First response on search page doesn't exist.

[Astara]

trafficstars

Searched for 'format', got :

Format.pm ++

ROZCOVO/Format-0.2 - Jun 13, 2018 - Search in distribution

lib/Format.pm
Format/Validate.pm
lib/Format/Error.pm
14 more results from Format »

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as 1st result. Clicking on 1st link got me a 404....probably shouldn't list it first if it doesn't exist?

[oalders]

Looks like the link goes to https://metacpan.org/source/ROZCOVO/Format-0.2/Format.pm rather than https://metacpan.org/source/ROZCOVO/Format-0.2/lib/Format.pm

[haarg]

Both files exist though, so both links should work.

[Astara]

On 3/14/2019 7:35 AM, Graham Knop wrote:

Both files exist though, so both links should work.

I hate to ask, but has anyone else tried the link? Could be something flakey in my browser setup.

Just tried both links in oalders post, 1st one: not found, 2nd one: found. Maybe something is refusing to return the one outside of 'lib' for some reason?

[haarg]

I said that they should work. Not that they do.

[costeanadrian]

@haarg @Astara @oalders As the missing module wiki suggests, the module is missing from 02packages.details.txt and the author should fix it by adding the module name in the file.

"MetaCPAN uses the PAUSE-generated 02packages.details.txt file. If it's not in there, then the module author will need to fix this. (Authors are usually emailed about this when they upload a distribution)."

[Astara]

On 3/26/2019 2:30 AM, Costean Adrian wrote:

@haarg https://github.com/haarg @Astara https://github.com/Astara @oalders https://github.com/oalders As the missing module wiki https://metacpan.org/about/missing_modules suggests, the module is missing from 02packages.details.txt and the author should fix it by adding the module name in the file.

"MetaCPAN uses the PAUSE-generated 02packages.details.txt file. If it's not in there, then the module author will need to fix this. (Authors are

Not to miss the forest for the trees, but I'm wondering if there is anything that could be done to verify that a link works before putting it up front and center as the first returned result?

I.e. I file the bug not so much to get the specific issue addressed (though that would be good), but as a case-in-point of what people might see when looking for things and how having an error returned as the first module might influence people's perception of the usefulness of the tool or the library.

Since the old cpan website is gone, this is the only front-facing place people will end up when searching for perl modules, I would hope it does as much as possible to protect itself from unexpected input and handle it as gracefully as possible... :-(

I'd like to suggest that 'first response on search page doesn't exist' not be about a specific case, as much as a meta problem that should probably be handled more gracefully? Not meaning to step on anyone's toes, am only suggesting what I'd hope might be taken away from this :-)

[rozcovo]

Hello everyone, I am the author of this library, I know it's been 2 years, but is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

[Grinnz]

One of the issues is that metacpan is a documentation site, and there is no documentation in the distribution. To make MetaCPAN search happy you should add at a minimum to Format.pm:

=head1 NAME

Format - short description for the module

=cut

See perlpodstyle for more general documentation guidance.

All of the modules in the distribution are also copied from lib to the root directory, you should remove the copies outside lib. The distribution is missing necessary metadata as well. Make sure to create the release tarball with: perl Build.PL; ./Build dist which will include these files automatically.

[Astara]

@haarg @Astara @oalders As the missing module wiki suggests, the module is missing from 02packages.details.txt and the author should fix it by adding the module name in the file.

FWIW, I've never had to manually do anything with 02packages.details.txt.

I was trying to use cpan to look at it, but am not sure how to get it to download:

` cpan[1]> look ROZCOVO/Format-0.2/lib/Format.pm Warning: Cannot look ROZCOVO/Format-0.2/lib/Format.pm, don't know what it is. Try the command

i /ROZCOVO/Format-0.2/lib/Format.pm/

to find objects with matching identifiers.

cpan[2]> look Format::Format Warning: Cannot look Format::Format, don't know what it is. Try the command

i /Format::Format/

to find objects with matching identifiers.

cpan[3]> look Format Warning: Cannot look Format, don't know what it is. Try the command

i /Format/

to find objects with matching identifiers. `

[Grinnz]

The look command takes a release tarball path, in this case that would be R/RO/ROZCOVO/Format-0.2.tar.gz. Normally you would be able to find this in 02packages (you can use https://cpanmeta.grinnz.com/packages to search 02packages) but this distribution is not currently indexed, probably due to a combination of the issues I mentioned, but it's hard to say.