Tangram::Type::Dump::Storable (3pm)

   use Tangram::Core;
   use Tangram::Type::Dump::Storable; # always

   $schema = Tangram::Schema->new(
      classes => { NaturalPerson => { fields => {

      storable =>
      {
         diary => # diary is a perl hash
         {
            col => 'diarydata',
            sql => 'BLOB',
            indent => 0,
            terse => 1,
            purity => 0
         },

         lucky_numbers => 'int', # use defaults
      }

Maps arbitrary Perl data structures by serializing to a string representation. The persistent fields are grouped in a hash under the \*(C`storable\*(C' key in the field hash.

Serialization is done by Storable::freeze, which traverses the Perl data structure and creates a binary representation of it. The resulting string will be mapped to the \s-1DBMS\s0 as a scalar value. During restore, the scalar value will be restored with Storable::thaw to reconstruct the original data structure.

The structure should be able to contain pretty much anything that may be safely dumped by Storable. However, be aware that Tangram::Type::Dump::flatten() must be able to find the persistent objects in the field. Unless you're using classes that are implemented in C and contain other objects, you should be fine (Set::Object has a special work-around).

The field names are passed in a hash that associates a field name with a field descriptor. The field descriptor may be either a hash or a string. The hash uses the following fields:

• col

• sql

• indent

• terse

• purity

The optional fields \*(C`col\*(C' and \*(C`sql\*(C' specify the column name and the column type for the scalar value in the database. If not present, \*(C`col\*(C' defaults to the field name and \*(C`sql\*(C' defaults to \s-1VARCHAR\s0(255). Values will be always quoted as they are passed to the database.

The remaining optional fields control the serialization process. They will be passed down to Data::Dumper as values to the corresponding Data::Dumper options. The default settings are: no indentation (\*(C`indent=0\*(C'), compact format (\*(C`terse=1\*(C'), and quick dump (\*(C`purity=0\*(C').

This mapping was contributed by Gabor Herr <[email protected]>