VPM - Visual Package Manager

About the Visual Package Manager

The Visual Package Manager (VPM) is a graphical interface for the Perl Package Manager (PPM), which is included with ActiveState's ActivePerl distribution. The 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, refer to the PPM documentation included with your ActivePerl installation or the ASPN website.

VPM Concepts

Repositories

The location of the collection of Perl modules. This can be a website or a CD-ROM. 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.

Installing New Modules

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

Click the Search button to display a list of modules that match the search criteria. Buttons and keyboard shortcuts can be used to quickly navigate the list of packages displayed in the lower portion of the screen. See Navigating the VPM for a description of these shortcuts.

Select the modules you want to install by selecting 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...]

Upgrading Existing Modules

The Upgrade tab displays a list of all installed modules that have upgrades available in the selected repository. Initially, all modules are selected.

Removing Installed Modules

The Remove tab 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 also selected.

Modules considered essential are not listed because they are necessary for the VPM (and PPM) to function correctly. It is not be possible to reinstall them (via VPM/PPM) once they are removed.

Configuring the VPM

The Configure tab 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 username 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.

Repository List

Repositories are displayed in the bottom section of the Configure tab. The following repository configuration actions are available:

Icon	Description
	Enable/disable repository
	Move repository up
	Move repository down
	Edit repository information
	Remove repository from list

Navigating the VPM

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

Icon	Key	Alt	Description
	f	Home	First page
	p	Left	Previous page
	n	Right	Next page
	l	End	Last page
	t	Space	Toggle action
	u	Up	Move focus up
	d	Down	Move focus down
10	1		Display 10 packages per page
20	2		Display 20 packages per page
All	a		Display all packages on a single page
	+		Increment lines per page
	-		Decrement lines per page
	Alt-s		Jump to Search expression
	h		Help screen
	x		Execute actions
	q		Quit VPM
	Alt-u		Upgrade existing packages
	Alt-i		Install new packages
	Alt-r		Remove installed packages
	Alt-c		Configure VPM
	Alt-h		Help
	Alt-q		Quit