Title:       An introduction to Class::DBI
Speaker:     Michael Graham
Duration:    45 Minutes

Description:

An introduction to Class::DBI and how it can help Perl programmers
improve their programs by separating out the SQL from their application
code.

Synopsis:

Perl's DBI (Database independent interface) does a great job of
simplifying access to databases of all types from Perl.

But even with DBI, you still spend a lot of time embedding one language
(SQL) inside another (Perl).  This has a number of drawbacks:

  * hard to maintain
  * hard to test
  * errors are often discovered at run time
  * you write the same code to do the same thing over and over again
  * ugly code and hard to read (indenting/quoting issues, SQL placeholders)

Class::DBI is an abstraction layer that sits on top of DBI and makes
it easy to write common database-driven Perl code.  It removes the SQL
from your Perl code and lets you deal with your data at the application
level.

Without writing a line of SQL, you can use Class::DBI to handle most
common database access tasks, including:

  * creating and deleting rows
  * reading and writing rows
  * searching
  * table relationships (one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many,
     many-to-many)

But in those rare cases where you have to do something that is not
supported by Class::DBI, you are free to mix in raw SQL queries as
needed.

This is because Class::DBI does not use any hidden magic to do its work:
it does not require a special database schema, and it does not create
any hidden tables.  In this way, Class::DBI fits well with the Perl
philosophy that "Easy things should be easy and hard things should be
possible".


Speaker's Bio
-------------
Michael Graham is a Toronto-based Perl programmer, musician, goaltender,
unrealistic dreamer and unrepentant idealogue.  He is the author of two
CPAN modules (Class::Constructor and Palm::Progect).  He faked his way
through high school math by learning Pi to 50 decimal places.  Strangely
enough he has never learned to defend himself in a fight.  His favourite
colour is dulcet.  His vanity web site (including slides of his talks)
can be found at http://occamstoothbrush.com/.