overrides this, and uses a theme
        engine instead. (A theme engine is simply a wrapper around a
        specific output method, with some paramaters pre-filled.)

        The called module needs to be named Babble::Output::$type or
        Babble::Theme::$theme, and must be a Babble::Output descendant.

    search ($filters)
        Dispatch everything to Babble::Document::Collection->search().

        See Babble::Document for more information about filters.

PROCESSORS
    Processors are subroutines that take four arguments: An *item*, a
    *channel*, a *source*, and a "Babble" object (the caller). All of them
    are references.

    An *item* is a Babble::Document object, *channel* is a
    Babble::Document::Collection object, and *source* is a
    Babble::DataSource object.

    Preprocessors operate on *item* in-place, doing whatever they want with
    it, being it adding new fields, modifying others or anything one might
    come up with.

    A default set of preprocessors, which are always run first (unless
    special hackery is in the works), are provided in the Babble::Processors
    module. Since they are automatically used, one does not need to add them
    explicitly.

AUTHOR
    Gergely Nagy, algernon@bonehunter.rulez.org

    Bugs should be reported at <http://bugs.bonehunter.rulez.org/babble>.

SEE ALSO
    Babble::DataSource(3pm), Babble::Document(3pm),
    Babble::Document::Collection(3pm), Babble::Output(3pm),
    Babble::Theme(3pm), Babble::Processors(3pm)