[Catalyst] Using Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst on a test database

[Kieren Diment]

On 16/02/2012, at 3:29 AM, Robert Rothenberg wrote:

> On 15/02/12 16:03 Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>> On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 03:25:51PM +0000, Robert Rothenberg wrote:
>>> I would like to use Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst with an alternative
>>> database schema (since I want to test reading and writing on a database with
>>> the same schema but known data that is not the live database), but it's not
>>> clear to me from reading the documentation on how to do this, or even if
>>> it's possible.
>> 
>> Very much so. Have you looked at
>> 
>> http://search.cpan.org/~hkclark/Catalyst-Manual-5.9002/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Tutorial/08_Testing.pod#SUPPORTING_BOTH_PRODUCTION_AND_TEST_DATABASES
> 
> So this requires maintaining two database schemas?
> 
> (I guess I could have the script deploy to the test schema, though.)

I'm planning on writing up a fairly neat solution to this problem shortly (it's supposed to be the first article in the catalyst advent replacement).

But I'll note here that you can get DBIC Schema deployments (rather than SQL file deploys) working so long as enough metadata gets shoved into the Result classes.  Of course this requires up front effort, and is unlikely to be worthwhile for a brown field project with a complex existing database.