Komodo User Guide

Visual Package Manager (Komodo Pro)

The Visual Package Manager (VPM) is a graphical interface for the Perl Package Manager (PPM), which is included with ActiveState's ActivePerl distribution. VPM is used to install, upgrade and remove Perl modules from your ActivePerl installation.

The VPM requires ActivePerl version 631 (which includes PPM version 3). For more information about PPM, see the PPM documentation included with your ActivePerl installation or on the ASPN Web site.

VPM Concepts

  • Repositories: the location of the collection of Perl modules. This can be a Web site or a CD. Repositories are added, ordered or removed on the Configure tab.
  • Local Perl Installation Structure: the structure of the Perl installation on your local system. More than one version of Perl may be installed. During installation, you can specify the target for the package installation.

Launching the VPM

To launch the VPM, select Tools|Visual Package Manager, or click the VPM button on the Toolbar.

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Installing New Modules

Use the Install page to search for Perl modules located on the selected Repository. See Searching for Modules for a description of search syntax.

After you click the Search button, modules that match the search criteria will be displayed in a list in the lower part of the screen. Note the buttons and keyboard shortcuts that can be used to quickly navigate the list of packages. See Navigating the VPM for a description of these shortcuts.

Select the modules you want to install by clicking the check box to the left of the module list. Ensure that the desired Perl installation is selected as the Target. Click Install to download and install the selected modules.

Searching for Modules

The following examples describe the syntax for entering search strings:

Search for 'CGI' anywhere in the package name:

 CGI

Sample results:

 Apache-CGI
 CGI-Application
 CGI-ArgChecker

Search for 'CGI' at the beginning of the package name:

 CGI*

Sample results:

 CGI-ArgChecker
 CGI-Application

Search for all modules authored by someone with 'smith' in their name or email address:

 AUTHOR=smith 

Sample results:

 Apache-ProxyPass
 Business-ISBN

Search for 'compress' anywhere in the package abstract:

 ABSTRACT=compress

Sample results:

 apache-GzipChain
 IO-Zlib

Search for 'CGI' in the name, or 'web' in the abstract:

 CGI or ABSTRACT=web

Sample results:

 CGI-XMLForm
 HTML-Clean

Search for 'XML' in the name and either 'parser' in the name or 'pars' in the abstract, but not with 'XPath' in the name:

 XML and (parser or ABSTRACT=pars) and not XPath

Sample results:

 XML-Node
 XML-Parser-EasyTree

PPM Server 3.0 repositories only: search by module name, even if unrelated to the containing package:

 Data::Grove

Sample results:

 libxml-perl

Browse all packages in the repository:

 *

Sample results:

 Affix-Infix2Postfix
 AI-Fuzzy
 [many more...]
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Upgrading Existing Modules

The Upgrade panel displays a list of all installed modules that have upgrades available on the selected repository. All modules are initially selected.

Removing Installed Modules

The Remove page lists all installed modules. Modules can be selected for removal. If a module is a prerequisite for another module, the former can only be removed if the latter is selected as well.

Modules considered precious are not listed, as they are necessary for VPM (and PPM) to function correctly. It would not be possible to reinstall them (via VPM/PPM) once they are removed.

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Configuring the VPM

The Configure page is used to add package repositories, and to view, enable, disable or re-order existing repositories.

Adding a Repository

  • Name: enter a name by which this repository will be known.
  • Location: enter the URL where the repository is located.
  • Username: if the repository requires you to log in, enter your user name in this field.
  • Password: if the repository requires you to log in, enter your password in this field.
  • Repository Order: when you search for modules, repositories are searched in the order they appear on this page. Specify where the new repository should be added to the existing repository list.

After configuring repository information, click Add to add the repository to the list.

Repository List

Repositories are displayed in the bottom section of the Configure page.

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Navigating the VPM

Most elements of VPM are accessible via both mouse and keyboard, at least within the Internet Explorer and Mozilla browsers.

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