[Catalyst] automatic form generation based on data models

Ian Docherty ian at iandocherty.com
Wed Nov 8 18:35:04 GMT 2006


marcus baker wrote:
> In a primarily Perl shop I've joined, Django has become all the rage.
> Everyone into it is amazed at the templating capabilities and the
> database abstraction layer (...they obviously hadn't really done much
> with the Template Toolkit, or even heard of Class::DBI or
> DBIx::Class).  Django's all fine and lovely, but personally I still
> prefer Catalyst due to the vastness of the CPAN library I can use
> behind it.
>
> The one thing about Django that keeps them from looking anywhere else
> is it's ability to create data-editing forms on the fly based on the
> data model.  In an attempt to get them to consider Catalyst a little
> more, I was wondering if Catalyst has this kind of capability
> anywhere... Is this something I should take to the CDBI/DBIxC lists
> specifically?
>
> Thanks
> -Marcus
I just don't understand why everyone seems to wet their pants over 
something that 'creates data-editing forms' directly from the data model!

As a demo application, or a simple proof of concept that it always looks 
impressive when you can create these forms and update a few tables with 
a few lines of code. Anyone who has written big web applications knows 
however that it is never that simple and so the few (hours/days) that 
can be saved in the early stages of coding are nothing compared to the 
(weeks/months) of coding for a 'real' application.

At the end of the day it is the additional help that something like CPAN 
gives you combined with something like Catalyst that gives the productivity.

Regards
Ian



More information about the Catalyst mailing list