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[dbsrgits/DBIx-Class.git] / lib / DBIx / Class / Manual / Glossary.pod
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24105556 1=head1 NAME
2
880a1a0c 3DBIx::Class::Manual::Glossary - Clarification of terms used.
24105556 4
5=head1 INTRODUCTION
6
9e7b9292 7This document lists various terms used in DBIx::Class and attempts to
8explain them.
24105556 9
10=head1 TERMS
11
9e7b9292 12=head2 Inflation
13
14The act of turning database row data into objects in
15language-space. DBIx::Class further allows you to inflate your data
16into perl objects which more usefully represent their contents. For
17example: L<DBIx::Class::InflateColumn::DateTime> for datetime or
18timestamp column data.
19
20=head2 Join
21
22This is an SQL keyword that gets mentioned a lot. It is used to fetch
23data from more than one table at once, by C<join>ing the tables on
24fields where they have common data.
25
26=head2 Normalisation
27
28A normalised database is a sane database. Each table contains only
29data belonging to one concept, related tables refer to the key field
30or fields of each other. Some links to webpages about normalisation
31can be found in L<DBIx::Class::Manual::FAQ|the FAQ>.
32
24105556 33=head2 ORM
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9e7b9292 35Object-relational mapping, or Object-relationship modelling. Either
36way it's a method of mapping the contents of database tables (rows),
37to objects in programming-language-space. DBIx::Class is an ORM.
38
24105556 39=head2 ResultSet
40
41This is an object representing a set of data. It can either be an
42entire table, or the results of a query. The actual data is not held
43in the ResultSet, it is only a description of how to fetch the data.
44
45See also: L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet/METHODS>
46
47=head2 ResultSource
48
49ResultSource objects represent the source of your data, they are also known as
50a table objects.
51
52See also: L<DBIx::Class::ResultSource/METHODS>
53
54=head2 Record
55
56See Row.
57
58=head2 Row
59
60Row objects contain your actual data. They are returned from ResultSet objects.
61
62=head2 Object
63
64See Row.
65
66=head2 Schema
67
68A Schema object represents your entire table collection, plus the
69connection to the database. You can create one or more schema objects,
70connected to various databases, with various users, using the same set
71of table (ResultSource) definitions.