=head1 THE DBIx::Class WAY
Here are a few simple tips that will help you get your bearings with
-DBIx::Class.
+DBIx::Class.
-=head2 Tables become ResultSources
+=head2 Tables become Result classes
-DBIx::Class needs to know what your Table structure looks like. You do that by
-defining L<DBIx::Class::ResultSource>s. Each table gets a ResultSource, 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:
+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 L<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 ResultSource == Table
+ A Result class == Table
(most of the time, but just bear with my simplification)
=head2 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!
+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
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.
+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.
+You could easily achieve it.
-The important thing to understand:
+The important thing to understand:
- Any time you would reach for a SQL query in DBI, you are
+ Any time you would reach for a SQL query in DBI, you are
creating a DBIx::Class::ResultSet.
=head2 Search is like "prepare"
Setting up a ResultSet does not execute the query; retrieving
the data does.
+=head2 Search results are returned as Rows
+
+Rows of the search from the database are blessed into
+L<DBIx::Class::Row> objects.
+
=head1 SETTING UP DBIx::Class
Let's look at how you can set and use your first native L<DBIx::Class> tree.
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_classes() method. You can specify which
-classes to load manually:
+will define later, using the load_namespaces() method:
- # load My::Schema::Album and My::Schema::Artist
- __PACKAGE__->load_classes(qw/ Album Artist /);
-
-Or load classes by namespace:
-
- # load My::Schema::Album, My::Schema::Artist and My::OtherSchema::LinerNotes
- __PACKAGE__->load_classes(
- {
- 'My::Schema' => [qw/ Album Artist /],
- 'My::OtherSchema' => [qw/ LinerNotes /]
- }
- );
+ # load My::Schema::Result::* and their resultset classes
+ __PACKAGE__->load_namespaces();
-Or let your schema class load all classes in its namespace automatically:
+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
+L<DBIx::Class::Schema/load_namespaces> call.
- # load My::Schema::*
- __PACKAGE__->load_classes();
+It is also possible to do the same things manually by calling
+C<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::Album;
- use base qw/DBIx::Class/;
+ package My::Schema::Result::Album;
+ use base qw/DBIx::Class::Core/;
-Load any components required by each class with the load_components() method.
-This should consist of "Core" plus any additional components you want to use.
-For example, if you want serial/auto-incrementing primary keys:
+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/ PK::Auto Core /);
-
-C<PK::Auto> is supported for many databases; see L<DBIx::Class::Storage::DBI>
-for more information.
+ __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/ Ordered /);
+ __PACKAGE__->position_column('rank');
Set the table for your class:
Add columns to your class:
- __PACKAGE__->add_columns(qw/ albumid artist title /);
+ __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 C<add_columns> a hash:
is_auto_increment => 0,
default_value => '',
},
- title =>
+ title =>
{ data_type => 'varchar',
size => 256,
is_nullable => 0,
is_auto_increment => 0,
default_value => '',
+ },
+ rank =>
+ { data_type => 'integer',
+ size => 16,
+ is_nullable => 0,
+ is_auto_increment => 0,
+ default_value => '',
}
);
DBIx::Class doesn't directly use most of this data yet, but various related
modules such as L<DBIx::Class::WebForm> make use of it. Also it allows you to
create your database tables from your Schema, instead of the other way around.
-See L<SQL::Translator> for details.
+See L<DBIx::Class::Schema/deploy> for details.
See L<DBIx::Class::ResultSource> for more details of the possible column
attributes.
-Accessors are created for each column automatically, so My::Schema::Album will
+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.
make a predefined accessor for fetching objects that contain this Table's
foreign key:
- __PACKAGE__->has_many('albums', 'My::Schema::Artist', 'album_id');
+ # in My::Schema::Result::Artist
+ __PACKAGE__->has_many('albums', 'My::Schema::Result::Album', 'artist');
See L<DBIx::Class::Relationship> for more information about the various types of
available relationships and how you can design your own.
=head2 Connecting
-To connect to your Schema, you need to provide the connection details. The
-arguments are the same as for L<DBI/connect>:
+To connect to your Schema, you need to provide the connection details or a
+database handle.
+
+=head3 Via connection details
+
+The arguments are the same as for L<DBI/connect>:
my $schema = My::Schema->connect('dbi:SQLite:/home/me/myapp/my.db');
See L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Storage::DBI/connect_info> for more information about
this and other special C<connect>-time options.
+=head3 Via a database handle
+
+The supplied coderef is expected to return a single connected database handle
+(e.g. a L<DBI> C<$dbh>)
+
+ my $schema = My::Schema->connect (
+ sub { Some::DBH::Factory->connect },
+ \%extra_attrs,
+ );
+
=head2 Basic usage
Once you've defined the basic classes, either manually or using
my $album = $schema->resultset('Album')->find(14);
This will run a C<SELECT> with C<albumid = 14> in the C<WHERE> clause, and
-return an instance of C<My::Schema::Album> that represents this row. Once you
+return an instance of C<My::Schema::Result::Album> that represents this row. Once you
have that row, you can access and update columns:
$album->title('Physical Graffiti');
$album->set_column('title', 'Presence');
$title = $album->get_column('title');
-Just like with L<Class::DBI>, you call C<update> to commit your changes to the
-database:
+Just like with L<Class::DBI>, you call C<update> to save your changes to the
+database (by executing the actual C<UPDATE> statement):
$album->update;
=head2 Adding and removing rows
To create a new record in the database, you can use the C<create> method. It
-returns an instance of C<My::Schema::Album> that can be used to access the data
+returns an instance of C<My::Schema::Result::Album> that can be used to access the data
in the new record:
- my $new_album = $schema->resultset('Album')->create({
+ my $new_album = $schema->resultset('Album')->create({
title => 'Wish You Were Here',
artist => 'Pink Floyd'
});
For a complete overview of the available attributes, see
L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet/ATTRIBUTES>.
+=head1 NOTES
+
+=head2 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 L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Troubleshooting>
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
=over 4