NAME
CohortExplorer::Datasource - CohortExplorer datasource superclass
SYNOPSIS
# The code below shows methods your datasource class overrides
package CohortExplorer::Application::My::Datasource;
use base qw( CohortExplorer::Datasource );
sub authenticate {
my ($self, $opts) = @_;
# authentication code...
# Successful authentication returns a scalar response (e.g. project_id)
return $response
}
sub additional_params {
my ($self, $opts, $response) = @_;
my %params;
# Get database handle (i.e. $self->dbh) and run some SQL queries to get additional parameters
# to be used in entity/variable/table structure hooks
return \%params;
}
sub entity_structure {
my ($self) = @_;
my %struct = (
-columns => {
entity_id => 'd.record',
variable => 'd.field_name',
value => 'd.value',
table => 'm.form_name'
},
-from => [ -join => qw/data|d <=>{project_id=project_id} metadata|m/ ],
-where => {
'd.project_id' => $self->project_id
}
);
return \%struct;
}
sub table_structure {
my ($self) = @_;
return {
-columns => {
table => 'GROUP_CONCAT( DISTINCT form_name )',
variable_count => 'COUNT( field_name )',
label => 'element_label'
},
-from => 'metadata'',
-where => {
project_id => $self->project_id
},
-order_by => 'field_order',
-group_by => 'form_name'
};
}
sub variable_structure {
my ($self) = @_;
return {
-columns => {
variable => 'field_name',
table => 'form_name',
label => 'element_label',
type => "IF( element_validation_type IS NULL, 'text', element_validation_type)",
category => "IF( element_enum like '%, %', REPLACE( element_enum, '\\\\n', '\n'), '')"
},
-from => 'metadata',
-where => {
project_id => $self->project_id
},
-order_by => 'field_order'
};
}
sub datatype_map {
return {
int => 'signed',
float => 'decimal',
date_dmy => 'date',
date_mdy => 'date',
date_ymd => 'date',
datetime_dmy => 'datetime'
};
}
DESCRIPTION
CohortExplorer::Datasource is the base class for all datasources. When connecting CohortExplorer to EAV repositories other than Opal (OBiBa) and REDCap the user is expected to create a class which inherits from CohortExplorer::Datasource. The datasources stored in Opal and REDCap can be queried using the in-built Opal and REDCap API (see here).
OBJECT CONSTRUCTION
initialize( $opts, $config_file )
CohortExplorer::Datasource is an abstract factory; initialize()
is the factory method that constructs and returns an object of the datasource supplied as an application option. This class reads the datasource configuration from the config file datasource-config.properties
to instantiate the datasource object. A sample config file is shown below:
<datasource Medication_Participant>
namespace=CohortExplorer::Application::Opal::Datasource
url=http://opal_home
entity_type=Participant
dsn=DBI:mysql:database=opal;host=hostname;port=3306
username=database_username
password=database_password
</datasource>
<datasource Medication_Instrument>
namespace=CohortExplorer::Application::Opal::Datasource
url=http://opal_home
entity_type=Instrument
dsn=DBI:mysql:database=opal;host=hostname;port=3306
username=database_username
password=database_password
name=datasourceA
</datasource>
<datasource Drug_A>
namespace=CohortExplorer::Application::REDCap::Datasource
url=http://redcap_home
dsn=DBI:mysql:database=opal;host=myhost;port=3306
arm_name=Drug A
username=database_username
password=database_password
name=Drug
</datasource>
<datasource Drug_B>
namespace=CohortExplorer::Application::REDCap::Datasource
url=http://redcap_home
dsn=DBI:mysql:database=opal;host=myhost;port=3306
arm_name=Drug B
username=database_username
password=database_password
name=Drug
</datasource>
Each block holds a unique datasource configuration. In addition to reserve parameters namespace
, name
, dsn
, username
, password
and static_tables
it is up to the user to decide what other parameters they want to include in the configuration file. If the block name is an alias the user can specify the actual name of the datasource using name
parameter. If name
parameter is not found the block name is assumed to be the actual name of the datasource. In the example above, both Medication_Participant
and Medication_Instrument
connect to the same datasource (Medication
) but with different configurations. Medication_Participant
is configured to query the participant data where as, Medication_Instrument
can be used to query the instrument data. Similarly Drug A
and Drug B
are configured to query different arms of REDCap datasource Drug
. Once the class has instantiated the datasource object, the user can access the parameters by simply calling the accessors which have the same name as the parameters. For example, the datasource name can be retrived by $self->name
and entity_type by $self->entity_type
.
The namespace is the full package name of the in-built API the application will use to consult the parent EAV schema. The parameters present in the configuration file can be used by the subclass hooks to provide user or project specific functionality.
new()
$object = $ds_pkg->new();
Basic constructor.
PROCESSING
After instantiating the datasource object, the class first calls authenticate to perform the user authentication. If the authentication is successful (i.e. returns a defined $response
), it sets some additional parameters, if any ( via additional_params). The subsequent steps include calling methods; entity_structure, table_structure, variable_structure, datatype_map and validating the return by each method. Upon successful validation the class attempts to set entity, table and variable specific parameters by invoking the methods below:
set_entity_info( $struct )
This method attempts to retrieve the entity parameters such as entity_count
and visit_info
(if applicable) from the database. The method accepts the input from entity_structure method.
set_table_info( $struct )
This method attempts to retrieve data on table and table attributes from the database. The method accepts the input from table_structure method.
set_variable_info( $struct )
This method attempts to retrieve data on variable and variable attributes from the database. The method accepts the input from variable_structure method.
SUBCLASS HOOKS
The subclasses override the following hooks:
authenticate( $opts )
This method should return a scalar response upon successful authentication otherwise return undef
. The method is called with one parameter, $opts
which is a hash with application options as keys and their user-provided values as hash values. Note the methods below are only called if the authentication is successful.
additional_params( $opts, $response )
This method should return a hash ref containing parameter name-value pairs. Not all parameter values are known in advance so they can not be specified in the datasource configuration file. Sometimes the value of some parameter first needs to be retrieved from the database (e.g. variables and records a given user has access to). This hook can be used specifically for this purpose. The user can use the database handle ($self->dbh
) and run some SQL queries to retrieve parameter name-value pairs which can then be added to the datasource object. The parameters used in calling this method are:
$opts
a hash with application options as keys and their user-provided values as hash values.
$response
a scalar received upon successful authentication. The user may want to use the scalar response to fetch other parameters (if any).
entity_structure()
The method should return a hash ref defining the entity structure in the database. The hash ref must have the following keys:
- -columns
-
entity_id
variable
value
table
visit
(valid to longitudinal datasources) - -from
-
table specifications (see SQL::Abstract::More)
- -where
-
where clauses (see SQL::Abstract)
- -order_by
-
column used to order the visits (valid to longitudinal datasources)
table_structure()
The method should return a hash ref defining the table structure in the database. table
in this context implies questionnaires or forms. For example,
{
-columns => [
table => 'GROUP_CONCAT( DISTINCT form_name )',
variable_count => 'COUNT( field_name )',
label => 'element_label'
],
-from => 'metadata',
-where => {
project_id => $self->project_id
},
-order_by => 'field_order',
-group_by => 'form_name'
}
the user should make sure the SQL query constructed from hash ref is able to produce the output like the one below:
+-------------------+-----------------+------------------+
| table | variable_count | label |
+-------------------+-----------------+------------------+
| demographics | 26 | Demographics |
| baseline_data | 19 | Baseline Data |
| month_1_data | 20 | Month 1 Data |
| month_2_data | 20 | Month 2 Data |
| month_3_data | 28 | Month 3 Data |
| completion_data | 6 | Completion Data |
+-------------------+-----------------+------------------+
Note -columns
hash must contain table
definition. It is up to the user to decide what table attributes they think are suitable for the description of tables.
variable_structure()
This method should return a hash ref defining the variable structure in the database. For example,
{
-columns => [
variable => 'field_name',
table => 'form_name',
label => 'element_label',
category => "IF( element_enum like '%, %', REPLACE( element_enum, '\\\\n', '\n'), '')",
type => "IF( element_validation_type IS NULL, 'text', element_validation_type)"
],
-from => 'metadata',
-where => {
project_id => $self->project_id
},
-order_by => 'field_order'
}
the user should make sure the SQL query constructed from the hash ref is able to produce the output like the one below:
+---------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+---------------+----------+
| variable | table |label | category | type |
+---------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+---------------------------
| kt_v_b | baseline_data | Kt/V | | float |
| plasma1_b | baseline_data | Collected Plasma 1? | 0, No | text |
| | | | 1, Yes | |
| date_visit_1 | month_1_data | Date of Month 1 visit | | date_ymd |
| alb_1 | month_1_data | Serum Albumin (g/dL) | | float |
| prealb_1 | month_1_data | Serum Prealbumin (mg/dL)| | float |
| creat_1 | month_1_data | Creatinine (mg/dL) | | float |
+---------------------------+---------------+-----------+-------------------------------+--------+
Note -columns
hash must define variable
and table
columns. Again it is up to the user to decide what variable attributes they think define the variables in the datasource. The categories within category
column must be separated by newline.
datatype_map()
This method should return a hash ref with value types as keys and equivalent SQL types (i.e. castable) as hash values. For example,
{
'int' => 'signed',
'float' => 'decimal',
'number_1dp' => 'decimal(10,1)',
'datetime' => 'datetime'
}
DIAGNOSTICS
Config::General fails to parse the datasource configuration file.
Failed to instantiate datasource package '<datasource pkg>' via new().
Return by methods
additional_params
,entity_structure
,table_structure
,variable_structure
anddatatype_map
is either not hash-worthy or contains missing columns.select
method in SQL::Abstract::More fails to construct the SQL query from the supplied hash ref.execute
method in DBI fails to execute the SQL query.
DEPENDENCIES
SEE ALSO
CohortExplorer::Application::Opal::Datasource
CohortExplorer::Application::REDCap::Datasource
CohortExplorer::Command::Describe
CohortExplorer::Command::History
CohortExplorer::Command::Query::Search
CohortExplorer::Command::Query::Compare
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2013-2014 Abhishek Dixit (adixit@cpan.org). All rights reserved.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either:
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version, or
the " Artistic Licence ".
AUTHOR
Abhishek Dixit