I would like ask the group for advice on module naming, as I have seen
some missteps in the past.
I have written a small module which takes the output of
DBI::fetchall_arrayref() or its ilk, and generates Moose objects from it.
Showing great imagination, I have called the module
DBIx::BuildMooseObjects. I picked "DBIx::" as the module's functionality
seems to fit the DBIx namespace.
There are two main exported routines, rather clumsily named
mk_AoMobj_from_2d_array() and mk_complex_Mobj_from_2d_array(). The first
returns a (ref to) an array of (already-declared) Moose objects, the
second (a ref to) an array of complex, nested Moose objects (sub-objects
declared as "isa => 'ArrayRef[...]' " )
As an example, mk_complex_Mobj_from_2d_array() is used as (the text is
from the POD):
In database SQL queries involving joins, where there is a one-to-many
relationship between the tables in the query, we often see "nested" data
output of this kind:
<--- Patient ---> <--- Visit ---> <-- Test -->
Name | Sex | Age | MD Name | Date | Name | Result
--------+-----+-----+-------------+------------+--------+-------
J Smith | M | 35 | A Jones, MD | 12/08/2009 | B.P | 120/80
J Smith | M | 35 | A Jones, MD | 12/08/2009 | Weight | 156
J Smith | M | 35 | A Jones, MD | 03/19/2010 | B.P | 122/88
B White | F | 53 | M Wright MD | 07/06/2005 | Chol | 190
B White | F | 53 | M Wright MD | 07/06/2005 | ESR | 21
B White | F | 53 | F Albert MD | 08/16/2011 | B.P. | 125/82
In this example a patient makes multiple visits to an MD, undergoing
multiple test per visit.
package Test;
use Moose
has qw(name, result) => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str');
package Visit;
use Moose;
has qw(date md_name) => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str' );
has Tests => (is => 'rw', isa => 'ArrayRef[Test]' );
package Patient;
use Moose;
has qw(name sex age) => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str' );
has Visits => (is => 'rw', isa => 'ArrayRef[Visit]' );
no Moose;
package main;
use DBI;
use DBIx::BuildMooseObjects;
my $dbh = DBI->connect(...);
my $ary_ref = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(
"SELECT p.name, p.age, v.mdname, v.date, t.name, t.result
FROM Patient p, Visit v, Test t
WHERE p.pat_key = v.pat_key
AND v.visit_key = t.visit_key" );
my $patient_arry_ref = mk_complex_Mobj_from_2d_array (
data => $ary_ref,
desc => [
class => 'Patient',
name => 0,
age => 1,
Visits => [
class => 'Visit',
md_name => 2,
date => 3,
Tests => [
class => 'Test',
name => 4,
result => 5,
] # tests
] # visits
] # patients
);
The integers after the attribute names (C<<md_name => 2>>, etc) are the
zero-indexed column numbers of the attribute in the SQL output.
So:
(1) Does DBIx::BuildMooseObjects seem a reasonable name, and
(2) Do others feel the same as I do, that the exported method names
could be less ugly (but in my case, can't think of better ones [insert
metaphor involving woods & trees]).
All comments and suggestions welcome.
Thanks,
Sam Brain
--
Sam Brain
Department of Radiation Oncology
Stanford Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305
