oracular (3) Class::DBI.3pm.gz
NAME
Class::DBI - Simple Database Abstraction
SYNOPSIS
package Music::DBI;
use base 'Class::DBI';
Music::DBI->connection('dbi:mysql:dbname', 'username', 'password');
package Music::Artist;
use base 'Music::DBI';
Music::Artist->table('artist');
Music::Artist->columns(All => qw/artistid name/);
Music::Artist->has_many(cds => 'Music::CD');
package Music::CD;
use base 'Music::DBI';
Music::CD->table('cd');
Music::CD->columns(All => qw/cdid artist title year reldate/);
Music::CD->has_many(tracks => 'Music::Track');
Music::CD->has_a(artist => 'Music::Artist');
Music::CD->has_a(reldate => 'Time::Piece',
inflate => sub { Time::Piece->strptime(shift, "%Y-%m-%d") },
deflate => 'ymd',
);
Music::CD->might_have(liner_notes => LinerNotes => qw/notes/);
package Music::Track;
use base 'Music::DBI';
Music::Track->table('track');
Music::Track->columns(All => qw/trackid cd position title/);
#-- Meanwhile, in a nearby piece of code! --#
my $artist = Music::Artist->insert({ artistid => 1, name => 'U2' });
my $cd = $artist->add_to_cds({
cdid => 1,
title => 'October',
year => 1980,
});
# Oops, got it wrong.
$cd->year(1981);
$cd->update;
# etc.
foreach my $track ($cd->tracks) {
print $track->position, $track->title
}
$cd->delete; # also deletes the tracks
my $cd = Music::CD->retrieve(1);
my @cds = Music::CD->retrieve_all;
my @cds = Music::CD->search(year => 1980);
my @cds = Music::CD->search_like(title => 'October%');
INTRODUCTION
Class::DBI provides a convenient abstraction layer to a database.
It not only provides a simple database to object mapping layer, but can be used to implement several
higher order database functions (triggers, referential integrity, cascading delete etc.), at the
application level, rather than at the database.
This is particularly useful when using a database which doesn't support these (such as MySQL), or when
you would like your code to be portable across multiple databases which might implement these things in
different ways.
In short, Class::DBI aims to make it simple to introduce 'best practice' when dealing with data stored in
a relational database.
How to set it up
Set up a database.
You must have an existing database set up, have DBI.pm installed and the necessary DBD:: driver
module for that database. See DBI and the documentation of your particular database and driver for
details.
Set up a table for your objects to be stored in.
Class::DBI works on a simple one class/one table model. It is your responsibility to have your
database tables already set up. Automating that process is outside the scope of Class::DBI.
Using our CD example, you might declare a table something like this:
CREATE TABLE cd (
cdid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
artist INTEGER, # references 'artist'
title VARCHAR(255),
year CHAR(4),
);
Set up an application base class
It's usually wise to set up a "top level" class for your entire application to inherit from, rather
than have each class inherit directly from Class::DBI. This gives you a convenient point to place
system-wide overrides and enhancements to Class::DBI's behavior.
package Music::DBI;
use base 'Class::DBI';
Give it a database connection
Class::DBI needs to know how to access the database. It does this through a DBI connection which you
set up by calling the connection() method.
Music::DBI->connection('dbi:mysql:dbname', 'user', 'password');
By setting the connection up in your application base class all the table classes that inherit from
it will share the same connection.
Set up each Class
package Music::CD;
use base 'Music::DBI';
Each class will inherit from your application base class, so you don't need to repeat the information
on how to connect to the database.
Declare the name of your table
Inform Class::DBI what table you are using for this class:
Music::CD->table('cd');
Declare your columns.
This is done using the columns() method. In the simplest form, you tell it the name of all your
columns (with the single primary key first):
Music::CD->columns(All => qw/cdid artist title year/);
If the primary key of your table spans multiple columns then declare them using a separate call to
columns() like this:
Music::CD->columns(Primary => qw/pk1 pk2/);
Music::CD->columns(Others => qw/foo bar baz/);
For more information about how you can more efficiently use subsets of your columns, see "LAZY
POPULATION"
Done.
That's it! You now have a class with methods to "insert", "retrieve", "search" for, "update" and
"delete" objects from your table, as well as accessors and mutators for each of the columns in that
object (row).
Let's look at all that in more detail:
CLASS METHODS
connection
__PACKAGE__->connection($data_source, $user, $password, \%attr);
This sets up a database connection with the given information.
This uses Ima::DBI to set up an inheritable connection (named Main). It is therefore usual to only set up
a connection() in your application base class and let the 'table' classes inherit from it.
package Music::DBI;
use base 'Class::DBI';
Music::DBI->connection('dbi:foo:dbname', 'user', 'password');
package My::Other::Table;
use base 'Music::DBI';
Class::DBI helps you along a bit to set up the database connection. connection() provides its own
default attributes depending on the driver name in the data_source parameter. The connection() method
provides defaults for these attributes:
FetchHashKeyName => 'NAME_lc',
ShowErrorStatement => 1,
ChopBlanks => 1,
AutoCommit => 1,
(Except for Oracle and Pg, where AutoCommit defaults 0, placing the database in transactional mode).
The defaults can always be extended (or overridden if you know what you're doing) by supplying your own
\%attr parameter. For example:
Music::DBI->connection(dbi:foo:dbname','user','pass',{ChopBlanks=>0});
The RootClass of DBIx::ContextualFetch in also inherited from Ima::DBI, and you should be very careful
not to change this unless you know what you're doing!
Dynamic Database Connections / db_Main
It is sometimes desirable to generate your database connection information dynamically, for example, to
allow multiple databases with the same schema to not have to duplicate an entire class hierarchy.
The preferred method for doing this is to supply your own db_Main() method rather than calling
"connection". This method should return a valid database handle, and should ensure it sets the standard
attributes described above, preferably by combining $class->_default_attributes() with your own. Note,
this handle *must* have its RootClass set to DBIx::ContextualFetch, so it is usually not possible to just
supply a $dbh obtained elsewhere.
Note that connection information is class data, and that changing it at run time may have unexpected
behaviour for instances of the class already in existence.
table
__PACKAGE__->table($table);
$table = Class->table;
$table = $obj->table;
An accessor to get/set the name of the database table in which this class is stored. It -must- be set.
Table information is inherited by subclasses, but can be overridden.
table_alias
package Shop::Order;
__PACKAGE__->table('orders');
__PACKAGE__->table_alias('orders');
When Class::DBI constructs SQL, it aliases your table name to a name representing your class. However, if
your class's name is an SQL reserved word (such as 'Order') this will cause SQL errors. In such cases you
should supply your own alias for your table name (which can, of course, be the same as the actual table
name).
This can also be passed as a second argument to 'table':
__PACKAGE__->table('orders', 'orders');
As with table, this is inherited but can be overridden.
sequence / auto_increment
__PACKAGE__->sequence($sequence_name);
$sequence_name = Class->sequence;
$sequence_name = $obj->sequence;
If you are using a database which supports sequences and you want to use a sequence to automatically
supply values for the primary key of a table, then you should declare this using the sequence() method:
__PACKAGE__->columns(Primary => 'id');
__PACKAGE__->sequence('class_id_seq');
Class::DBI will use the sequence to generate a primary key value when objects are inserted without one.
*NOTE* This method does not work for Oracle. However, Class::DBI::Oracle (which can be downloaded
separately from CPAN) provides a suitable replacement sequence() method.
If you are using a database with AUTO_INCREMENT (e.g. MySQL) then you do not need this, and any call to
insert() without a primary key specified will fill this in automagically.
Sequence and auto-increment mechanisms only apply to tables that have a single column primary key. For
tables with multi-column primary keys you need to supply the key values manually.
CONSTRUCTORS and DESTRUCTORS
The following are methods provided for convenience to insert, retrieve and delete stored objects. It's
not entirely one-size fits all and you might find it necessary to override them.
insert
my $obj = Class->insert(\%data);
This is a constructor to insert new data into the database and create an object representing the newly
inserted row.
%data consists of the initial information to place in your object and the database. The keys of %data
match up with the columns of your objects and the values are the initial settings of those fields.
my $cd = Music::CD->insert({
cdid => 1,
artist => $artist,
title => 'October',
year => 1980,
});
If the table has a single primary key column and that column value is not defined in %data, insert() will
assume it is to be generated. If a sequence() has been specified for this Class, it will use that.
Otherwise, it will assume the primary key can be generated by AUTO_INCREMENT and attempt to use that.
The "before_create" trigger is invoked directly after storing the supplied values into the new object and
before inserting the record into the database. The object stored in $self may not have all the
functionality of the final object after_creation, particularly if the database is going to be providing
the primary key value.
For tables with multi-column primary keys you need to supply all the key values, either in the arguments
to the insert() method, or by setting the values in a "before_create" trigger.
If the class has declared relationships with foreign classes via has_a(), you can pass an object to
insert() for the value of that key. Class::DBI will Do The Right Thing.
After the new record has been inserted into the database the data for non-primary key columns is
discarded from the object. If those columns are accessed again they'll simply be fetched as needed. This
ensures that the data in the application is consistent with what the database actually stored.
The "after_create" trigger is invoked after the database insert has executed.
find_or_create
my $cd = Music::CD->find_or_create({ artist => 'U2', title => 'Boy' });
This checks if a CD can be found to match the information passed, and if not inserts it.
delete
$obj->delete;
Music::CD->search(year => 1980, title => 'Greatest %')->delete_all;
Deletes this object from the database and from memory. If you have set up any relationships using
"has_many" or "might_have", this will delete the foreign elements also, recursively (cascading delete).
$obj is no longer usable after this call.
Multiple objects can be deleted by calling delete_all on the Iterator returned from a search. Each object
found will be deleted in turn, so cascading delete and other triggers will be honoured.
The "before_delete" trigger is when an object instance is about to be deleted. It is invoked before any
cascaded deletes. The "after_delete" trigger is invoked after the record has been deleted from the
database and just before the contents in memory are discarded.
RETRIEVING OBJECTS
Class::DBI provides a few very simple search methods.
It is not the goal of Class::DBI to replace the need for using SQL. Users are expected to write their own
searches for more complex cases.
Class::DBI::AbstractSearch, available on CPAN, provides a much more complex search interface than
Class::DBI provides itself.
retrieve
$obj = Class->retrieve( $id );
$obj = Class->retrieve( %key_values );
Given key values it will retrieve the object with that key from the database. For tables with a single
column primary key a single parameter can be used, otherwise a hash of key-name key-value pairs must be
given.
my $cd = Music::CD->retrieve(1) or die "No such cd";
retrieve_all
my @objs = Class->retrieve_all;
my $iterator = Class->retrieve_all;
Retrieves objects for all rows in the database. This is probably a bad idea if your table is big, unless
you use the iterator version.
search
@objs = Class->search(column1 => $value, column2 => $value ...);
This is a simple search for all objects where the columns specified are equal to the values specified
e.g.:
@cds = Music::CD->search(year => 1990);
@cds = Music::CD->search(title => "Greatest Hits", year => 1990);
You may also specify the sort order of the results by adding a final hash of arguments with the key
'order_by':
@cds = Music::CD->search(year => 1990, { order_by=>'artist' });
This is passed through 'as is', enabling order_by clauses such as 'year DESC, title'.
search_like
@objs = Class->search_like(column1 => $like_pattern, ....);
This is a simple search for all objects where the columns specified are like the values specified.
$like_pattern is a pattern given in SQL LIKE predicate syntax. '%' means "any zero or more characters",
'_' means "any single character".
@cds = Music::CD->search_like(title => 'October%');
@cds = Music::CD->search_like(title => 'Hits%', artist => 'Various%');
You can also use 'order_by' with these, as with search().
ITERATORS
my $it = Music::CD->search_like(title => 'October%');
while (my $cd = $it->next) {
print $cd->title;
}
Any of the above searches (as well as those defined by has_many) can also be used as an iterator. Rather
than creating a list of objects matching your criteria, this will return a Class::DBI::Iterator instance,
which can return the objects required one at a time.
Currently the iterator initially fetches all the matching row data into memory, and defers only the
creation of the objects from that data until the iterator is asked for the next object. So using an
iterator will only save significant memory if your objects will inflate substantially when used.
In the case of has_many relationships with a mapping method, the mapping method is not called until each
time you call 'next'. This means that if your mapping is not a one-to-one, the results will probably not
be what you expect.
Subclassing the Iterator
Music::CD->iterator_class('Music::CD::Iterator');
You can also subclass the default iterator class to override its functionality. This is done via class
data, and so is inherited into your subclasses.
QUICK RETRIEVAL
my $obj = Class->construct(\%data);
This is used to turn data from the database into objects, and should thus only be used when writing
constructors. It is very handy for cheaply setting up lots of objects from data for without going back to
the database.
For example, instead of doing one SELECT to get a bunch of IDs and then feeding those individually to
retrieve() (and thus doing more SELECT calls), you can do one SELECT to get the essential data of many
objects and feed that data to construct():
return map $class->construct($_), $sth->fetchall_hash;
The construct() method creates a new empty object, loads in the column values, and then invokes the
"select" trigger.
COPY AND MOVE
copy
$new_obj = $obj->copy;
$new_obj = $obj->copy($new_id);
$new_obj = $obj->copy({ title => 'new_title', rating => 18 });
This creates a copy of the given $obj, removes the primary key, sets any supplied column values and calls
insert() to make a new record in the database.
For tables with a single column primary key, copy() can be called with no parameters and the new object
will be assigned a key automatically. Or a single parameter can be supplied and will be used as the new
key.
For tables with a multi-column primary key, copy() must be called with parameters which supply new values
for all primary key columns, unless a "before_create" trigger will supply them. The insert() method will
fail if any primary key columns are not defined.
my $blrunner_dc = $blrunner->copy("Bladerunner: Director's Cut");
my $blrunner_unrated = $blrunner->copy({
Title => "Bladerunner: Director's Cut",
Rating => 'Unrated',
});
move
my $new_obj = Sub::Class->move($old_obj);
my $new_obj = Sub::Class->move($old_obj, $new_id);
my $new_obj = Sub::Class->move($old_obj, \%changes);
For transferring objects from one class to another. Similar to copy(), an instance of Sub::Class is
inserted using the data in $old_obj (Sub::Class is a subclass of $old_obj's subclass). Like copy(), you
can supply $new_id as the primary key of $new_obj (otherwise the usual sequence or autoincrement is
used), or a hashref of multiple new values.
TRIGGERS
__PACKAGE__->add_trigger(trigger_point_name => \&code_to_execute);
# e.g.
__PACKAGE__->add_trigger(after_create => \&call_after_create);
It is possible to set up triggers that will be called at various points in the life of an object. Valid
trigger points are:
before_create (also used for deflation)
after_create
before_set_$column (also used by add_constraint)
after_set_$column (also used for inflation and by has_a)
before_update (also used for deflation and by might_have)
after_update
before_delete
after_delete
select (also used for inflation and by construct and _flesh)
You can create any number of triggers for each point, but you cannot specify the order in which they will
be run.
All triggers are passed the object they are being fired for, except when "before_set_$column" is fired
during "insert", in which case the class is passed in place of the object, which does not yet exist. You
may change object values if required.
Some triggers are also passed extra parameters as name-value pairs. The individual triggers are further
documented with the methods that trigger them.
CONSTRAINTS
__PACKAGE__->add_constraint('name', column => \&check_sub);
# e.g.
__PACKAGE__->add_constraint('over18', age => \&check_age);
# Simple version
sub check_age {
my ($value) = @_;
return $value >= 18;
}
# Cross-field checking - must have SSN if age < 18
sub check_age {
my ($value, $self, $column_name, $changing) = @_;
return 1 if $value >= 18; # We're old enough.
return 1 if $changing->{SSN}; # We're also being given an SSN
return 0 if !ref($self); # This is an insert, so we can't have an SSN
return 1 if $self->ssn; # We already have one in the database
return 0; # We can't find an SSN anywhere
}
It is also possible to set up constraints on the values that can be set on a column. The constraint on a
column is triggered whenever an object is created and whenever the value in that column is being changed.
The constraint code is called with four parameters:
- The new value to be assigned
- The object it will be assigned to
(or class name when initially creating an object)
- The name of the column
(useful if many constraints share the same code)
- A hash ref of all new column values being assigned
(useful for cross-field validation)
The constraints are applied to all the columns being set before the object data is changed. Attempting to
create or modify an object where one or more constraint fail results in an exception and the object
remains unchanged.
The exception thrown has its data set to a hashref of the column being changed and the value being
changed to.
Note 1: Constraints are implemented using before_set_$column triggers. This will only prevent you from
setting these values through a the provided insert() or set() methods. It will always be possible to
bypass this if you try hard enough.
Note 2: When an object is created constraints are currently only checked for column names included in the
parameters to insert(). This is probably a bug and is likely to change in future.
constrain_column
Film->constrain_column(year => qr/^\d{4}$/);
Film->constrain_column(rating => [qw/U Uc PG 12 15 18/]);
Film->constrain_column(title => sub { length() <= 20 });
Simple anonymous constraints can also be added to a column using the constrain_column() method. By
default this takes either a regex which must match, a reference to a list of possible values, or a subref
which will have $_ aliased to the value being set, and should return a true or false value.
However, this behaviour can be extended (or replaced) by providing a constraint handler for the type of
argument passed to constrain_column. This behavior should be provided in a method named
"_constrain_by_$type", where $type is the moniker of the argument. For example, the year example above
could be provided by _constrain_by_array().
DATA NORMALIZATION
Before an object is assigned data from the application (via insert or a set accessor) the
normalize_column_values() method is called with a reference to a hash containing the column names and the
new values which are to be assigned (after any validation and constraint checking, as described below).
Currently Class::DBI does not offer any per-column mechanism here. The default method is empty. You can
override it in your own classes to normalize (edit) the data in any way you need. For example the values
in the hash for certain columns could be made lowercase.
The method is called as an instance method when the values of an existing object are being changed, and
as a class method when a new object is being created.
DATA VALIDATION
Before an object is assigned data from the application (via insert or a set accessor) the
validate_column_values() method is called with a reference to a hash containing the column names and the
new values which are to be assigned.
The method is called as an instance method when the values of an existing object are being changed, and
as a class method when a new object is being inserted.
The default method calls the before_set_$column trigger for each column name in the hash. Each trigger is
called inside an eval. Any failures result in an exception after all have been checked. The exception
data is a reference to a hash which holds the column name and error text for each trigger error.
When using this mechanism for form data validation, for example, this exception data can be stored in an
exception object, via a custom _croak() method, and then caught and used to redisplay the form with error
messages next to each field which failed validation.
EXCEPTIONS
All errors that are generated, or caught and propagated, by Class::DBI are handled by calling the
_croak() method (as an instance method if possible, or else as a class method).
The _croak() method is passed an error message and in some cases some extra information as described
below. The default behaviour is simply to call Carp::croak($message).
Applications that require custom behaviour should override the _croak() method in their application base
class (or table classes for table-specific behaviour). For example:
use Error;
sub _croak {
my ($self, $message, %info) = @_;
# convert errors into exception objects
# except for duplicate insert errors which we'll ignore
Error->throw(-text => $message, %info)
unless $message =~ /^Can't insert .* duplicate/;
return;
}
The _croak() method is expected to trigger an exception and not return. If it does return then it should
use "return;" so that an undef or empty list is returned as required depending on the calling context.
You should only return other values if you are prepared to deal with the (unsupported) consequences.
For exceptions that are caught and propagated by Class::DBI, $message includes the text of $@ and the
original $@ value is available in $info{err}. That allows you to correctly propagate exception objects
that may have been thrown 'below' Class::DBI (using Exception::Class::DBI for example).
Exceptions generated by some methods may provide additional data in $info{data} and, if so, also store
the method name in $info{method}. For example, the validate_column_values() method stores details of
failed validations in $info{data}. See individual method documentation for what additional data they may
store, if any.
WARNINGS
All warnings are handled by calling the _carp() method (as an instance method if possible, or else as a
class method). The default behaviour is simply to call Carp::carp().
INSTANCE METHODS
accessors
Class::DBI inherits from Class::Accessor and thus provides individual accessor methods for every column
in your subclass. It also overrides the get() and set() methods provided by Accessor to automagically
handle database reading and writing. (Note that as it doesn't make sense to store a list of values in a
column, set() takes a hash of column => value pairs, rather than the single key => values of
Class::Accessor).
the fundamental set() and get() methods
$value = $obj->get($column_name);
@values = $obj->get(@column_names);
$obj->set($column_name => $value);
$obj->set($col1 => $value1, $col2 => $value2 ... );
These methods are the fundamental entry points for getting and setting column values. The extra accessor
methods automatically generated for each column of your table are simple wrappers that call these get()
and set() methods.
The set() method calls normalize_column_values() then validate_column_values() before storing the values.
The "before_set_$column" trigger is invoked by validate_column_values(), checking any constraints that
may have been set up.
The "after_set_$column" trigger is invoked after the new value has been stored.
It is possible for an object to not have all its column data in memory (due to lazy inflation). If the
get() method is called for such a column then it will select the corresponding group of columns and then
invoke the "select" trigger.
Changing Your Column Accessor Method Names
accessor_name_for / mutator_name_for
It is possible to change the name of the accessor method created for a column either declaratively or
programmatically.
If, for example, you have a column with a name that clashes with a method otherwise created by
Class::DBI, such as 'meta_info', you could create that Column explicitly with a different accessor
(and/or mutator) when setting up your columns:
my $meta_col = Class::DBI::Column->new(meta_info => {
accessor => 'metadata',
});
__PACKAGE__->columns(All => qw/id name/, $meta_col);
If you want to change the name of all your accessors, or all that match a certain pattern, you need to
provide an accessor_name_for($col) method, which will convert a column name to a method name.
e.g: if your local database naming convention was to prepend the word 'customer' to each column in the
'customer' table, so that you had the columns 'customerid', 'customername' and 'customerage', but you
wanted your methods to just be $customer->name and $customer->age rather than $customer->customername
etc., you could create a
sub accessor_name_for {
my ($class, $column) = @_;
$column =~ s/^customer//;
return $column;
}
Similarly, if you wanted to have distinct accessor and mutator methods, you could provide a
mutator_name_for($col) method which would return the name of the method to change the value:
sub mutator_name_for {
my ($class, $column) = @_;
return "set_" . $column->accessor;
}
If you override the mutator name, then the accessor method will be enforced as read-only, and the mutator
as write-only.
update vs auto update
There are two modes for the accessors to work in: manual update and autoupdate. When in autoupdate mode,
every time one calls an accessor to make a change an UPDATE will immediately be sent to the database.
Otherwise, if autoupdate is off, no changes will be written until update() is explicitly called.
This is an example of manual updating:
# The calls to NumExplodingSheep() and Rating() will only make the
# changes in memory, not in the database. Once update() is called
# it writes to the database in one swell foop.
$gone->NumExplodingSheep(5);
$gone->Rating('NC-17');
$gone->update;
And of autoupdating:
# Turn autoupdating on for this object.
$gone->autoupdate(1);
# Each accessor call causes the new value to immediately be written.
$gone->NumExplodingSheep(5);
$gone->Rating('NC-17');
Manual updating is probably more efficient than autoupdating and it provides the extra safety of a
discard_changes() option to clear out all unsaved changes. Autoupdating can be more convenient for the
programmer. Autoupdating is off by default.
If changes are neither updated nor rolled back when the object is destroyed (falls out of scope or the
program ends) then Class::DBI's DESTROY method will print a warning about unsaved changes.
autoupdate
__PACKAGE__->autoupdate($on_or_off);
$update_style = Class->autoupdate;
$obj->autoupdate($on_or_off);
$update_style = $obj->autoupdate;
This is an accessor to the current style of auto-updating. When called with no arguments it returns the
current auto-updating state, true for on, false for off. When given an argument it turns auto-updating
on and off: a true value turns it on, a false one off.
When called as a class method it will control the updating style for every instance of the class. When
called on an individual object it will control updating for just that object, overriding the choice for
the class.
__PACKAGE__->autoupdate(1); # Autoupdate is now on for the class.
$obj = Class->retrieve('Aliens Cut My Hair');
$obj->autoupdate(0); # Shut off autoupdating for this object.
The update setting for an object is not stored in the database.
update
$obj->update;
If "autoupdate" is not enabled then changes you make to your object are not reflected in the database
until you call update(). It is harmless to call update() if there are no changes to be saved. (If
autoupdate is on there'll never be anything to save.)
Note: If you have transactions turned on for your database (but see "TRANSACTIONS" below) you will also
need to call dbi_commit(), as update() merely issues the UPDATE to the database).
After the database update has been executed, the data for columns that have been updated are deleted from
the object. If those columns are accessed again they'll simply be fetched as needed. This ensures that
the data in the application is consistent with what the database actually stored.
When update() is called the "before_update"($self) trigger is always invoked immediately.
If any columns have been updated then the "after_update" trigger is invoked after the database update has
executed and is passed:
($self, discard_columns => \@discard_columns)
The trigger code can modify the discard_columns array to affect which columns are discarded.
For example:
Class->add_trigger(after_update => sub {
my ($self, %args) = @_;
my $discard_columns = $args{discard_columns};
# discard the md5_hash column if any field starting with 'foo'
# has been updated - because the md5_hash will have been changed
# by a trigger.
push @$discard_columns, 'md5_hash' if grep { /^foo/ } @$discard_columns;
});
Take care to not delete a primary key column unless you know what you're doing.
The update() method returns the number of rows updated. If the object had not changed and thus did not
need to issue an UPDATE statement, the update() call will have a return value of -1.
If the record in the database has been deleted, or its primary key value changed, then the update will
not affect any records and so the update() method will return 0.
discard_changes
$obj->discard_changes;
Removes any changes you've made to this object since the last update. Currently this simply discards the
column values from the object.
If you're using autoupdate this method will throw an exception.
is_changed
my $changed = $obj->is_changed;
my @changed_keys = $obj->is_changed;
Indicates if the given $obj has changes since the last update. Returns a list of keys which have changed.
(If autoupdate is on, this method will return an empty list, unless called inside a before_update or
after_set_$column trigger)
id
$id = $obj->id;
@id = $obj->id;
Returns a unique identifier for this object based on the values in the database. It's the equivalent of
$obj->get($self->columns('Primary')), with inflated values reduced to their ids.
A warning will be generated if this method is used in scalar context on a table with a multi-column
primary key.
LOW-LEVEL DATA ACCESS
On some occasions, such as when you're writing triggers or constraint routines, you'll want to manipulate
data in a Class::DBI object without using the usual get() and set() accessors, which may themselves call
triggers, fetch information from the database, etc.
Rather than interacting directly with the data hash stored in a Class::DBI object (the exact
implementation of which may change in future releases) you could use Class::DBI's low-level accessors.
These appear 'private' to make you think carefully about using them - they should not be a common means
of dealing with the object.
The data within the object is modelled as a set of key-value pairs, where the keys are normalized column
names (returned by find_column()), and the values are the data from the database row represented by the
object. Access is via these functions:
_attrs
@values = $object->_attrs(@cols);
Returns the values for one or more keys.
_attribute_store
$object->_attribute_store( { $col0 => $val0, $col1 => $val1 } );
$object->_attribute_store($col0, $val0, $col1, $val1);
Stores values in the object. They key-value pairs may be passed in either as a simple list or as a
hash reference. This only updates values in the object itself; changes will not be propagated to the
database.
_attribute_set
$object->_attribute_set( { $col0 => $val0, $col1 => $val1 } );
$object->_attribute_set($col0, $val0, $col1, $val1);
Updates values in the object via _attribute_store(), but also logs the changes so that they are
propagated to the database with the next update. (Unlike set(), however, _attribute_set() will not
trigger an update if autoupdate is turned on.)
_attribute_delete
@values = $object->_attribute_delete(@cols);
Deletes values from the object, and returns the deleted values.
_attribute_exists
$bool = $object->_attribute_exists($col);
Returns a true value if the object contains a value for the specified column, and a false value
otherwise.
By default, Class::DBI uses simple hash references to store object data, but all access is via these
routines, so if you want to implement a different data model, just override these functions.
OVERLOADED OPERATORS
Class::DBI and its subclasses overload the perl builtin stringify and bool operators. This is a
significant convenience.
The perl builtin bool operator is overloaded so that a Class::DBI object reference is true so long as all
its key columns have defined values. (This means an object with an id() of zero is not considered
false.)
When a Class::DBI object reference is used in a string context it will, by default, return the value of
the primary key. (Composite primary key values will be separated by a slash).
You can also specify the column(s) to be used for stringification via the special 'Stringify' column
group. So, for example, if you're using an auto-incremented primary key, you could use this to provide a
more meaningful display string:
Widget->columns(Stringify => qw/name/);
If you need to do anything more complex, you can provide an stringify_self() method which stringification
will call:
sub stringify_self {
my $self = shift;
return join ":", $self->id, $self->name;
}
This overloading behaviour can be useful for columns that have has_a() relationships. For example,
consider a table that has price and currency fields:
package Widget;
use base 'My::Class::DBI';
Widget->table('widget');
Widget->columns(All => qw/widgetid name price currency_code/);
$obj = Widget->retrieve($id);
print $obj->price . " " . $obj->currency_code;
The would print something like ""42.07 USD"". If the currency_code field is later changed to be a
foreign key to a new currency table then $obj->currency_code will return an object reference instead of a
plain string. Without overloading the stringify operator the example would now print something like
""42.07 Widget=HASH(0x1275}"" and the fix would be to change the code to add a call to id():
print $obj->price . " " . $obj->currency_code->id;
However, with overloaded stringification, the original code continues to work as before, with no code
changes needed.
This makes it much simpler and safer to add relationships to existing applications, or remove them later.
TABLE RELATIONSHIPS
Databases are all about relationships. Thus Class::DBI provides a way for you to set up descriptions of
your relationhips.
Class::DBI provides three such relationships: 'has_a', 'has_many', and 'might_have'. Others are available
from CPAN.
has_a
Music::CD->has_a(column => 'Foreign::Class');
Music::CD->has_a(artist => 'Music::Artist');
print $cd->artist->name;
'has_a' is most commonly used to supply lookup information for a foreign key. If a column is declared as
storing the primary key of another table, then calling the method for that column does not return the id,
but instead the relevant object from that foreign class.
It is also possible to use has_a to inflate the column value to a non Class::DBI based. A common usage
would be to inflate a date field to a date/time object:
Music::CD->has_a(reldate => 'Date::Simple');
print $cd->reldate->format("%d %b, %Y");
Music::CD->has_a(reldate => 'Time::Piece',
inflate => sub { Time::Piece->strptime(shift, "%Y-%m-%d") },
deflate => 'ymd',
);
print $cd->reldate->strftime("%d %b, %Y");
If the foreign class is another Class::DBI representation retrieve is called on that class with the
column value. Any other object will be instantiated either by calling new($value) or using the given
'inflate' method. If the inflate method name is a subref, it will be executed, and will be passed the
value and the Class::DBI object as arguments.
When the object is being written to the database the object will be deflated either by calling the
'deflate' method (if given), or by attempting to stringify the object. If the deflate method is a subref,
it will be passed the Class::DBI object as an argument.
*NOTE* You should not attempt to make your primary key column inflate using has_a() as bad things will
happen. If you have two tables which share a primary key, consider using might_have() instead.
has_many
Class->has_many(method_to_create => "Foreign::Class");
Music::CD->has_many(tracks => 'Music::Track');
my @tracks = $cd->tracks;
my $track6 = $cd->add_to_tracks({
position => 6,
title => 'Tomorrow',
});
This method declares that another table is referencing us (i.e. storing our primary key in its table).
It creates a named accessor method in our class which returns a list of all the matching Foreign::Class
objects.
In addition it creates another method which allows a new associated object to be constructed, taking care
of the linking automatically. This method is the same as the accessor method with "add_to_" prepended.
The add_to_tracks example above is exactly equivalent to:
my $track6 = Music::Track->insert({
cd => $cd,
position => 6,
title => 'Tomorrow',
});
When setting up the relationship the foreign class's has_a() declarations are examined to discover which
of its columns reference our class. (Note that because this happens at compile time, if the foreign class
is defined in the same file, the class with the has_a() must be defined earlier than the class with the
has_many(). If the classes are in different files, Class::DBI should usually be able to do the right
things, as long as all classes inherit Class::DBI before 'use'ing any other classes.)
If the foreign class has no has_a() declarations linking to this class, it is assumed that the foreign
key in that class is named after the moniker() of this class.
If this is not true you can pass an additional third argument to the has_many() declaration stating which
column of the foreign class is the foreign key to this class.
Limiting
Music::Artist->has_many(cds => 'Music::CD');
my @cds = $artist->cds(year => 1980);
When calling the method created by has_many, you can also supply any additional key/value pairs for
restricting the search. The above example will only return the CDs with a year of 1980.
Ordering
Music::CD->has_many(tracks => 'Music::Track', { order_by => 'playorder' });
has_many takes an optional final hashref of options. If an 'order_by' option is set, its value will be
set in an ORDER BY clause in the SQL issued. This is passed through 'as is', enabling order_by clauses
such as 'length DESC, position'.
Mapping
Music::CD->has_many(styles => [ 'Music::StyleRef' => 'style' ]);
If the second argument to has_many is turned into a listref of the Classname and an additional method,
then that method will be called in turn on each of the objects being returned.
The above is exactly equivalent to:
Music::CD->has_many(_style_refs => 'Music::StyleRef');
sub styles {
my $self = shift;
return map $_->style, $self->_style_refs;
}
For an example of where this is useful see "MANY TO MANY RELATIONSHIPS" below.
Cascading Delete
Music::Artist->has_many(cds => 'Music::CD', { cascade => 'Fail' });
It is also possible to control what happens to the 'child' objects when the 'parent' object is deleted.
By default this is set to 'Delete' - so, for example, when you delete an artist, you also delete all
their CDs, leaving no orphaned records. However you could also set this to 'None', which would leave all
those orphaned records (although this generally isn't a good idea), or 'Fail', which will throw an
exception when you try to delete an artist that still has any CDs.
You can also write your own Cascade strategies by supplying a Class Name here.
For example you could write a Class::DBI::Cascade::Plugin::Nullify which would set all related foreign
keys to be NULL, and plug it into your relationship:
Music::Artist->has_many(cds => 'Music::CD', {
cascade => 'Class::DBI::Cascade::Plugin::Nullify'
});
might_have
Music::CD->might_have(method_name => Class => (@fields_to_import));
Music::CD->might_have(liner_notes => LinerNotes => qw/notes/);
my $liner_notes_object = $cd->liner_notes;
my $notes = $cd->notes; # equivalent to $cd->liner_notes->notes;
might_have() is similar to has_many() for relationships that can have at most one associated objects. For
example, if you have a CD database to which you want to add liner notes information, you might not want
to add a 'liner_notes' column to your main CD table even though there is no multiplicity of relationship
involved (each CD has at most one 'liner notes' field). So, you create another table with the same
primary key as this one, with which you can cross-reference.
But you don't want to have to keep writing methods to turn the the 'list' of liner_notes objects you'd
get back from has_many into the single object you'd need. So, might_have() does this work for you. It
creates an accessor to fetch the single object back if it exists, and it also allows you import any of
its methods into your namespace. So, in the example above, the LinerNotes class can be mostly invisible -
you can just call $cd->notes and it will call the notes method on the correct LinerNotes object
transparently for you.
Making sure you don't have namespace clashes is up to you, as is correctly creating the objects, but this
may be made simpler in later versions. (Particularly if someone asks for this!)
Notes
has_a(), might_have() and has_many() check that the relevant class has already been loaded. If it hasn't
then they try to load the module of the same name using require. If the require fails because it can't
find the module then it will assume it's not a simple require (i.e., Foreign::Class isn't in
Foreign/Class.pm) and that you will take care of it and ignore the warning. Any other error, such as a
syntax error, triggers an exception.
NOTE: The two classes in a relationship do not have to be in the same database, on the same machine, or
even in the same type of database! It is quite acceptable for a table in a MySQL database to be connected
to a different table in an Oracle database, and for cascading delete etc to work across these. This
should assist greatly if you need to migrate a database gradually.
MANY TO MANY RELATIONSHIPS
Class::DBI does not currently support Many to Many relationships, per se. However, by combining the
relationships that already exist it is possible to set these up.
Consider the case of Films and Actors, with a linking Role table with a multi-column Primary Key. First
of all set up the Role class:
Role->table('role');
Role->columns(Primary => qw/film actor/);
Role->has_a(film => 'Film');
Role->has_a(actor => 'Actor');
Then, set up the Film and Actor classes to use this linking table:
Film->table('film');
Film->columns(All => qw/id title rating/);
Film->has_many(stars => [ Role => 'actor' ]);
Actor->table('actor');
Actor->columns(All => qw/id name/);
Actor->has_many(films => [ Role => 'film' ]);
In each case the 'mapping method' variation of has_many() is used to call the lookup method on the Role
object returned. As these methods are the 'has_a' relationships on the Role, these will return the actual
Actor and Film objects, providing a cheap many-to-many relationship.
In the case of Film, this is equivalent to the more long-winded:
Film->has_many(roles => "Role");
sub actors {
my $self = shift;
return map $_->actor, $self->roles
}
As this is almost exactly what is created internally, add_to_stars and add_to_films will generally do the
right thing as they are actually doing the equivalent of add_to_roles:
$film->add_to_actors({ actor => $actor });
Similarly a cascading delete will also do the right thing as it will only delete the relationship from
the linking table.
If the Role table were to contain extra information, such as the name of the character played, then you
would usually need to skip these short-cuts and set up each of the relationships, and associated helper
methods, manually.
ADDING NEW RELATIONSHIP TYPES
add_relationship_type
The relationships described above are implemented through Class::DBI::Relationship subclasses. These are
then plugged into Class::DBI through an add_relationship_type() call:
__PACKAGE__->add_relationship_type(
has_a => "Class::DBI::Relationship::HasA",
has_many => "Class::DBI::Relationship::HasMany",
might_have => "Class::DBI::Relationship::MightHave",
);
If is thus possible to add new relationship types, or modify the behaviour of the existing types. See
Class::DBI::Relationship for more information on what is required.
DEFINING SQL STATEMENTS
There are several main approaches to setting up your own SQL queries:
For queries which could be used to create a list of matching objects you can create a constructor method
associated with this SQL and let Class::DBI do the work for you, or just inline the entire query.
For more complex queries you need to fall back on the underlying Ima::DBI query mechanism. (Caveat: since
Ima::DBI uses sprintf-style interpolation, you need to be careful to double any "wildcard" % signs in
your queries).
add_constructor
__PACKAGE__->add_constructor(method_name => 'SQL_where_clause');
The SQL can be of arbitrary complexity and will be turned into:
SELECT (essential columns)
FROM (table name)
WHERE <your SQL>
This will then create a method of the name you specify, which returns a list of objects as with any built
in query.
For example:
Music::CD->add_constructor(new_music => 'year > 2000');
my @recent = Music::CD->new_music;
You can also supply placeholders in your SQL, which must then be specified at query time:
Music::CD->add_constructor(new_music => 'year > ?');
my @recent = Music::CD->new_music(2000);
retrieve_from_sql
On occasions where you want to execute arbitrary SQL, but don't want to go to the trouble of setting up a
constructor method, you can inline the entire WHERE clause, and just get the objects back directly:
my @cds = Music::CD->retrieve_from_sql(qq{
artist = 'Ozzy Osbourne' AND
title like "%Crazy" AND
year <= 1986
ORDER BY year
LIMIT 2,3
});
Ima::DBI queries
When you can't use 'add_constructor', e.g. when using aggregate functions, you can fall back on the fact
that Class::DBI inherits from Ima::DBI and prefers to use its style of dealing with statements, via
set_sql().
The Class::DBI set_sql() method defaults to using prepare_cached() unless the $cache parameter is defined
and false (see Ima::DBI docs for more information).
To assist with writing SQL that is inheritable into subclasses, several additional substitutions are
available here: __TABLE__, __ESSENTIAL__ and __IDENTIFIER__. These represent the table name associated
with the class, its essential columns, and the primary key of the current object, in the case of an
instance method on it.
For example, the SQL for the internal 'update' method is implemented as:
__PACKAGE__->set_sql('update', <<"");
UPDATE __TABLE__
SET %s
WHERE __IDENTIFIER__
The 'longhand' version of the new_music constructor shown above would similarly be:
Music::CD->set_sql(new_music => qq{
SELECT __ESSENTIAL__
FROM __TABLE__
WHERE year > ?
});
For such 'SELECT' queries Ima::DBI's set_sql() method is extended to create a helper shortcut method,
named by prefixing the name of the SQL fragment with 'search_'. Thus, the above call to set_sql() will
automatically set up the method Music::CD->search_new_music(), which will execute this search and return
the relevant objects or Iterator. (If there are placeholders in the query, you must pass the relevant
arguments when calling your search method.)
This does the equivalent of:
sub search_new_music {
my ($class, @args) = @_;
my $sth = $class->sql_new_music;
$sth->execute(@args);
return $class->sth_to_objects($sth);
}
The $sth which is used to return the objects here is a normal DBI-style statement handle, so if the
results can't be turned into objects easily, it is still possible to call $sth->fetchrow_array etc and
return whatever data you choose.
Of course, any query can be added via set_sql, including joins. So, to add a query that returns the 10
Artists with the most CDs, you could write (with MySQL):
Music::Artist->set_sql(most_cds => qq{
SELECT artist.id, COUNT(cd.id) AS cds
FROM artist, cd
WHERE artist.id = cd.artist
GROUP BY artist.id
ORDER BY cds DESC
LIMIT 10
});
my @artists = Music::Artist->search_most_cds();
If you also need to access the 'cds' value returned from this query, the best approach is to declare
'cds' to be a TEMP column. (See "Non-Persistent Fields" below).
Class::DBI::AbstractSearch
my @music = Music::CD->search_where(
artist => [ 'Ozzy', 'Kelly' ],
status => { '!=', 'outdated' },
);
The Class::DBI::AbstractSearch module, available from CPAN, is a plugin for Class::DBI that allows you to
write arbitrarily complex searches using perl data structures, rather than SQL.
Single Value SELECTs
select_val
Selects which only return a single value can couple Class::DBI's sql_single() SQL, with the
$sth->select_val() call which we get from DBIx::ContextualFetch.
__PACKAGE__->set_sql(count_all => "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM __TABLE__");
# .. then ..
my $count = $class->sql_count_all->select_val;
This can also take placeholders and/or do column interpolation if required:
__PACKAGE__->set_sql(count_above => q{
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM __TABLE__ WHERE %s > ?
});
# .. then ..
my $count = $class->sql_count_above('year')->select_val(2001);
sql_single
Internally Class::DBI defines a very simple SQL fragment called 'single':
"SELECT %s FROM __TABLE__".
This is used to implement the above Class->count_all():
$class->sql_single("COUNT(*)")->select_val;
This interpolates the COUNT(*) into the %s of the SQL, and then executes the query, returning a single
value.
Any SQL set up via set_sql() can of course be supplied here, and select_val can take arguments for any
placeholders there.
Internally several helper methods are defined using this approach:
- count_all
- maximum_value_of($column)
- minimum_value_of($column)
LAZY POPULATION
In the tradition of Perl, Class::DBI is lazy about how it loads your objects. Often, you find yourself
using only a small number of the available columns and it would be a waste of memory to load all of them
just to get at two, especially if you're dealing with large numbers of objects simultaneously.
You should therefore group together your columns by typical usage, as fetching one value from a group can
also pre-fetch all the others in that group for you, for more efficient access.
So for example, if we usually fetch the artist and title, but don't use the 'year' so much, then we could
say the following:
Music::CD->columns(Primary => qw/cdid/);
Music::CD->columns(Essential => qw/artist title/);
Music::CD->columns(Others => qw/year runlength/);
Now when you fetch back a CD it will come pre-loaded with the 'cdid', 'artist' and 'title' fields.
Fetching the 'year' will mean another visit to the database, but will bring back the 'runlength' whilst
it's there.
This can potentially increase performance.
If you don't like this behavior, then just add all your columns to the Essential group, and Class::DBI
will load everything at once. If you have a single column primary key you can do this all in one shot
with one single column declaration:
Music::CD->columns(Essential => qw/cdid artist title year runlength/);
columns
my @all_columns = $class->columns;
my @columns = $class->columns($group);
my @primary = $class->primary_columns;
my $primary = $class->primary_column;
my @essential = $class->_essential;
There are four 'reserved' groups: 'All', 'Essential', 'Primary' and 'TEMP'.
'All' are all columns used by the class. If not set it will be created from all the other groups.
'Primary' is the primary key columns for this class. It must be set before objects can be used.
If 'All' is given but not 'Primary' it will assume the first column in 'All' is the primary key.
'Essential' are the minimal set of columns needed to load and use the object. Only the columns in this
group will be loaded when an object is retrieve()'d. It is typically used to save memory on a class that
has a lot of columns but where only use a few of them are commonly used. It will automatically be set to
'Primary' if not explicitly set. The 'Primary' column is always part of the 'Essential' group.
For simplicity primary_columns(), primary_column(), and _essential() methods are provided to return
these. The primary_column() method should only be used for tables that have a single primary key column.
Non-Persistent Fields
Music::CD->columns(TEMP => qw/nonpersistent/);
If you wish to have fields that act like columns in every other way, but that don't actually exist in the
database (and thus will not persist), you can declare them as part of a column group of 'TEMP'.
find_column
Class->find_column($column);
$obj->find_column($column);
The columns of a class are stored as Class::DBI::Column objects. This method will return you the object
for the given column, if it exists. This is most useful either in a boolean context to discover if the
column exists, or to 'normalize' a user-entered column name to an actual Column.
The interface of the Column object itself is still under development, so you shouldn't really rely on
anything internal to it.
TRANSACTIONS
Class::DBI suffers from the usual problems when dealing with transactions. In particular, you should be
very wary when committing your changes that you may actually be in a wider scope than expected and that
your caller may not be expecting you to commit.
However, as long as you are aware of this, and try to keep the scope of your transactions small, ideally
always within the scope of a single method, you should be able to work with transactions with few
problems.
dbi_commit / dbi_rollback
$obj->dbi_commit();
$obj->dbi_rollback();
These are thin aliases through to the DBI's commit() and rollback() commands to commit or rollback all
changes to this object.
Localised Transactions
A nice idiom for turning on a transaction locally (with AutoCommit turned on globally) (courtesy of
Dominic Mitchell) is:
sub do_transaction {
my $class = shift;
my ( $code ) = @_;
# Turn off AutoCommit for this scope.
# A commit will occur at the exit of this block automatically,
# when the local AutoCommit goes out of scope.
local $class->db_Main->{ AutoCommit };
# Execute the required code inside the transaction.
eval { $code->() };
if ( $@ ) {
my $commit_error = $@;
eval { $class->dbi_rollback }; # might also die!
die $commit_error;
}
}
And then you just call:
Music::DBI->do_transaction( sub {
my $artist = Music::Artist->insert({ name => 'Pink Floyd' });
my $cd = $artist->add_to_cds({
title => 'Dark Side Of The Moon',
year => 1974,
});
});
Now either both will get added, or the entire transaction will be rolled back.
UNIQUENESS OF OBJECTS IN MEMORY
Class::DBI supports uniqueness of objects in memory. In a given perl interpreter there will only be one
instance of any given object at one time. Many variables may reference that object, but there can be only
one.
Here's an example to illustrate:
my $artist1 = Music::Artist->insert({ artistid => 7, name => 'Polysics' });
my $artist2 = Music::Artist->retrieve(7);
my $artist3 = Music::Artist->search( name => 'Polysics' )->first;
Now $artist1, $artist2, and $artist3 all point to the same object. If you update a property on one of
them, all of them will reflect the update.
This is implemented using a simple object lookup index for all live objects in memory. It is not a
traditional cache - when your objects go out of scope, they will be destroyed normally, and a future
retrieve will instantiate an entirely new object.
The ability to perform this magic for you replies on your perl having access to the Scalar::Util::weaken
function. Although this is part of the core perl distribution, some vendors do not compile support for
it. To find out if your perl has support for it, you can run this on the command line:
perl -e 'use Scalar::Util qw(weaken)'
If you get an error message about weak references not being implemented, Class::DBI will not maintain
this lookup index, but give you a separate instances for each retrieve.
A few new tools are offered for adjusting the behavior of the object index. These are still somewhat
experimental and may change in a future release.
remove_from_object_index
$artist->remove_from_object_index();
This is an object method for removing a single object from the live objects index. You can use this if
you want to have multiple distinct copies of the same object in memory.
clear_object_index
Music::DBI->clear_object_index();
You can call this method on any class or instance of Class::DBI, but the effect is universal: it removes
all objects from the index.
purge_object_index_every
Music::Artist->purge_object_index_every(2000);
Weak references are not removed from the index when an object goes out of scope. This means that over
time the index will grow in memory. This is really only an issue for long-running environments like
mod_perl, but every so often dead references are cleaned out to prevent this. By default, this happens
every 1000 object loads, but you can change that default for your class by setting the
'purge_object_index_every' value.
(Eventually this may handled in the DESTROY method instead.)
As a final note, keep in mind that you can still have multiple distinct copies of an object in memory if
you have multiple perl interpreters running. CGI, mod_perl, and many other common usage situations run
multiple interpreters, meaning that each one of them may have an instance of an object representing the
same data. However, this is no worse than it was before, and is entirely normal for database applications
in multi-process environments.
SUBCLASSING
The preferred method of interacting with Class::DBI is for you to write a subclass for your database
connection, with each table-class inheriting in turn from it.
As well as encapsulating the connection information in one place, this also allows you to override
default behaviour or add additional functionality across all of your classes.
As the innards of Class::DBI are still in flux, you must exercise extreme caution in overriding private
methods of Class::DBI (those starting with an underscore), unless they are explicitly mentioned in this
documentation as being safe to override. If you find yourself needing to do this, then I would suggest
that you ask on the mailing list about it, and we'll see if we can either come up with a better approach,
or provide a new means to do whatever you need to do.
CAVEATS
Multi-Column Foreign Keys are not supported
You can't currently add a relationship keyed on multiple columns. You could, however, write a
Relationship plugin to do this, and the world would be eternally grateful...
Don't change or inflate the value of your primary columns
Altering your primary key column currently causes Bad Things to happen. I should really protect against
this.
SUPPORTED DATABASES
Theoretically Class::DBI should work with almost any standard RDBMS. Of course, in the real world, we
know that that's not true. It is known to work with MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQLite, each of which
have their own additional subclass on CPAN that you should explore if you're using them:
L<Class::DBI::mysql>, L<Class::DBI::Pg>, L<Class::DBI::Oracle>,
L<Class::DBI::SQLite>
For the most part it's been reported to work with Sybase, although there are some issues with multi-case
column/table names. Beyond that lies The Great Unknown(tm). If you have access to other databases, please
give this a test run, and let me know the results.
Ima::DBI (and hence Class::DBI) requires a database that supports table aliasing and a DBI driver that
supports placeholders. This means it won't work with older releases of DBD::AnyData (and any releases of
its predecessor DBD::RAM), and DBD::Sybase + FreeTDS may or may not work depending on your FreeTDS
version.
CURRENT AUTHOR
Tony Bowden
AUTHOR EMERITUS
Michael G Schwern
THANKS TO
Tim Bunce, Tatsuhiko Miyagawa, Perrin Harkins, Alexander Karelas, Barry Hoggard, Bart Lateur, Boris
Mouzykantskii, Brad Bowman, Brian Parker, Casey West, Charles Bailey, Christopher L. Everett Damian
Conway, Dan Thill, Dave Cash, David Jack Olrik, Dominic Mitchell, Drew Taylor, Drew Wilson, Jay Strauss,
Jesse Sheidlower, Jonathan Swartz, Marty Pauley, Michael Styer, Mike Lambert, Paul Makepeace, Phil Crow,
Richard Piacentini, Simon Cozens, Simon Wilcox, Thomas Klausner, Tom Renfro, Uri Gutman, William McKee,
the Class::DBI mailing list, the POOP group, and all the others who've helped, but that I've forgetten to
mention.
RELEASE PHILOSOPHY
Class::DBI now uses a three-level versioning system. This release, for example, is version 3.0.17
The general approach to releases will be that users who like a degree of stability can hold off on
upgrades until the major sub-version increases (e.g. 3.1.0). Those who like living more on the cutting
edge can keep up to date with minor sub-version releases.
Functionality which was introduced during a minor sub-version release may disappear without warning in a
later minor sub-version release. I'll try to avoid doing this, and will aim to have a deprecation cycle
of at least a few minor sub-versions, but you should keep a close eye on the CHANGES file, and have good
tests in place. (This is good advice generally, of course.) Anything that is in a major sub-version
release will go through a deprecation cycle of at least one further major sub-version before it is
removed (and usually longer).
Getting changes accepted
There is an active Class::DBI community, however I am not part of it. I am not on the mailing list, and
I don't follow the wiki. I also do not follow Perl Monks or CPAN reviews or annoCPAN or whatever the tool
du jour happens to be.
If you find a problem with Class::DBI, by all means discuss it in any of these places, but don't expect
anything to happen unless you actually tell me about it.
The preferred method for doing this is via the CPAN RT interface, which you can access at
http://rt.cpan.org/ or by emailing
bugs-Class-DBI@rt.cpan.org
If you email me personally about Class::DBI issues, then I will probably bounce them on to there, unless
you specifically ask me not to. Otherwise I can't keep track of what all needs fixed. (This of course
means that if you ask me not to send your mail to RT, there's a much higher chance that nothing will
every happen about your problem).
Bug Reports
If you're reporting a bug then it has a much higher chance of getting fixed quicker if you can include a
failing test case. This should be a completely stand-alone test that could be added to the Class::DBI
distribution. That is, it should use Test::Simple or Test::More, fail with the current code, but pass
when I fix the problem. If it needs to have a working database to show the problem, then this should
preferably use SQLite, and come with all the code to set this up. The nice people on the mailing list
will probably help you out if you need assistance putting this together.
You don't need to include code for actually fixing the problem, but of course it's often nice if you can.
I may choose to fix it in a different way, however, so it's often better to ask first whether I'd like a
patch, particularly before spending a lot of time hacking.
Patches
If you are sending patches, then please send either the entire code that is being changed or the output
of 'diff -Bub'. Please also note what version the patch is against. I tend to apply all patches
manually, so I'm more interested in being able to see what you're doing than in being able to apply the
patch cleanly. Code formatting isn't an issue, as I automagically run perltidy against the source after
any changes, so please format for clarity.
Patches have a much better chance of being applied if they are small. People often think that it's
better for me to get one patch with a bunch of fixes. It's not. I'd much rather get 100 small patches
that can be applied one by one. A change that I can make and release in five minutes is always better
than one that needs a couple of hours to ponder and work through.
I often reject patches that I don't like. Please don't take it personally. I also like time to think
about the wider implications of changes. Often a lot of time. Feel free to remind me about things that I
may have forgotten about, but as long as they're on rt.cpan.org I will get around to them eventually.
Feature Requests
Wish-list requests are fine, although you should probably discuss them on the mailing list (or
equivalent) with others first. There's quite often a plugin somewhere that already does what you want.
In general I am much more open to discussion on how best to provide the flexibility for you to make your
Cool New Feature(tm) a plugin rather than adding it to Class::DBI itself.
For the most part the core of Class::DBI already has most of the functionality that I believe it will
ever need (and some more besides, that will probably be split off at some point). Most other things are
much better off as plugins, with a separate life on CPAN or elsewhere (and with me nowhere near the
critical path). Most of the ongoing work on Class::DBI is about making life easier for people to write
extensions - whether they're local to your own codebase or released for wider consumption.
SUPPORT
Support for Class::DBI is mostly via the mailing list.
To join the list, or read the archives, visit
http://lists.digitalcraftsmen.net/mailman/listinfo/classdbi
There is also a Class::DBI wiki at
http://www.class-dbi.com/
The wiki contains much information that should probably be in these docs but isn't yet. (See above if you
want to help to rectify this.)
As mentioned above, I don't follow the list or the wiki, so if you want to contact me individually, then
you'll have to track me down personally.
There are lots of 3rd party subclasses and plugins available. For a list of the ones on CPAN see:
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Class%3A%3ADBI&mode=module
An article on Class::DBI was published on Perl.com a while ago. It's slightly out of date , but it's a
good introduction:
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/11/27/classdbi.html
The wiki has numerous references to other articles, presentations etc.
http://poop.sourceforge.net/ provides a document comparing a variety of different approaches to database
persistence, such as Class::DBI, Alazabo, Tangram, SPOPS etc.
LICENSE
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
itself.
SEE ALSO
Class::DBI is built on top of Ima::DBI, DBIx::ContextualFetch, Class::Accessor and
Class::Data::Inheritable. The innards and much of the interface are easier to understand if you have an
idea of how they all work as well.