[Catalyst] automatically updating a join table

[Hernan Lopes]

Having in mind you are new to perl, do not continue development untill you
learn about Data::Dumper and Data::Printer. With these tools you can Dump
the contents of variables/objects and see which methods and attributes are
avaliable, and you can see the type of those variables/objects.

You can do so by trying:

$ perl -e  'use URI; my $x=URI->new("http://www.bla.com/bla") ; use DDP;
warn p $x; '\

So when you do that with $user, you will find out $user is actually related
to DBIx::Class object. And, that method create_related is actually related
to DBIx::Class.

When you do: $c->model('DB::User')->new_result({});     You are actually
using the DB::User model which is a DBIx::Class table class.

DBIx::Class is the orm the tutorial uses. And also probably the most
complete orm from all the existing programing languages.

If you want to learn more about DBIx::Class, you must read the
documentation:
http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBIx-Class/lib/DBIx/Class/ResultSet.pm#new_result

I would suggest you halt your development there, and start another "quicky"
one that will only use DBIx::Class orm. So you can create 1 'test table' in
your sql test database with a couple rows. Then, you can make a quick
script (a simple perl.pl file) and try to create, update, delete and select
rows from that table using the DBIx::Class orm. Also have in mind that
people often call DBIx::Class as dbic. That simple perl script would look
something like this:

0. create a simple database with a simple table with a couple of columns.
(you can do that in your database)
1. create the orm schema using *DBIx*::*Class*::*Schema*::*Loader *like
this:

    dbicdump -o dump_directory=./lib \
    -o debug=1 \
    DB::Some::Database::Namespace \
    'dbi:Pg:dbname=your_database_name' \
     myuser \
    mypassword

2. create a script.pl that will use the generated schema:

    use lib ( "./lib" );
    use DBSchema;  medico
    my $schema = DBSchema->connect('dbi:Pg:dbname=your_database_name',
'hernan', 'lopes');
    my $plant  = $schema->resultset('Plant')->find({ id => 1});
#search in table Plant where id = 1
    print $plant->color; #green

check the dsn correct for your database... dbi::Pg:dbname is for
postgres. Lookup the one you must use.

also, when you execute the script.pl you can do so with the
DBIC_TRACE=1 option, ie: $ export DBIC_TRACE=1 && perl script.pl

That way you will see debug output.

One handy dbic row method is:
http://search.cpan.org/~ribasushi/DBIx-Class-0.08250/lib/DBIx/Class/Row.pm#update_or_insert

try using that one. When you are able to insert, update and search and
find, try creating relationships among tables and re-run the dbicdump
command so your orm mappings get updated. Also, remember ->search
returns multiple items and ->find is for 1 item.

then you will be able to continue on that example you are working on,
all by yourself.



And, welcome to perl and catalyst, I hope you are being able to do
what you need. Its powerful tools once you master them.




On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 8:20 PM, Bob Miller <bob at computerisms.ca> wrote:

> Hello
>
> I am new to Perl and Catalyst, I hope I my terminology correct.  much
> gratitude to the authors of the fine Catalyst documentation, the
> tutorials are excellent tools of understanding...
>
> I have been through the tutorial and am currently modelling after the
> authentication and authorization article on the advent calendar found
> here:
>
> http://www.catalystframework.org/calendar/2011/15
>
> The goal:
>
> I want users of roleB to create new users that are automatically set to
> roleA.  So I created an authentication chain, and have created a related
> set of templates and forms to play with.  The goal is to remove the Role
> selection option and have the userroles join table updated automatically
> at user creation time.
>
> The efforts:
>
> I started in Form/EditUser.pm has_field arguments by setting a "default
> => 1" argument and omitting the field from displaying in the template,
> but it did not update the join field.
>
> I found in HTML::FormHandler::Manual::Defaults an explanation that if
> the item object contains an accessor, the default won't be used.  since
> in following the example I am using an accessor, it seems I will not
> succeed using the form to set the value.
>
> I looked at the useradd sub in the example again, I saw fields being
> automatically set like so:
>
> my $user = $c->model('DB::User')->new_result({});
> $user->password($temp_password);
>
> So I figured I should be able to use the accessor to  do the same in the
> join table, maybe like:
>
> $user->userroles({'roleid' => '1'});
>
> This, nor any variation on syntax I tried, does not update the join
> table when the user is created.
>
> I went back through the basicCRUD tutorial, and found the example where
> the book_author table is updated, and it uses an argument called
> create_related (or add_to_$rel), so I tried
>
> $user->create_related('userroles', {roleid => '1'});
>
> It actually works quite well in that when the form is processed the user
> is created and the proper entries are made in the join table, but has
> the unfortunate side effect of creating an empty user every time I hit
> the form as well.
>
> In digging around, I found also a new_related function, which based on
> what I read should do exactly what create_related does, except only when
> the form is processed and not when I touch the form:
>
> $user->new_related('userroles', {roleid => '1'});
>
> But this also does not update the join table when the user is created.
>
> The question:
>
> have I discovered the right tool but used it incorrectly, or am I going
> about this the wrong way?  If the former, that is all I need to know, I
> will dance with what I have till the light comes on.  If the latter, can
> someone please point me at the page I need to read?
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read...
>
>
> --
> Computerisms
> Bob Miller
> 867-334-7117 / 867-633-3760
> http://computerisms.ca
>
>
>
>
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