NAME
    DBIx::Roles - Roles for DBI handles

DESCRIPTION
    The module provides common API for using roles (AKA
    mixins/interfaces/plugins) on DBI handles. The problem it solves is that
    there are a lot of interesting and useful "DBIx::" modules on CPAN, that
    extend the DBI functionality in one or another way, but mostly they
    insist on wrapping the connection handle themselves, so it is usually
    not possible to use them together. Also, once in a while, one needs a
    local nice-to-have hack, which is not really good enough for CPAN, but
    is still useful - for example, a common "DBI->connect()" wrapper that
    reads DSN from the config file. Of course, one might simply write a huge
    wrapper for all possible add-ons, but this approach is not really
    scalable. Instead, this module allows to construct your own
    functionality for the DB connection handle, by picking from various
    bells and whistles provided by other "DBIx::Roles::*" modules.

    The package is bundled with a set of predefined role modules ( see
    "Predefined role modules").

SYNOPSIS
    There are three ways to use the module for wrapping a DBI connection
    handle. The best is IMO is this:

       use DBIx::Roles qw(AutoReconnect SQLAbstract);
       my $dbh = DBI-> connect($dsn, $user, $pass);

    When the module is imported with a list of roles, it overrides "DBI->
    connect" so that calls within the current package result in creation of
    "DBIx::Roles" object, which then behaves identically to the DBI handle.
    Calls to "DBI-> connect" outside the package are not affected, moreover,
    different packages can import "DBIx::Roles" with different roles.

    The more generic syntax can be used to explicitly list the required
    roles:

       use DBIx::Roles;
       my $dbh = DBIx::Roles->new( qw(AutoReconnect SQLAbstract));
       $dbh-> connect( $dsn, $user, $pass);

    or even

       use DBIx::Roles;
       my $dbh = DBIx::Roles-> connect( 
            [qw(AutoReconnect SQLAbstract)], 
            $dsn, $user, $pass
       );

    All these are equivalent, and result in construction of an object that
    plays roles "DBIx::Roles::AutoReconnect" and "DBIx::Roles::SQLAbstract",
    plus does all DBI functionality.

Predefined role modules
    All modules included in packages have their own manual pages, so only
    brief descriptions are provided here:

    DBIx::Roles::AutoReconnect - Restarts DB call if database connection
    breaks. Based on idea of DBIx::AutoReconnect

    DBIx::Roles::Buffered - Buffers write-only queries. Useful with lots of
    INSERTs and UPDATEs over slow remote connections.

    "DBIx::Roles::Default" - not a module on its own, but a package that is
    always imported, and need not to be imported explicitly. Implements
    actual calls to DBI handle.

    DBIx::Roles::Hook - Exports callbacks to override DBI calls.

    DBIx::Roles::InlineArray - Flattens arrays passed as parameters to DBI
    calls into strings.

    DBIx::Roles::Shared - Share DB connection handles

    DBIx::Roles::SQLAbstract - Exports methods "insert","select","update"
    etc in the SQL::Abstract fashion. Inspired by DBIx::Abstract.

    DBIx::Roles::StoredProcedures - Treats any method reached AUTOLOAD as a
    call to a stored procedure.

Programming interfaces
    The interface that faces the caller is not fixed. Depending on the
    functionality provided by roles, the methods can be added, deleted, or
    completely changed. For example, the mentioned before hack that would
    want to connect to a database using a DSN being read from a config file,
    wouldn't need the first three parameters to "connect" to be present, and
    rather would modify the "connect" call so that instead of

       connect( $dsn, $user, $pass, [$attr])

    it might look like

       connect( [$attr])

    Using this fictional module, I'll try to illustrate to how a DBI
    interface can be changed.

  Writing a new role
    To be accessible, a new role must reside in a unique module ( and
    usually a unique package). The "DBIx::Roles" prefix is not required, but
    is a convenience hack, and is added by default if the imported role name
    does not contain colons. So, if the role is to be imported as

        use DBIx::Roles qw(Config);

    then it must be declared as

        package DBIx::Roles::Config;

  Modifying parameters passed to DBI methods
    To modify the parameters passed the role must define "rewrite" method to
    transform the parameters:

        sub rewrite
        {
            my ( $self, $storage, $method, $parameters) = @_;
            if ( $method eq 'connect') {
                 my ( $dsn, $user, $pass) = read_from_config;
                 unshift @$parameters, $dsn, $user, $pass;
            }
            return $self-> super( $method, $parameters);
        }

    The method is called before any call to DBI methods, so parameters are
    translated to the DBI syntax.

  Overloading DBI methods
    If a particular method call is needed to be overloaded, for example,
    "ping", the package must define a method with the same name:

        sub ping 
        { 
           my ( $self, $storage, @parameters) = @_;
           ...
        }

    Since all roles are called recursively, one inside another, a role that
    wishes to propagate the call further down the line, must call

        return $self-> super( @parameters)

    as it is finished. If, on the contrary, the role decides to intercept
    the call, "super" need not to be called. Also, in case one needs to
    intercept not just one but many DBI calls, it is possible to declare a
    method that is called when any DBI call is issued:

        sub dbi_method
        {
           my ( $self, $storage, $method, @parameters) = @_;
           print "DBI method $method called\n";
           return $self-> super( $method, @parameters);
        }

    Note: "super" is important, and forgetting to call it leads to strange
    errors

  Overloading DBI attributes
    Changes to DBI attributes such as "PrintError" and "RaiseError" can be
    caught by "STORE" method:

        sub STORE
        {
            my ( $self, $storage, $key, $val) = @_;
            print "$key is about to be set to $val, but I won't allow that\n";
            if ( rand 2) {
                $val_ref = 42; # alter
            } else {
                return;  # deny change
            }
            return $self-> super( $key, $val);
        }

  Declaring own attributes, methods, and private storage
    If a module needs its own attributes, method, or private storage, it
    needs to declare "initialize" method:

       sub initialize
       {
           my ( $self ) = @_;
           return {
               # external attributes
               ConfigName => '/usr/local/etc/mydbi.conf',
           }, {
               # private storage
               inifile => Config::IniFile->new,
               loaded  => 0, 
           }, 
           # external methods
           qw(print_config load_config);
       }

    The method is expected to return at least 2 references, first is a hash
    reference to the external attributes and the second is the private
    storage. Additional names are exported so these can be called directly.

    In the example, the code that uses the role can change attributes as

        $dbh-> {ConfigName} = 'my.conf';

    Changes to the attributes can be detected in "STORE", as described
    above. Also, the exported methods can be accessed by the caller
    directly:

        $dbh-> print_conf;

    Note that if roles with clashing attributes or method namespaces are
    applied to the same "DBIx::Roles" object, an exception is generated on
    the loading stage.

    Finally, private storage is available as the second argument in all
    method calls to the role ( it is referred here as $storage ).

  Overloading AUTOLOAD
    If module declares "any" method, all calls that are caught in "AUTOLOAD"
    are dispatched to it:

       sub any
       {
           my ( $self, $storage, $method, @parameters) = @_;
           if ( 42 == length $method) {
               return md5( @parameters);
           }
           return $self-> super( $method, @parameters);
       }

    DBIx::Role::StoredProcedures uses this technique to call stored
    procedures.

  Issuing DBI calls
    The underlying DBI handle can be reached ( and changed ) by "dbh"
    method:

        my $dbh = $self-> dbh;
        $self-> dbh( DBI-> connect( ... ));

    but calling methods on it is not always the right thing to do. Instead
    of a direct call, it is often preferable to call a the method so that it
    is re-injected through "dispatch", and travels through all roles. For
    example

        sub my_fancy_select { shift-> selectall_arrayref( "SELECT ....") }

    is better than

        sub my_fancy_select { shift-> dbh-> selectall_arrayref( "SELECT ....") }

    because if gives chance to the other roles to override the call.

    Also, it is also possible to reach to the external layer of the object:

        $self-> object-> selectall_arrayref(...)

    but there's no guarantee that other roles won't change syntax of the
    call, so calls on "object" are not advisable.

  Issuing DBI::connect
    Calls to "DBI->connect" are allowed be made directly, but there's
    another level of flexibility:

        $self-> DBI_connect()

    does the same thing by default, but can be overridden, and thus is
    preferred to the hardcoded "DBI-> connect".

  Dispatching calls to role methods
    There are two methods that cycle through list of applied roles, and call
    a method, if available:

    dispatch $self, $method, @parameters
        Calls $method in each role namespace, returns values returned by the
        first role in the role chain.

    dispatch_dbi_method $self, $wantarray, $method, @parameters
        Same principle as dispatch, but first calls for $method, and then,
        for "dbi_method", so that when the last role's $method calls
        "super", the call is dispatched to the first role's "dbi_method".

  Restarting DBI calls
    If the next role method is needed to be called indirectly, one can get a
    reference to the next method by calling

        ( $ref, $private_storage) = $self-> get_super;

    which returns the code reference and an extra parameter for the method.
    If the method is to be called repeatedly, it should be noted that inside
    that call "super" can also be called repeatedly. To save and restore the
    call context, use read-write method "context":

       my $ctx = $self-> context;
       AGAIN: eval { $ref->( $self, $private_storage, @param); }
       if ( $@) {
           $self-> context( $ctx);
           goto AGAIN;
       }

    Note: DBIx::Roles::AutoReconnect restarts DBI calls when failed, check
    out its source code.

  Hiding the list of roles
    It is possible to create a package that exports a particular set of
    roles, without requiring the caller to list them. Consider code for
    module "MyDBI":

       package MyDBI;

       sub import
       {
            local $DBIx::Roles::ExportDepth = 1;
            import DBIx::Roles qw(InlineArray Buffered StoredProcedures);
       }

    This module, if "use"'d, overloads the package of the caller so that
    calls to "DBI->connect" return a "DBIx::Roles" object with the list of
    roles predefined by "MyDBI".

    It is also possible to define local roles, without exporting these to a
    separate module. Hacking $DBIx::Roles::loaded_packages prevents
    "DBIx::Role" from loading modules listed there:

       package MyDBI;
   
       $DBIx::Roles::loaded_packages{'DBIx::Roles::My_DBI_Role'} = 1;

       sub import
       {
            local $DBIx::Roles::ExportDepth = 1;
            import DBIx::Roles qw(My_DBI_Role InlineArray Buffered StoredProcedures);
       }

       package DBIx::Roles::My_DBI_Role;

       sub connect { .. read from config, for example ... }

  Dynamically disable and enable roles
    A pair of methods, "disable_roles" and "enable_roles" accepts a list of
    roles and disables/enables these in an incremental fashion, so that

       $self-> disable_roles(qw(MyRole));
       $self-> disable_roles(qw(MyRole));
       $self-> enable_roles(qw(MyRole));

    leaves the role disabled. The methods don't fail if there's no
    corresponding role(s).

  Accessing the internals from outside
    "DBIx::Roles" defines method "instance" that returns the underlying
    object with API described above. All management of list of roles, call
    propagation, etc etc is possible via this reference. In particular, the
    underlying DB connection handle can be reached by reading "$db->
    instance-> dbh" .

SEE ALSO
    Dependencies - DBI, SQL::Abstract

    Similar or related modules - DBIx::Abstract, DBIx::AutoReconnect,
    DBIx::Simple, DBIx::SQLEngine

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2005 catpipe Systems ApS. All rights reserved.

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR
    Dmitry Karasik <dk@catpipe.net>

