Hello perl people,
my name: Stephen Martina
my email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
my homepage: www.stevemartina.com (there's nothing about perl yet)
my preferred user-ID on CPAN: SMART :-)
module description: I'm writing a superclass that simplifies object-oriented
access to database "objects" (essentially records) and takes out the tedious
repetitive bits (accessor methods, caching, etc). I think it should be
called DBI::DBObject, because it builds on DBI but takes all the SQL out.
You need to subclass the module to use it, but it's pretty straightforward.
DSLI would be "cdpO".
Description: it's easier to use than to explain, but essentially if you have
a DB with a table called "widget", you can do this:
# start of Widget.pm
package Widget;
use base qw(DBI::DBObject);
Widget->dbh(<specify db connection>); # either as in DBI->connect, or as a
pre-built DBI::db handle.
Widget->table('whichTableHoldsRecords'); # in this case, "widget"
Widget->primaryKey('primaryKeyName'); # e.g. widgetID
# end of Widget! That was simple, huh?
When you use() Widget, you can then do:
$widgetInstance=Widget->find($widgetID);
$widgetDesc=$widgetInstance->desc; # if the description is in field "desc"
and you change the price by doing:
$widgetInstance->price($newPrice);
Usual perl convention:
$obj->method() GETs and $obj->method($newVal) SETs.
Both return the old value.
I haven't discussed this module with anyone yet; I know Tie::DBI does a
similar job, but this has an object-oriented syntax which comes in handy for
complex work. It does for me, anyway.
The module also supports in-memory caching and "relational" features I won't
get into right now, but essentially...
$widgetInstance->getSpec_ElectricalObject
...returns an instance of the "Spec::Electrical" class, as specified in a
field within the widget record (you can specify which fields lead to which
classes of object). This is as opposed to merely returning the string value
held in the "electricalSpec" field of the widget record, which would
probably hold the ID of the spec object.
I hope you're still awake :-)
Cheers -
Steve Martina
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