info > DBI::DBD::SQlEngine

📛 NAME

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine - Base class for DBI drivers without their own SQL engine

🚀 Quick Reference

Use CaseCommandDescription
📥 Install a new DBD driverpackage DBD::myDriver; use base qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine);Inherit from DBI::DBD::SqlEngine to create a driver with SQL engine support
🔍 List data sources$drh->data_sources(f_dir => "/path")List subdirectories as DBI data sources
📋 List table names$dbh->func("list_tables")List file names in the data directory
🔧 Get version information$dbh->func("sql_versions")Return driver, SQL engine, Perl, DBI versions
📝 Get/set table metadata$dbh->func("sql_get_meta", $table, $attrib)Retrieve or set table-specific attributes
⚙️ Configure SQL dialect$dbh->{sql_dialect} = "ANSI"Set SQL parser dialect (ANSI, CSV, AnyData)

📋 SYNOPSIS

package DBD::myDriver;

use base qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine);

sub driver
{
    ...
    my $drh = $proto->SUPER::driver($attr);
    ...
    return $drh->{class};
    }

package DBD::myDriver::dr;

@ISA = qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::dr);

sub data_sources { ... }
...

package DBD::myDriver::db;

@ISA = qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::db);

sub init_valid_attributes { ... }
sub init_default_attributes { ... }
sub set_versions { ... }
sub validate_STORE_attr { my ($dbh, $attrib, $value) = @_; ... }
sub validate_FETCH_attr { my ($dbh, $attrib) = @_; ... }
sub get_myd_versions { ... }
sub get_avail_tables { ... }

package DBD::myDriver::st;

@ISA = qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::st);

sub FETCH { ... }
sub STORE { ... }

package DBD::myDriver::Statement;

@ISA = qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::Statement);

sub open_table { ... }

package DBD::myDriver::Table;

@ISA = qw(DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::Table);

sub new { ... }

📝 DESCRIPTION

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine abstracts the usage of SQL engines from the DBD. DBD authors can concentrate on the data retrieval they want to provide.

It is strongly recommended that you read DBD::File::Developers and DBD::File::Roadmap, because many of the DBD::File API is provided by DBI::DBD::SqlEngine.

Currently the API of DBI::DBD::SqlEngine is experimental and will likely change in the near future to provide the table meta data basics like DBD::File.

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine expects that any driver in inheritance chain has a DBI prefix.

📊 Metadata

The following attributes are handled by DBI itself and not by DBI::DBD::SqlEngine, thus they all work as expected:

The following DBI attributes are handled by DBI::DBD::SqlEngine:

The following DBI attributes and methods are not supported:

🔧 DBI::DBD::SqlEngine specific attributes

In addition to the DBI attributes, you can use the following dbh attributes:

🔧 Driver private methods

Default DBI methods

data_sources

The data_sources method returns a list of subdirectories of the current directory in the form dbi:CSV:f_dir=$dirname.

If you want to read the subdirectories of another directory, use

my ($drh)  = DBI->install_driver ("CSV");
my (@list) = $drh->data_sources (f_dir => "/usr/local/csv_data");

list_tables

This method returns a list of file names inside $dbh->{f_dir}. Example:

my ($dbh)  = DBI->connect ("dbi:CSV:f_dir=/usr/local/csv_data");
my (@list) = $dbh->func ("list_tables");

Note that the list includes all files contained in the directory, even those that have non-valid table names, from the view of SQL.

Additional methods

The following methods are only available via their documented name when DBI::DBD::SQlEngine is used directly. Because this is only reasonable for testing purposes, the real names must be used instead. Those names can be computed by replacing the sql_ in the method name with the driver prefix.

sql_versions

Signature:

sub sql_versions (;$) {
  my ($table_name) = @_;
  $table_name ||= ".";
  ...
  }

Returns the versions of the driver, including the DBI version, the Perl version, DBI::PurePerl version (if DBI::PurePerl is active) and the version of the SQL engine in use.

my $dbh = DBI->connect ("dbi:File:");
my $sql_versions = $dbh->func( "sql_versions" );
print "$sql_versions\n";
__END__
# DBI::DBD::SqlEngine  0.05 using SQL::Statement 1.402
# DBI                  1.623
# OS                   netbsd (6.99.12)
# Perl                 5.016002 (x86_64-netbsd-thread-multi)

Called in list context, sql_versions will return an array containing each line as single entry.

Some drivers might use the optional (table name) argument and modify version information related to the table (e.g. DBD::DBM provides storage backend information for the requested table, when it has a table name).

sql_get_meta

Signature:

sub sql_get_meta ($$)
{
    my ($table_name, $attrib) = @_;
    ...
}

Returns the value of a meta attribute set for a specific table, if any. See sql_meta for the possible attributes.

A table name of . (single dot) is interpreted as the default table. This will retrieve the appropriate attribute globally from the dbh. This has the same restrictions as $dbh->{$attrib}.

sql_set_meta

Signature:

sub sql_set_meta ($$$)
{
    my ($table_name, $attrib, $value) = @_;
    ...
}

Sets the value of a meta attribute set for a specific table. See sql_meta for the possible attributes.

A table name of . (single dot) is interpreted as the default table which will set the specified attribute globally for the dbh. This has the same restrictions as $dbh->{$attrib} = $value.

sql_clear_meta

Signature:

sub sql_clear_meta ($)
{
    my ($table_name) = @_;
    ...
}

Clears the table specific meta information in the private storage of the dbh.

🧩 Extensibility

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::TableSource

Provides data sources and table information on database driver and database handle level.

package DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::TableSource;

sub data_sources ($;$)
{
  my ( $class, $drh, $attrs ) = @_;
  ...
}

sub avail_tables
{
  my ( $class, $drh ) = @_;
  ...
}

The data_sources method is called when the user invokes any of the following:

@ary = DBI->data_sources($driver);
@ary = DBI->data_sources($driver, \%attr);

@ary = $dbh->data_sources();
@ary = $dbh->data_sources(\%attr);

The avail_tables method is called when the user invokes any of the following:

@names = $dbh->tables( $catalog, $schema, $table, $type );

$sth = $dbh->table_info( $catalog, $schema, $table, $type );
$sth = $dbh->table_info( $catalog, $schema, $table, $type, \%attr );

$dbh->func( "list_tables" );

Every time where an \%attr argument can be specified, this \%attr object's sql_table_source attribute is preferred over the $dbh attribute or the driver default, e.g.

@ary = DBI->data_sources("dbi:CSV:", {
  f_dir => "/your/csv/tables",
  # note: this class doesn't comes with DBI
  sql_table_source => "DBD::File::Archive::Tar::TableSource",
  # scan tarballs instead of directories
});

When you're going to implement such a DBD::File::Archive::Tar::TableSource class, remember to add correct attributes (including sql_table_source and sql_data_source) to the returned DSN's.

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::DataSource

Provides base functionality for dealing with tables. It is primarily designed for allowing transparent access to files on disk or already opened (file-)streams (e.g. for DBD::CSV).

Derived classes shall be restricted to similar functionality, too (e.g. opening streams from an archive, transparently compress/uncompress log files before parsing them).

package DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::DataSource;

sub complete_table_name ($$;$)
{
  my ( $self, $meta, $table, $respect_case ) = @_;
  ...
}

The method complete_table_name is called when first setting up the meta information for a table:

SELECT user.id, user.name, user.shell FROM user WHERE ...

results in opening the table user. First step of the table open process is completing the name. Let's imagine you're having a DBD::CSV handle with following settings:

$dbh->{sql_identifier_case} = SQL_IC_LOWER;
$dbh->{f_ext} = '.lst';
$dbh->{f_dir} = '/data/web/adrmgr';

Those settings will result in looking for files matching [Uu][Ss][Ee][Rr](\.lst)?$ in /data/web/adrmgr/. The scanning of the directory /data/web/adrmgr/ and the pattern match check will be done in DBD::File::DataSource::File by the complete_table_name method.

If you intend to provide other sources of data streams than files, in addition to provide an appropriate complete_table_name method, a method to open the resource is required:

package DBI::DBD::SqlEngine::DataSource;

sub open_data ($)
{
  my ( $self, $meta, $attrs, $flags ) = @_;
  ...
}

After the method open_data has been run successfully, the table's meta information are in a state which allowes the table's data accessor methods will be able to fetch/store row information. Implementation details heavily depends on the table implementation, whereby the most famous is surely DBD::File::Table.

🧠 SQL ENGINES

DBI::DBD::SqlEngine currently supports two SQL engines: SQL::Statement and DBI::SQL::Nano::Statement_. DBI::SQL::Nano supports a very limited subset of SQL statements, but it might be faster for some very simple tasks. SQL::Statement in contrast supports a much larger subset of ANSI SQL.

To use SQL::Statement, you need at least version 1.401 of SQL::Statement and the environment variable DBI_SQL_NANO must not be set to a true value.

🆘 SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

perldoc DBI::DBD::SqlEngine

You can also look for information at:

❓ Where can I go for more help?

For questions about installation or usage, please ask on the dbi-dev@perl.org mailing list.

If you have a bug report, patch or suggestion, please open a new report ticket on CPAN, if there is not already one for the issue you want to report. Of course, you can mail any of the module maintainers, but it is less likely to be missed if it is reported on RT.

Report tickets should contain a detailed description of the bug or enhancement request you want to report and at least an easy way to verify/reproduce the issue and any supplied fix. Patches are always welcome, too.

🙏 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Tim Bunce, Martin Evans and H.Merijn Brand for their continued support while developing DBD::File, DBD::DBM and DBD::AnyData. Their support, hints and feedback helped to design and implement this module.

👤 AUTHOR

This module is currently maintained by

H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl> and Jens Rehsack <rehsack@googlemail.com>

The original authors are Jochen Wiedmann and Jeff Zucker.

📄 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

 Copyright (C) 2009-2013 by H.Merijn Brand & Jens Rehsack
 Copyright (C) 2004-2009 by Jeff Zucker
 Copyright (C) 1998-2004 by Jochen Wiedmann

All rights reserved.

You may freely distribute and/or modify this module under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (GPL) or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.

🔗 SEE ALSO

DBI, DBD::File, DBD::AnyData and DBD::Sys.

DBI::DBD::SQlEngine □✕
📛 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📋 SYNOPSIS 📝 DESCRIPTION
📊 Metadata 🔧 DBI::DBD::SqlEngine specific attributes 🔧 Driver private methods 🧩 Extensibility
🧠 SQL ENGINES 🆘 SUPPORT
❓ Where can I go for more help?
🙏 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 👤 AUTHOR 📄 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🔗 SEE ALSO

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