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NAME

       DBIx::Class::Manual::Intro - Introduction to DBIx::Class

INTRODUCTION

       You're bored with SQL, and want a native Perl interface for your database?  Or you've been
       doing this for a while with Class::DBI, and think there's a better way?  You've come to
       the right place.

THE DBIx::Class WAY

       Here are a few simple tips that will help you get your bearings with DBIx::Class.

   Tables become Result classes
       DBIx::Class needs to know what your Table structure looks like.  You do that by defining
       Result classes. Result classes are defined by calling methods proxied to
       DBIx::Class::ResultSource.  Each Result class defines one Table, which defines the Columns
       it has, along with any Relationships it has to other tables.  (And oh, so much more
       besides) The important thing to understand:

         A Result class == Table

       (most of the time, but just bear with my simplification)

   It's all about the ResultSet
       So, we've got some ResultSources defined.  Now, we want to actually use those definitions
       to help us translate the queries we need into handy perl objects!

       Let's say we defined a ResultSource for an "album" table with three columns: "albumid",
       "artist", and "title".  Any time we want to query this table, we'll be creating a
       DBIx::Class::ResultSet from its ResultSource.  For example, the results of:

         SELECT albumid, artist, title FROM album;

       Would be retrieved by creating a ResultSet object from the album table's ResultSource,
       likely by using the "search" method.

       DBIx::Class doesn't limit you to creating only simple ResultSets -- if you wanted to do
       something like:

         SELECT title FROM album GROUP BY title;

       You could easily achieve it.

       The important thing to understand:

         Any time you would reach for a SQL query in DBI, you are
         creating a DBIx::Class::ResultSet.

   Search is like "prepare"
       DBIx::Class tends to wait until it absolutely must fetch information from the database.
       If you are returning a ResultSet, the query won't execute until you use a method that
       wants to access the data. (Such as "next", or "first")

       The important thing to understand:

         Setting up a ResultSet does not execute the query; retrieving
         the data does.

   Search results are returned as Rows
       Rows of the search from the database are blessed into Result objects.

SETTING UP DBIx::Class

       Let's look at how you can set and use your first native DBIx::Class tree.

       First we'll see how you can set up your classes yourself.  If you want them to be auto-
       discovered, just skip to the next section, which shows you how to use
       DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader.

   Setting it up manually
       First, you should create your base schema class, which inherits from DBIx::Class::Schema:

         package My::Schema;
         use base qw/DBIx::Class::Schema/;

       In this class you load your result_source ("table", "model") classes, which we will define
       later, using the load_namespaces() method:

         # load My::Schema::Result::* and their resultset classes
         __PACKAGE__->load_namespaces();

       By default this loads all the Result (Row) classes in the My::Schema::Result:: namespace,
       and also any resultset classes in the My::Schema::ResultSet:: namespace (if missing, the
       resultsets are defaulted to be DBIx::Class::ResultSet objects). You can change the result
       and resultset namespaces by using options to the "load_namespaces" in DBIx::Class::Schema
       call.

       It is also possible to do the same things manually by calling "load_classes" for the Row
       classes and defining in those classes any required resultset classes.

       Next, create each of the classes you want to load as specified above:

         package My::Schema::Result::Album;
         use base qw/DBIx::Class::Core/;

       Load any additional components you may need with the load_components() method, and provide
       component configuration if required. For example, if you want automatic row ordering:

         __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/ Ordered /);
         __PACKAGE__->position_column('rank');

       Ordered will refer to a field called 'position' unless otherwise directed.  Here you are
       defining the ordering field to be named 'rank'.  (NOTE: Insert errors may occur if you use
       the Ordered component, but have not defined a position column or have a 'position' field
       in your row.)

       Set the table for your class:

         __PACKAGE__->table('album');

       Add columns to your class:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(qw/ albumid artist title rank /);

       Each column can also be set up with its own accessor, data_type and other pieces of
       information that it may be useful to have -- just pass "add_columns" a hash:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(albumid =>
                                   { accessor  => 'album',
                                     data_type => 'integer',
                                     size      => 16,
                                     is_nullable => 0,
                                     is_auto_increment => 1,
                                   },
                                 artist =>
                                   { data_type => 'integer',
                                     size      => 16,
                                     is_nullable => 0,
                                   },
                                 title  =>
                                   { data_type => 'varchar',
                                     size      => 256,
                                     is_nullable => 0,
                                   },
                                 rank =>
                                   { data_type => 'integer',
                                     size      => 16,
                                     is_nullable => 0,
                                     default_value => 0,
                                   }
                                );

       DBIx::Class doesn't directly use most of this data yet, but various related modules such
       as HTML::FormHandler::Model::DBIC make use of it.  Also it allows you to create your
       database tables from your Schema, instead of the other way around.  See "deploy" in
       DBIx::Class::Schema for details.

       See DBIx::Class::ResultSource for more details of the possible column attributes.

       Accessors are created for each column automatically, so My::Schema::Result::Album will
       have albumid() (or album(), when using the accessor), artist() and title() methods.

       Define a primary key for your class:

         __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key('albumid');

       If you have a multi-column primary key, just pass a list instead:

         __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key( qw/ albumid artistid / );

       Define this class' relationships with other classes using either "belongs_to" to describe
       a column which contains an ID of another Table, or "has_many" to make a predefined
       accessor for fetching objects that contain this Table's foreign key:

         # in My::Schema::Result::Artist
         __PACKAGE__->has_many('albums', 'My::Schema::Result::Album', 'artist');

       See DBIx::Class::Relationship for more information about the various types of available
       relationships and how you can design your own.

   Using DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader
       This module (DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader) is an external module, and not part of the
       DBIx::Class distribution. It inspects your database, and automatically creates classes for
       all the tables in your schema.

       The simplest way to use it is via the dbicdump script from the DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader
       distribution. For example:

           $ dbicdump -o dump_directory=./lib \
               -o components='["InflateColumn::DateTime"]' \
               MyApp::Schema dbi:mysql:mydb user pass

       If you have a mixed-case database, use the "preserve_case" option, e.g.:

           $ dbicdump -o dump_directory=./lib -o preserve_case=1 \
               -o components='["InflateColumn::DateTime"]' \
               MyApp::Schema dbi:mysql:mydb user pass

       If you are using Catalyst, then you can use the helper that comes with
       Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema:

           $ script/myapp_create.pl model MyDB DBIC::Schema MyDB::Schema \
               create=static moniker_map='{ foo => "FOO" }' dbi:SQLite:./myapp.db \
               on_connect_do='PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON' quote_char='"'

       See Catalyst::Helper::Model::DBIC::Schema for more information on this helper.

       See the DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader and DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader::Base documentation
       for more information on the many loader options.

   Connecting
       To connect to your Schema, you need to provide the connection details or a database
       handle.

       Via connection details

       The arguments are the same as for "connect" in DBI:

         my $schema = My::Schema->connect('dbi:SQLite:/home/me/myapp/my.db');

       You can create as many different schema instances as you need. So if you have a second
       database you want to access:

         my $other_schema = My::Schema->connect( $dsn, $user, $password, $attrs );

       Note that DBIx::Class::Schema does not cache connections for you. If you use multiple
       connections, you need to do this manually.

       To execute some SQL statements on every connect you can add them as an option in a special
       fifth argument to connect:

         my $another_schema = My::Schema->connect(
             $dsn,
             $user,
             $password,
             $attrs,
             { on_connect_do => \@on_connect_sql_statments }
         );

       See "connect_info" in DBIx::Class::Storage::DBI for more information about this and other
       special "connect"-time options.

       Via a database handle

       The supplied coderef is expected to return a single connected database handle (e.g. a DBI
       $dbh)

         my $schema = My::Schema->connect (
           sub { Some::DBH::Factory->connect },
           \%extra_attrs,
         );

   Basic usage
       Once you've defined the basic classes, either manually or using
       DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader, you can start interacting with your database.

       To access your database using your $schema object, you can fetch a "ResultSet" in
       DBIx::Class::Manual::Glossary representing each of your tables by calling the "resultset"
       method.

       The simplest way to get a record is by primary key:

         my $album = $schema->resultset('Album')->find(14);

       This will run a "SELECT" with "albumid = 14" in the "WHERE" clause, and return an instance
       of "My::Schema::Result::Album" that represents this row.  Once you have that row, you can
       access and update columns:

         $album->title('Physical Graffiti');
         my $title = $album->title; # $title holds 'Physical Graffiti'

       If you prefer, you can use the "set_column" and "get_column" accessors instead:

         $album->set_column('title', 'Presence');
         $title = $album->get_column('title');

       Just like with Class::DBI, you call "update" to save your changes to the database (by
       executing the actual "UPDATE" statement):

         $album->update;

       If needed, you can throw away your local changes:

         $album->discard_changes if $album->is_changed;

       As you can see, "is_changed" allows you to check if there are local changes to your
       object.

   Adding and removing rows
       To create a new record in the database, you can use the "create" method.  It returns an
       instance of "My::Schema::Result::Album" that can be used to access the data in the new
       record:

         my $new_album = $schema->resultset('Album')->create({
           title  => 'Wish You Were Here',
           artist => 'Pink Floyd'
         });

       Now you can add data to the new record:

         $new_album->label('Capitol');
         $new_album->year('1975');
         $new_album->update;

       Likewise, you can remove it from the database:

         $new_album->delete;

       You can also remove records without retrieving them first, by calling delete directly on a
       ResultSet object.

         # Delete all of Falco's albums
         $schema->resultset('Album')->search({ artist => 'Falco' })->delete;

   Finding your objects
       DBIx::Class provides a few different ways to retrieve data from your database.  Here's one
       example:

         # Find all of Santana's albums
         my $rs = $schema->resultset('Album')->search({ artist => 'Santana' });

       In scalar context, as above, "search" returns a DBIx::Class::ResultSet object.  It can be
       used to peek at the first album returned by the database:

         my $album = $rs->first;
         print $album->title;

       You can loop over the albums and update each one:

         while (my $album = $rs->next) {
           print $album->artist . ' - ' . $album->title;
           $album->year(2001);
           $album->update;
         }

       Or, you can update them all at once:

         $rs->update({ year => 2001 });

       In list context, the "search" method returns all of the matching rows:

         # Fetch immediately all of Carlos Santana's albums
         my @albums = $schema->resultset('Album')->search(
           { artist => 'Carlos Santana' }
         );
         foreach my $album (@albums) {
           print $album->artist . ' - ' . $album->title;
         }

       We also provide a handy shortcut for doing a "LIKE" search:

         # Find albums whose artist starts with 'Jimi'
         my $rs = $schema->resultset('Album')->search_like({ artist => 'Jimi%' });

       Or you can provide your own "WHERE" clause:

         # Find Peter Frampton albums from the year 1986
         my $where = 'artist = ? AND year = ?';
         my @bind  = ( 'Peter Frampton', 1986 );
         my $rs    = $schema->resultset('Album')->search_literal( $where, @bind );

       The preferred way to generate complex queries is to provide a SQL::Abstract construct to
       "search":

         my $rs = $schema->resultset('Album')->search({
           artist  => { '!=', 'Janis Joplin' },
           year    => { '<' => 1980 },
           albumid => { '-in' => [ 1, 14, 15, 65, 43 ] }
         });

       This results in something like the following "WHERE" clause:

         WHERE artist != 'Janis Joplin'
           AND year < 1980
           AND albumid IN (1, 14, 15, 65, 43)

       For more examples of complex queries, see DBIx::Class::Manual::Cookbook.

       The search can also be modified by passing another hash with attributes:

         my @albums = My::Schema->resultset('Album')->search(
           { artist => 'Bob Marley' },
           { rows => 2, order_by => { -desc => 'year' } }
         );

       @albums then holds the two most recent Bob Marley albums.

       For more information on what you can do with a DBIx::Class::ResultSet, see "METHODS" in
       DBIx::Class::ResultSet.

       For a complete overview of the available attributes, see "ATTRIBUTES" in
       DBIx::Class::ResultSet.

NOTES

   The Significance and Importance of Primary Keys
       The concept of a primary key in DBIx::Class warrants special discussion. The formal
       definition (which somewhat resembles that of a classic RDBMS) is a unique constraint that
       is least likely to change after initial row creation. However this is where the similarity
       ends. Any time you call a CRUD operation on a row (e.g.  delete, update, discard_changes,
       etc.) DBIx::Class will use the values of of the primary key columns to populate the
       "WHERE" clause necessary to accomplish the operation. This is why it is important to
       declare a primary key on all your result sources even if the underlying RDBMS does not
       have one.  In a pinch one can always declare each row identifiable by all its columns:

        __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key(__PACKAGE__->columns);

       Note that DBIx::Class is smart enough to store a copy of the PK values before any row-
       object changes take place, so even if you change the values of PK columns the "WHERE"
       clause will remain correct.

       If you elect not to declare a "primary key", DBIx::Class will behave correctly by throwing
       exceptions on any row operation that relies on unique identifiable rows. If you inherited
       datasets with multiple identical rows in them, you can still operate with such sets
       provided you only utilize DBIx::Class::ResultSet CRUD methods: search, update, delete

       For example, the following would not work (assuming "People" does not have a declared PK):

        my $row = $schema->resultset('People')
                          ->search({ last_name => 'Dantes' })
                           ->next;
        $row->update({ children => 2 }); # <-- exception thrown because $row isn't
                                         # necessarily unique

       So instead the following should be done:

        $schema->resultset('People')
                ->search({ last_name => 'Dantes' })
                 ->update({ children => 2 }); # <-- update's ALL Dantes to have children of 2

   Problems on RHEL5/CentOS5
       There used to be an issue with the system perl on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, some
       versions of Fedora and derived systems. Further information on this can be found in
       DBIx::Class::Manual::Troubleshooting

SEE ALSO

       •   DBIx::Class::Manual::Cookbook