DBD::RAM - a DBI driver for in-memory and file data

Documentation and most recent version available on CPAN, and at:

    http://www.vpservices.com/jeff/programs/dbd-ram.html

Revision history for Perl extension DBD::RAM.

Version 0.072, 25th May, 2000

 * Fixed bug in interpreting eol for USR data type

 * Fixed problems in POD (bad head3, wrong USR info)

Version 0.071, 24th May, 2000

 * Uploaded again because of failed CPAN upload

Version 0.07, 24th May, 2000

 * Greatly expanded support for XML and for User-Defined formats

 * Added export() method to allow saving tables directly to disk files in
   many formats including CSV, Fixed-width and XML

 * Expanded capabilities of continous file access with catalog()

 * Added remote-file support via LWP for additional file formats

 * Added ability to specify alternate field and record separator patterns

 * Added convenience names TAB and PIPE to support tab and pipe
   "delimited" files.

 * Modified and Standardized the import() syntax

 * Greatly expanded POD documentation

Version 0.06, 25th April, 2000

 * Added support for XML::Parser and LWP.  The module can now use 
   XML::Parser to read XML files and import them into database tables.
   It can also use LWP to fetch the files from remote locations.  
   Here's the complete code to build an on-the-fly, in-memory 
   database table accessible with DBI and SQL from the latest 
   news XML file on slashdot:

   $dbh->func({
       remote_source => 'http://www.slashdot.org/slashdot.xml',
       data_type     => 'XML',
       record_tag    => 'backslash story',
       col_names     => [title,url,time,author,department,
                        topic,comments,section,image]
   },'import');

 If the XML is a local file rather than a remote file, simply
 substitute "file_source => $fullpath" for the "remote_source"
 attribute or if it is from a string rather than a file, change it to
 "data_source => $xml_string".

 Supports tags at any depth of nesting and supports both text and tag 
 attributes as fields, e.g., these two are equivalent:

       <quiz_item id='1' question='Is the sky blue?' answer='Yes'/>

       <quiz_item>
          <id>1</id>
          <question>Is the sky blue?</question>
          <answer>Yes</answer>
       </quiz_item>

 * Updated POD documentation

 * Added a demo directory, currently containing portal.cgi, a demo of 
   support for XML and LWP; and mp3.pl, a demo of support for MP3 music
   files.


Version 0.05, 20th April, 2000

 * Added support for mp3 music files!  You can now create and 
   search an on-the-fly database of mp3 files.  Just feed it a
   list of directories where you store mp3 files and DBD::RAM 
   will automagically create an in-memory table with each file 
   as a record containing the fields:  file_name, song_name, 
   artist, album, year, comment,genre. The fields will be filled
   in automatically from the ID3v1 header information in the mp3 
   file itself, assuming, of course, that the mp3 file contains a 
   valid ID3v1 header.

Version 0.042,  17th April, 2000

 * Minor bug fix: typo on use FileHandle (thx Mathew Persico!)

Version 0.041,  15th April, 2000

 * Minor bug fix on fixed-width column name reading

 * Minor correction in readme list of prerequisites

Version 0.04,  14th April, 2000

 * Added ability to handle both in-memory and file-based data.
   The module now supports flat file databases similarly to the
   way DBD::CSV does.  Currently CSV files, fixed-width records
   files, name=value ini files, and XML files are supported.  The
   XML support is minimal at the moment, included more as 'proof of
   concept' but will get more robust soon.  Support for HTML, mail
   files, web logs, and more, also coming soon.  

 * Added defaults to the import function so that even quicker
   and dirtier prototyping is possible.  This now becomes the
   hands-down DBI golf winner for printing our favorite phrase:

      use DBI;
      my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:RAM:');
      $dbh->func( [<DATA>], 'import' );
      print $dbh->selectrow_array('SELECT col2 FROM table1');
      __END__
      1,"Hello, new world!",sample

 * Changed the names of the import data types.

 * Added lots more documentation

Version 0.03,  9th March, 2000

 * added an import() data_type "sth" which allows you to open a database
   handle to any other DBI database, do a prepare/execute for a SELECT 
   statement into that database and pass the resulting statement handle 
   to the import() constructor thus importing the results of the SELECT 
   from the other database into a DBD::RAM table

 * changed the behavior of import() so that it does not overwrite existing
   tables thus allowing data from multiple data structures to be imported
   into the same DBD::RAM table (e.g. pull in config files from name=value
   and fixed-width files and from another DBI database and combine it all
   into a single in-memory table)

 * made name=value importing smarter so that it can accept embedded equal
   signs in the value

 * changes and additions to the POD

Version 0.02,  8th March, 2000

 * added capability of processing arrays of hashes, arrays of 
   name=value pairs, and arrays of fixed-width record strings

 * added capability to pass a user-defined pattern processing method
   so that users can import any data structures they can parse

 * added a WARNING that, at least for the next week, the module is in
   a phase of rapid development and that its capabilities, interface,
   and name might all be changing (suggestions welcome)

 * corrected drop, disconnect, and destroy methods to release memory 
   appropriately when $dbh goes out of scope and/or tables are
   dropped

 * expanded documentation

Version 0.01,  7th March, 2000

 * original version; handles in-memory DBI access to arrays of arrays