Class/DBI/mysql version 0.04
============================

NAME
    Class::DBI::mysql - Extensions to Class::DBI for MySQL

SYNOPSIS
      package Film.pm;
      use base 'Class::DBI::mysql';
      __PACKAGE__->set_db('Main', 'dbi:mysql', 'user', 'password');
      __PACKAGE__->set_up_table("film");

      # Somewhere else ...

      $howmany = Film->count;

      @all_films = Film->retrieve_all;
      $tonights_viewing  = Film->retrieve_random;

      @results = Film->search_match($key => $value);

DESCRIPTION
    This is an extension to Class::DBI, containing several functions and
    optimisations for the MySQL database. Instead of setting Class::DBI as
    your base class, use this instead.

  set_up_table

      __PACKAGE__->set_up_table("table_name");

    Traditionally, to use Class::DBI, you have to set up the columns:

      __PACKAGE__->columns(All => qw/list of columns/);
      __PACKAGE__->columns(Primary => 'column_name');

    Whilst this allows for more flexibility if you're going to arrange your
    columns into a variety of groupings, sometimes you just want to create
    the 'all columns' list. Well, this information is really simple to
    extract from MySQL itself, so why not just use that?

    This call will extract the list of all the columns, and the primary key
    and set them up for you. It will die horribly if the table contains no
    primary key, or has a composite primary key.

  count

      $howmany = Film->count;

    This will count how many of these there are. You could get the same
    effect by doing a 'select all', but this avoids the overhead of having
    to fetch them all back by using MySQL's highly optimised COUNT(*)
    function instead.

  retrieve_all

      @films = Film->retrieve_all;

    This will return you a list of objects - one for each of the rows in
    your table.

  retrieve_random

      my $film = Film->retrieve_random;

    This will select a random row from the database, and return you the
    relevant object.

    (MySQL 3.23 and higher only, at this point)

  search_match

      @results = Film->search_match($key => $value);

    This is like search, but using the MySQL 'full text matching'
    capabilities.

CURDATE() / CURTIME() / NOW()
    Due to the way in which placeholders work under DBI, it's currently very
    difficult to translate a query like the following to Class::DBI

      UPDATE foo
         SET flibble = "bar", since = CURDATE()

    Rather than having to convert all your columns to timestamps, this
    module allows you to specify CURDATE(), CURTIME() or NOW() as values:

      $foo->flibble("bar") and $foo->since("CURDATE()") and $foo->commit;

    CAVEAT: Note that until you've called 'commit', the value of this field
    will be set to this string, and not the translation of it. For objects
    which are going to make use of this feature, consider turning autocommit
    on.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 2001 Tony Bowden. All rights reserved.

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

AUTHOR
    Tony Bowden, <tony@tmtm.com>.

SEE ALSO
    the Class::DBI manpage. MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/)

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

DEPENDENCIES

This module requires these other modules and libraries:

  Class::DBI, Test::Simple