NAME

       Tangram::Type::Dump - Handy functions for Pixie-like dumping of data

SYNOPSIS

         use Tangram::Type::Dump qw(flatten unflatten UNflatten nuke);

         use YAML qw(freeze thaw); # for instance

         my $frozen = freeze flatten($storage, $structure);

         # optional - remove circular references from flattened
         # structure so that it is freed up properly.
         nuke $frozen;

         # save frozen somewhere...

         # restore, but don't load objects straight away
         my $reconstituted = unflatten($storage, thaw $frozen);

         # restore, loading objects immediately
         my $original = UNflatten($storage, $frozen);

         # Alternative, quickly marshall a structure for saving
         my $structure;
         flatten($storage, $structure);
         # ... do something with it ...

         # restore to former glory; note that Tangram's cache will
         # prevent unnecessary DB access.
         unflatten($storage, $structure);

DESCRIPTION

       This module contains functions for traversing data structures which are not Tangram-
       registered objects, and replacing all the Tangram objects found with `Mementos'.

       When a similar data structure is fed back into the reversal function, the mementos are
       filled with on-demand references to the real objects.

       All these functions operate in place for maximum efficiency.

FUNCTIONS

       flatten($storage, $structure)
           Traverses the structure $structure, and replaces all the known (ie, already inserted)
           Tangram objects with references to them

       unflatten($storage, $structure)
           Performs the logical opposite of flatten, but only insofar as a `normal' user is
           concerned.  `Normal' users, of course, don't care that the data structure is being
           loaded from the database as they use it :).

BUGS

       Should this module just be an extension to Tangram::Storage ?

AUTHOR

       Sam Vilain, samv@cpan.org.  All rights reserved.  This code is free software; you can use
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.