NAME

SPOPS::Export - Export SPOPS objects to various formats

SYNOPSIS

 use SPOPS::Export;
 # Export to internal SPOPS format
 my $exporter = SPOPS::Export->new( 'object',
                                    { object_class => 'My::Object' });
 # Export all objects
 print $exporter->run;
 # Export only certain objects
 $exporter->where( "user_id = 5" );
 print $exporter->run;
 $exporter->where( "last_name = ?" );
 $exporter->value( [ "O'Reilly" ] );
 print $exporter->run;
 my $exporter2 = SPOPS::Export->new( 'xml',
                                    { object_class => 'My::Object' } );
 # Export all objects
 print $exporter2->run;
 # Export only certain objects
 $exporter2->where( "user_id = 5" );
 print $exporter2->run;
 $exporter2->where( "last_name = ?" );
 $exporter2->value( [ "O'Reilly" ] );
 print $exporter2->run;

DESCRIPTION

This is a simple module to export SPOPS objects into a portable format. The format depends on the type of exporting you are doing. Currently we support five formats, each of which has a unique identifier (in parens) that you pass to the new() method:

1.: SPOPS::Export::Object (object) An internal format based on serialized perl.
2.: SPOPS::Export::XML (xml) Basic XML
3.: SPOPS::Export::Perl (perl) Standard serialized Perl format using Data::Dumper.
4.: SPOPS::Export::SQL (sql) A series of SQL statements, one for each record.
5.: SPOPS::Export::DBI::Data (dbdata) Almost exactly like 'object' but it can be put directly into a DBI table without using objects.

PROPERTIES

You can set the following properties in the exporter object. Only one is mandatory.

object_class ($)

Class of the object for which you want to export the data. This should already be created via the normal means (see SPOPS::Initialize).

include_id (bool) (optional)

Whether to include the ID field its values in the exported data.

Default: false

skip_fields (\@) (optional)

Fields for which you do not want to include data.

Default: none

where ($) (optional)

A WHERE clause (or whatever the datasource supports) to export only certain data.

value (\@) (optional)

If you use placeholders in the "where" property, replace them with values here.

METHODS

new( $export_type, \%params )

Create a new instance of an exporter. Since this is a factory class, we use $export_type to determine the class used to create the exporter object. (The export types and classes are listed above.)

run()

Runs the configured export, returning a string with the exported data.

SUBCLASS METHODS

If you want to write your own exporter, you just need to create a class with the following methods. (Technically, all are optional, but you will not get too far if you do not implement at least create_record().)

Also: if you are writing your own exporter, be sure to look at the add_type() method defined above.

initialize( \%params )

Perform any necessary initialization for an instance of your exporter object. Return the object.

create_header( \@object_fields )

Return a string with the export header.

create_record( $object, \@object_fields )

Return a string representing the object in the export format you are implementing.

create_footer()

Return a string with the export footer.

BUGS

None known.

TO DO

Nothing known.

COPYRIGHT

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHORS

Chris Winters <chris@cwinters.com>