SPOPS: Simple Perl Object Persistence with Security

QUICK INSTALL NOTE

Installing via the CPAN shell is always a good thing, otherwise just do the standard:

perl Makefile.PL
make 
make test (see 'RUNNING TESTS' below)
make install

Note that the first step will ask you a few questions that determine which tests are run.

Also, there is a 'Bundle' for SPOPS. If you're using the CPAN shell, just do:

perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::SPOPS'

Easy!

RUNNING TESTS

Tests are designed to run without human intervention, although you can set parameters if you like: run 'perl Makefile.PL MANUAL=1' for the build process to query you.

DBI tests use the following environment variables as specified by DBI:

DBI_DSN        - (mandatory) DBI:DriverName:xxx 
DBI_USER       - (optional) username
DBI_PASS       - (optional) password for DBI_USER

LDAP tests use the following environment variables:

LDAP_BASE_DN   - (mandatory) Base DN of server
LDAP_HOST      - (default: localhost) hostname or IP
LDAP_PORT      - (default: 389) port number
LDAP_BIND_DN   - (optional) DN for authentication
LDAP_BIND_PASS - (optional) Password for authentication

WHAT IS IT?

SPOPS is a robust and powerful module that allows you to serialize objects. It is unique in that it also allows you to apply security to these objects using a fairly simple but powerful scheme of users and groups. (You can, of course, turn off security if you want.)

It's also unique in that for most objects, you will not need to write any code. It's true! A fairly simple configuration file is all you need which you can then feed to SPOPS and have a class for your object ready to go, right out of thin air.

The configuration you specify not only lists the properties of the object and possibly some information about where its data should be stored, but can also describe the relationship an object might have with another object (or objects).

One great benefit is that you can retrofit SPOPS to existing data. If you don't use any of the metadata layers or security, you can simply describe your data in a configuration file, process the configuration and start making (and processing) objects! If you want to add security to these objects later, it's easy!

SHOW ME THE CODE!

Here's a sample session to show how easily you can access existing data in an object-oriented fashion. In it, we have a simple configuration which names the table in our database and the primary key field. We process the config, then fetch a group of objects based on criteria passed in from the command-line.

Just set the variables starting the file to your relevant information.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use SPOPS::Initialize;

my $TABLE        = 'mytable';
my $ID           = 'id';
my $DSN          = 'DBI:mysql:test';
my $USER         = 'test';
my $PASS         = 'test';

{
    my ( $search_field, $search_value ) = @ARGV;
    unless ( defined $search_field and defined $search_value ) {
        die "Usage $0 search-field search-value\n";
    }
    my $config = {
      generic => {
        class          => 'My::Object',
        isa            => [ 'SPOPS::DBI' ],
        rules_from     => [ 'SPOPS::Tool::DBI::Datasource',
                            'SPOPS::Tool::DBI::DiscoverField' ],
        field_discover => 'yes',
        id_field       => $ID,
        base_table     => $TABLE,
        dbi_config     => { dsn      => $DSN,
                            username => $USER,
                            password => $PASS },
      } };
    SPOPS::Initialize->process({ config => $config });
    my $iter = My::Object->fetch_iterator({ where => "$search_field = ?",
                                            value => [ $search_value ] });
    while ( my $o = $iter->get_next ) {
        print "Object: (", $o->id, ")", "\n",
              join( "\n",
                    map { "$_: $o->{ $_ }" }
                        @{ My::Object->field_list } ), "\n\n";
    }
}

APPLICATION-SPECIFICITY

For some time, this library was tied relatively closely to the OpenInteract project (www.openinteract.org, or check out the CPAN module OpenInteract). However, it can easily stand on its own two feet -- we've used it like this without any problem. But there might be a few assumptions lurking around the code somewhere. If you spot something that looks totally out of place or appears to have no real purpose, let us know!

WHAT DATABASES ARE SUPPORTED RIGHT NOW?

Following is a list of supported databases. Note that ANY DBI database should work fine for read-only operations -- just use 'SPOPS::DBI' in the 'isa'.

Interbase/FirebirdSQL (using DBD::InterBase and SPOPS::DBD::InterBase)
Microsoft SQL Server (using DBD::ODBC and SPOPS::DBI::Sybase)
MySQL (using DBD::mysql and SPOPS::DBI::MySQL
Oracle (using DBD::Oracle and SPOPS::DBI::Oracle)
PostgreSQL (using DBD::Pg and SPOPS::DBI::Pg)
SQLite (using DBD::SQLite and SPOPS::DBI::SQLite)
Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (using DBD::Sybase and SPOPS::DBI::Sybase)
Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere (using DBD::ASAny and SPOPS::DBI::Sybase)
ODBC datasources; we have used this to access DB2 on an AS/400 for read-only operations and it worked great.

We also support:

LDAP (using Net:::LDAP -- if you have a need for access using another client, let us know)
GDBM (using GDBM_File)

DO YOU HAVE A LIBRARY FOR ?

Maybe. Future development should include:

DB2 (using DBD::DB2)
CORBA (likely using CORBA::ORBit in the beginning)

Have something you want implemented? Let us know! We might be able to help you out. Or you might be able to give something back to the community by funding development -- all LDAP functionality in SPOPS was funded by MSN Marketing Service Nordwest, GmbH.

HOW DO I SAY IT?

It's usually pronounced so it rhymes with 'mess mops', although you're free to make up your own.

WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?

If you want to learn more about how to use SPOPS, read the documentation! Once you've installed SPOPS, start out with:

$ perldoc SPOPS::Manual

And follow pointers from there.

IDEAS? SUGGESTIONS? PATCHES?

Send them in! We welcome patches and try to keep on top of new developments (such as new DBD drivers) as much as possible. Send everything to the openinteract-dev mailing list (info below).

CONTACT

This module is supported by the openinteract-help (for help) and openinteract-dev (for developers) mailing lists. Find out more about them at:

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openinteract-help
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openinteract-dev

Also check out the SPOPS website and SourceForge project for up-to-date versions, support information, party hat designs, etc.

http://spops.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/spops/

AUTHORS

Chris Winters chris@cwinters.com is the primary author of SPOPS. (Sourceforge name: 'lachoy')

Other folks who have had a hand to some degree or other:

Ray Zimmerman rz10@cornell.edu
Vsevolod (Simon) Ilyushchenko simonf@cshl.edu
Christian Lemburg lemburg@aixonix.de
Marcus Baker mbaker@intes.net
Rusty Foster rusty@kuro5hin.org
Rick Myers rik@sumthin.nu
Harry Danilevsky hdanilevsky@DeerfieldCapital.com
Leon Brocard acme@astray.com
David Boone dave@bis.bc.ca

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Perl Artistic License or the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License (see 'COPYING'), or (at your option) any later version.

cwinters / SPOPS