SPOPS-0.50

Changes for version 0.50 - 2001-08-28

Overall:
- You can now use LDAP to store your objects! Also included is SPOPS::LDAP::MultiDatastore, which lets you specify multiple directories to query for objects. Thanks to MSN Marketing Service Nordwest, GmbH, for funding development!
- Configuration process has been totally rewritten and renamed (SPOPS::ClassFactory)
- Added multivalue and name mapping functions tie interface
Individual:
- Makefile.PL:
  - Added support for non-interactive execution ('perl Makefile.PL AUTO' if you have a 'spops_test.conf' file around from a previous test)
  - Added support for LDAP test definitions
- eg/README:
  - Information about the examples now here
- eg/stock_user_group.pl:
  - Added script to stock the sample user/group/security objects.
- eg/users_groups_(mysql|psql|tsql).sql
  - Added SQL structure files for the sample user/group/security objects.
- eg/My/(Common|Group|Security|User).pm:
  - Define sample user/group/security objects.
- SPOPS.pm:
  - Added (and documented) a few keys to the information returned by the 'object_description' method.
  - Documented information that is used in object configuration for the tie interface by the 'new()' method.
  - Modified 'initialize()' to set object values passed to new()
  - Removed 'global_config()' method and the need for it -- it was only being used for caching and when we tackle that we'll figure out what's necessary.
  - Moved a number of cache methods from SPOPS/DBI.pm here
  - Removed the '_idx_data()' method
  - The 'clone()' method can now clone an object from one class to another given the parameter '_class'. This could be an extremely easy way to copy objects having the same interface from one datastore to another. (See POD for an example.)
  - Moved the method '_determine_limits()' from SPOPS/DBI.pm here, renaming it 'fetch_determine_limit()'
  - Added 'behavior_factory' which installs the default behaviors (found in SPOPS::ClassFactory::DefaultBehavior) to subclasses
  - Added 'as_html' to represent an object as HTML. (Note that the default just wraps 'as_string' in '<pre>' tags. U-G-L-Y. Override if you value aesthetics.)
- SPOPS/ClassFactory.pm:
  - Added new configuration process. Instead of a monolithic process this class simply gathers behaviors for a class based on its inheritance tree. These behaviors are put into a particular slot (type) and run in turn. This is quite extensible and easy to customize. See POD for more.
- SPOPS/ClassFactory/DefaultBehavior.pm:
  - Holds default behaviors run (potentially) by every SPOPS subclass
- SPOPS/ClassFactory/DBI.pm:
  - Holds implementation-specific behaviors for subclasses of SPOPS::DBI
- SPOPS/ClassFactory/LDAP.pm:
  - Holds implementation-specific behaviors for subclasses for SPOPS::LDAP
- SPOPS/DBI.pm:
  - Moved 'check_action_security()' to SPOPS::Secure
  - Removed 'initialize()' (now inherits from SPOPS.pm); caching methods (moved to SPOPS.pm)
  - Moved '_determine_limits()' to SPOPS.pm as 'fetch_determine_limit()'
  - Added 'behavior_factory' which installs the implementation-specific behaviors (found in SPOPS::ClassFactory::DBI) to subclasses
- SPOPS/Initialize.pm:
  - Better documented the process() method and added the ability to pass multiple already-formed SPOPS configuration hashrefs at once.
  - Modified to work with SPOPS::ClassFactory
- SPOPS/Iterator/LDAP.pm:
  - Added implementation of SPOPS::Iterator for SPOPS::LDAP
- SPOPS/LDAP.pm:
  - Added new datastore for SPOPS. You can now save, fetch and remove objects from an LDAP datastore as you would a DBI datastore.
- SPOPS/LDAP/MultiDatastore.pm:
  - Add subclass to SPOPS::LDAP - be able to query multiple directories at once by using this (instead of SPOPS::LDAP) as a parent class and specifying multiple datasources in the object configuration.
- SPOPS/Secure.pm
  - Updated docs and added information about subclassing to create custom security.
  - Added method 'check_action_security()' from SPOPS/DBI.pm so that other implementation classes can use it and non-SPOPS::Secure objects can just call the stub in SPOPS.pm.
- SPOPS/SQLInterface.pm
  - Patch from Ray Zimmerman to actually return data when you specify a return value of 'hash' for db_select().
  - Patch from Ray Zimmerman to return from 'db_insert()', 'db_update()' and 'db_delete()' the return value from the '$sth->execute()' statement. This is an API change but a very small one -- if successful the return value should still be true, since even if (for instance) an update affects no rows DBI returns '0E0' which is numerically zero but evaluates to true. Also added note regarding various return values to 'db_update()' docs.
- SPOPS/Tie.pm
  - Added functionality for multivalued properties. A single property can have non-duplicate, unordered multiple values. This is necessary for SPOPS::LDAP. (Documentation included!)
  - Added functionality for field mapping. This allows you to retrofit an existing object interface to a table scheme with different field names. (Documentation included!)
- t/*
  - Renamed all tests from 'name.t' to '##_name.t' so we can have some control over the order in which they're executed.
  - Added LDAP test suite (40_ldap.t).