Workflow::Persister::DBI - Persist workflow and history to DBI database


NAME

Workflow::Persister::DBI - Persist workflow and history to DBI database


SYNOPSIS

 <persister name="MainDatabase"
            class="Workflow::Persister::DBI"
            dsn="DBI:mysql:database=workflows"
            user="wf"
            password="mypass"/>

 <persister name="BackupDatabase"
            class="Workflow::Persister::DBI"
            dsn="DBI:Pg:dbname=workflows"
            user="wf"
            password="mypass"
            workflow_table="wf"
            workflow_sequence="wf_seq"
            history_table="wf_history"
            history_sequence="wf_history_seq"/>


DESCRIPTION

Main persistence class for storing the workflow and workflow history records to a DBI-accessible datasource.

Subclassing: Getting handle from elsewhere

A common need to create a subclass is to use a database handle created with other means. For instance, OpenInteract has a central configuration file for defining datasources, and the datasource will be available in a predictable manner. So we can create a subclass to provide the database handle on demand from the CTX object available from everywhere. A sample implementation is below. (Note that in real life we would just use SPOPS for this, but it is still a good example.)

 package Workflow::Persister::DBI::OpenInteractHandle;

 use strict;
 use base qw( Workflow::Persister::DBI );
 use OpenInteract2::Context qw( CTX );

 my @FIELDS = qw( datasource_name );
 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors( @FIELDS );

 # override parent method, assuming that we set the 'datasource'
 # parameter in the persister declaration

 sub init {
    my ( $self, $params ) = @_;
    $self->datasource_name( $params->{datasource} );
    my $ds_config = CTX->lookup_datasource_config( $self->datasource_name );
    # delegate the other assignment tasks to the parent class

    $self->assign_generators( $ds_config->{driver_name}, $params );
    $self->assign_tables( $params );
 }

 sub handle {
     my ( $self ) = @_;
     return CTX->datasource( $self->datasource_name );
 }

Subclassing: Changing fieldnames

Earlier versions of Workflow used the field 'user' to record in the history the user making a state change or comment. Unfortunately 'user' is a reserved word in our favorite database, PostgreSQL. (Oops.) So in addition to changing the field to an assuredly-unreserved word (workflow_user), we made the fieldnames customizable by subclasses.

Just override either or both of the methods:

get_workflow_fields()

Return list of fields in this order:

  workflow_id, type, state, last_update

get_history_fields()

Return list of fields in this order:

  workflow_hist_id, workflow_id, action, description,
  state, workflow_user, history_date

Note that we may cache the results, so don't try and do anything weird like change the fieldnames based on the workflow user or something...


METHODS

Public Methods

All public methods are inherited from the Workflow::Persister manpage.

Private Methods

init( \%params )

Create a database handle from the given parameters. You are only required to provide 'dsn', which is the full DBI DSN you normally use as the first argument to connect().

You may also use:

user
Name of user to login with.

password
Password for user to login with.

workflow_table
Table to use for persisting workflow. Default is 'workflow'.

history_table
Table to use for persisting workflow history. Default is 'workflow_history'.

You may also use parameters for the different types of ID generators. See below under the init_*_generator for the necessary parameters for your database.

In addition to creating a database handle we parse the dsn to see what driver we are using to determine how to generate IDs. We have the ability to use automatically generated IDs for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite. If your database is not included a randomly generated ID will be used. (Default length of 8 characters, which you can modify with a id_length parameter.)

You can also create your own adapter for a different type of database. Just check out the existing the Workflow::Persister::DBI::AutoGeneratedId manpage and the Workflow::Persister::DBI::SequenceId manpage classes for examples.

assign_generators( $driver, \%params )

Given $driver and the persister parameters in \%params, assign the appropriate ID generators for both the workflow and history tables.

Returns: nothing, but assigns the object properties workflow_id_generator and history_id_generator.

assign_tables( \%params )

Assign the table names from \%params (using 'workflow_table' and 'history_table') or use the defaults 'workflow' and 'workflow_history'.

Returns: nothing, but assigns the object properties workflow_table and history_table.

init_postgres_generators( \%params )

Create ID generators for the workflow and history tables using PostgreSQL sequences. You can specify the sequences used for the workflow and history tables:

workflow_sequence
Sequence for the workflow table. Default: 'workflow_seq'

history_sequence
Sequence for the workflow history table. Default: 'workflow_history_seq'

init_mysql_generators( \%params )

Create ID generators for the workflow and history tables using the MySQL 'auto_increment' type. No parameters are necessary.

init_sqlite_generators( \%params )

Create ID generators for the workflow and history tables using the SQLite implicit increment. No parameters are necessary.

init_random_generators( \%params )

Create ID generators for the workflow and history tables using a random set of characters. You can specify:

id_length
Length of character sequence to generate. Default: 8.


SEE ALSO

the Workflow::Persister manpage


COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.

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


AUTHORS

Chris Winters <chris@cwinters.com>

 Workflow::Persister::DBI - Persist workflow and history to DBI database