/ 
Rose-DB-Object-0.012
River stage two • 19 direct dependents • 19 total dependents
/ Rose::DB::Object

NAME

Rose::DB::Object - Object representation of a single row in a database table.

SYNOPSIS

package Category;

use Rose::DB::Object;
our @ISA = qw(Rose::DB::Object);

__PACKAGE__->meta->table('categories');

__PACKAGE__->meta->columns
(
  id          => { type => 'int', primary_key => 1 },
  name        => { type => 'varchar', length => 255 },
  description => { type => 'text' },
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->add_unique_key('name');

__PACKAGE__->meta->initialize;

...

package Product;

use Rose::DB::Object;
our @ISA = qw(Rose::DB::Object);

__PACKAGE__->meta->table('products');

__PACKAGE__->meta->columns
(
  id          => { type => 'int', primary_key => 1 },
  name        => { type => 'varchar', length => 255 },
  description => { type => 'text' },
  category_id => { type => 'int' },

  status => 
  {
    type      => 'varchar', 
    check_in  => [ 'active', 'inactive' ],
    default   => 'inactive',
  },

  start_date  => { type => 'datetime' },
  end_date    => { type => 'datetime' },

  date_created     => { type => 'timestamp', default => 'now' },  
  last_modified    => { type => 'timestamp', default => 'now' },
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->add_unique_key('name');

__PACKAGE__->meta->foreign_keys
(
  category =>
  {
    class       => 'Category',
    key_columns =>
    {
      category_id => 'id',
    }
  },
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->initialize;

...

$product = Product->new(id          => 123,
                        name        => 'GameCube',
                        status      => 'active',
                        start_date  => '11/5/2001',
                        end_date    => '12/1/2007',
                        category_id => 5);

$product->save or die $product->error;

...

$product = Product->new(id => 123);
$product->load or die $product->error;

print $product->category->name;

$product->end_date->add(days => 45);

$product->save or die $product->error;

...

DESCRIPTION

Rose::DB::Object is a base class for objects that encapsulate a single row in a database table. Rose::DB::Object-derived objects are sometimes simply called "Rose::DB::Object objects" in this documentation for the sake of brevity, but be assured that derivation is the only reasonable way to use this class.

Rose::DB::Object objects can represent rows in almost any database table, subject to the following constraints.

  • The database server must be supported by Rose::DB.

  • The database table must have a primary key, and that key must not allow null values in any of its columns.

Although the list above contains the only hard and fast rules, there may be other realities that you'll need to work around.

The most common example is the existence of a column name in the database table that conflicts with the name of a method in the Rose::DB::Object API. The work-around is to alias the column. See the alias_column() method in the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata documentation for more details.

There are also varying degrees of support for data types in each database server supported by Rose::DB. If you have a table that uses a data type not supported by an existing Rose::DB::Object::Metadata::Column-derived class, you will have to write your own column class and then map it to a type name using Rose::DB::Object::Metadata's column_type_class() method, yada yada.

The entire framework is meant to be extensible. I have created simple implementations of the most common column types, but there's certainly mor ethat could be done. Submissions are welcome.

Rose::DB::Object provides the following functions:

  • Create a row in the database by saving a newly constructed object.

  • Initialize an object by loading a row from the database.

  • Update a row by saving a modified object back to the database.

  • Delete a row from the database.

Objects can be loaded based on either a primary key or a unique key. Since all tables fronted by Rose::DB::Objects must have non-null primary keys, insert, update, and delete operations are done based on the primary key.

This is all very straightforward, but the really handy part is Rose::DB::Object's ability to parse, coerce, "inflate", and "deflate" column values on your behalf, providing the most convenient possible data representations on the Perl side of the fence, while allowing the programmer to largely forget about the ugly details of the data formats required by the database.

To define your own Rose::DB::Object-derived class, you must first describe the table that contains the rows you plan to represent. This is done through the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata object associated with each Rose::DB::Object-dervied class. (You can see a simple example of this in the synopsis.) The metadata object is accessible via Rose::DB::Object's meta() method. See the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata documentation for more information.

This class inherits from, and follows the conventions of, Rose::Object. See the Rose::Object documentation for more information.

CONSTRUCTOR

new PARAMS

Returns a new Rose::DB::Object constructed according to PARAMS, where PARAMS are name/value pairs. Any object method is a valid parameter name.

CLASS METHODS

    Returns the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata object associated with this class. This object describes the database table whose rows are fronted by this class: the name of the table, its columns, unique keys, foreign keys, etc.

    See the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata documentation for more information.

OBJECT METHODS

db [DB]

Get or set the Rose::DB object used to access the database that contains the table whose rows are fronted by the Rose::DB::Object-derived class.

If it does not already exist, this object is created with a simple, argumentless call to Rose::DB->new(). To override this default in a subclass, override the init_db method and return the Rose::DB to be used as the new default.

dbh

Returns the DBI database handle contained in db.

delete

Delete the row represented by the current object. The object must have been previously loaded from the database (or must otherwise have a defined primary key value) in order to be deleted. Returns true if the row was deleted or did not exist, false otherwise.

error

Returns the text message associated with the last error that occurred.

load

Load a row from the database table, initializing the object with the values from that row. An object can be loaded based on either a primary key or a unique key.

Returns true if the row was loaded successfully, false if the row could not be loaded or did not exist.

not_found

Returns true if the previous call to load() failed because a row in the database table with the specified primary or unique key did not exist, false otherwise.

meta

Returns the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata object associated with this class. This object describes the database table whose rows are fronted by this class: the name of the table, its columns, unique keys, foreign keys, etc.

See the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata documentation for more information.

save [PARAMS]

Save the current object to the database table. In the absence of PARAMS, if the object was previously load()ed from the database, the row will be updated. Otherwise, a new row will be created.

PARAMS are name/value pairs. Valid parameters are:

  • insert

    If set to a true value, then an insert is attempted, regardless of whether or not the object was previously load()ed from the database.

  • update

    If set to a true value, then an update is attempted, regardless of whether or not the object was previously load()ed from the database.

It is an error to pass both the insert and update parameters in a single call.

Returns true if the row was inserted or updated successfully, false otherwise.

RESERVED METHODS

As described in the Rose::DB::Object::Metadata documentation, each column in the database table has an associated get/set accessor method in the Rose::DB::Object. Since the Rose::DB::Object API already defines many methods (load(), save(), meta(), etc.), accessor methods for columns that share the name of an existing method pose a problem. The solution is to alias such columns using Rose::DB::Object::Metadata's alias_column() method.

Here is a list of method names reserved by the Rose::DB::Object API. If you have a column with one of these names, you must alias it.

db
dbh
delete
DESTROY
error
init_db
_init_db
insert
load
meta
not_found
save
update

Note that not all of these methods are public. These methods do not suddently become public just because you now know their names! Remember the stated policy of the Rose web application framework: if a method is not documented, it does not exist. (And no, the above list of method names does not constitute "documentation")

AUTHOR

John C. Siracusa (siracusa@mindspring.com)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005 by John C. Siracusa. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.