NAME

Tangram::Set - maps Set::Object using a link table

SYNOPSIS

        use Tangram;

        # or
        use Tangram::Core;
        use Tangram::Set;

        $schema = Tangram::Schema->new(

                classes => { Company => { fields => {

                set =>
                {
                        # long form
                        employee =>
                        {
                                class => 'Person',
                                table => 'Company_employees',
                                coll => 'company',
                                item => 'employee',
                        },

                        # short form
                        assets => 'Asset',
                }

DESCRIPTION

Maps a reference to a Set::Object. The persistent fields are grouped in a hash under the set key in the field hash.

The set may contain only objects of persistent classes. These classes must have a common persistent base class.

Tangram uses a link table to save the state of the collection. The table has two columns: one contains the id of the container objects; the other contains the ids of the elements.

The field names are passed in a hash that associates a field name with a field descriptor. The field descriptor may be either a hash or a string. The hash uses the following fields:

• class

• aggreg

• table

• coll

• item

Mandatory field class specifies the class of the elements.

Optional field aggreg specifies that the elements of the collection must be removed (erased) from persistent storage along with the containing object. The default is not to aggregate.

Optional field table sets the name of the link table. This defaults to 'C_F', where C is the class of the containing object and F is the field name.

Optional field coll sets the name the column containing the ids of the containing objects. This defaults to 'coll'.

Optional field item sets the name the column containing the ids of the elements. This defaults to 'item'.

If the descriptor is a string, it is interpreted as the name of the element's class. This is equivalent to specifying only the class field in the hash variant.