CPAN::WWW::Testers::Generator - Download and summarize CPAN Testers data
% cpan_www_testers_generate # ... wait patiently for about an hour # ... then use testers.db, an SQLite database
The distribution can download and summarize CPAN Testers data. cpan-testers is a group which was initially setup by Graham Barr and Chris Nandor. The objective of the group is to test as many of the distributions on CPAN as possible, on as many platforms as possible. The ultimate goal is to improve the portability of the distributions on CPAN, and provide good feedback to the authors.
CPAN Testers is really a mailing list with a web interface, testers.cpan.org. testers.cpan.org was painfully slow. I happened to be doing metadata stuff for Module::CPANTS. This is the result.
This module downloads the cpan-testers newsgroup, and then generates an SQLite database containing all the most important information. You can then query this database, or use CPAN::WWW::Testers to present it over the web.
A good example query for Acme-Colour would be:
SELECT version, status, count(*) FROM reports WHERE distribution = "Acme-Colour" group by version, status;
It can over an hour to generate the database file. If you don't want to generate the database yourself, I am releasing daily copies of it at http://testers.astray.com/testers.db
Instatiates the object CPAN::WWW::Testers::Generator.
Accessor to set/get the directory where the news.db is to be created.
Initiates the $obj->download and $obj->insert method calls.
Downloads the latest article updates from the NNTP server for the cpan-testers newgroup. Articles are then stored in the news.db SQLite database.
Reads the local copy of the news.db, and creates the testers.db.
The CPAN testers was conceived back in May 1998 by Graham Barr and Chris Nandor as a way to provide multi-platform testing for modules. Today there are over 100,000 tester reports and more than 400 testers giving valuable feedback for users and authors alike.
Whether you have a common platform or a very unusual one, you can help by testing modules you install and submitting reports. There are plenty of module authors who could use test reports and helpful feedback on their modules and distributions. If you'd like to get involved, please take a look at
Test::Reporter http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Reporter/,
CPANPLUS http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPANPLUS/lib/CPANPLUS/TesterGuide.pod,
the cpan-testers mailing list http://lists.cpan.org/showlist.cgi?name=cpan-testers
and start submitting your reports.
Leon Brocard <leon@astray.com>
This code is distributed under the same license as Perl.
