NAME
    Metabase - A database framework and API for resource metadata

VERSION
    version 0.006

DESCRIPTION
    Metabase is a database framework and API for resource metadata. The
    framework describes how arbitrary data ("facts") are associated with
    particular resources or related to each other. The API describes how to
    store, retrieve, and search this information.

  History and Motivation
    Metabase was originally designed as a means of storing reports from the
    CPAN Testers project. When Metabase was initially developed, CPAN
    Testers reports were sent by individual testers to a single email
    server, which then forwarded them to a USENET group, which was
    considered the authoritative store. This presented problems: some
    testers couldn't send email, the system wasn't very searchable or
    mirrorable, and the data inside the system was entirely unstructured.

    Metabase aimed to avoid all of those problems by being
    transport-neutral, searchable and mirrorable by design, and geared
    toward storing structured data. Simplicity is another design goal: while
    it has several moving parts, they're all simple and designed to be
    replaceable and extensible, rather than to be a perfect design up front.

OVERVIEW
    A Metabase has several parts:

    *   Metabase::Gateway, which manages submission of facts to the
        Librarian

    *   Metabase::Librarian, which manages access to the Archive and Index

    *   Metabase::Archive, which stores and retrieves facts

    *   Metabase::Index, which indexes and searches facts

    Archive and Index are abstract base classes. Implementations could use
    flat files, relational databases, object databases, cloud services, or
    anything else that can satisfy the API.

    Metabase comes with some standard backends:

    *   Metabase::Archive::Filesystem

    *   Metabase::Archive::SQLite

    *   Metabase::Index::FlatFile

    *   Metabase::Index::Solr

    Facts stored with in a Metabase are defined as subclasses of
    Metabase::Fact. Metabase::Report is a subclass that relates multiple
    facts.

    Metabase::Web provides the web API for storing, searching and retrieving
    facts. Metabase::Client::Simple is the client library to submit facts to
    a Metabase::Web server. A future Metabase::Client class will provide
    submit and search capabilities.

BUGS
    Please report any bugs or feature using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs
    can be submitted through the web interface at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Metabase>

    When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch
    to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

AUTHORS
      David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
      Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>
      Leon Brocard <acme@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    This software is Copyright (c) 2010 by David Golden.

    This is free software, licensed under:

      The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004

