Fry::Lib::CDBI::Outline - A Class::DBI library for Fry::Shell which displays several database queries in an outline format.

This document describes version 0.14

This module has one command, outlineSearches, which takes a query outline and produces results in the same outline format. To write an outline in one line for commandline apps, there is a shorthand syntax. Take the sample outline:

	0 dog
		1 rex
		1 cartoon
			2 snoopy
			2 brian
	0 cat	

	Note: the numbers are the outline levels and aren't usually seen

In shorthand syntax this is 'dog(rex,cartoon(snoopy,brian))cat'. I'll use node to refer to a line in an outline ie 'dog'. There are three characters that delimit indent levels between nodes:

	'(':following node is indented one level
	')': following node is unindented one level
	',': following node remains at same level

Each node is a query chunk which uses the same syntax as the search commands in Fry::Lib::CDBI::Basic.

For example, here's a simple query outline:

	tag=perl(tag=dbi,read)name=Shell::

which means the following query outline:

	tags=perl
		tags=dbi
		read
	name=Shell::

which would produce:

	tags=perl
		tags=dbi
			#results of tags=dbi and tags=perl
		read
			#results of tags=read and tags=perl
	name=Shell::
		#results of name=Shell:

The resulting outline produces results under the last level children. By default the query chunks ('tags=perl') are ANDed. If no $splitter ('=' here) is in a given query chunk then a default column name is assumed by $otlcol. In this example, $otlcol = 'tags' for the 'read' node.

Although there is no required table format I usually use this module for tables that I'm tagging. See Fry::Lib::CDBI::Tags for more detail.

	right_indent: Increases outline level by one.
	no_indent: Outline level remains the same.
	left_indent:  Decreases outline level by one.
	otlcol:  column assumed in searches when no column given
	indent_char: Character used to indent nodes

The subroutines are indented by subroutine frame and are called in the order they appear.

	outlineSearches
		create_outline
			get_outline	
				input_to_nodes
				get_indents
				get_values
				set_results
					alias_otl
					search_outline
			makeNodeOutline
				print_indented_rows

	outlineSearches(@outline_terms): command which returns outline of search results,
		an $outline_term is equal to $search_term$level_delimiter where
		$search_term is the same as in Fry::Lib::CDBI::Basic and a
		$level_delimiter is one of the variables $indent,$no_indent or
		$left_indent
	create_outline(@outline_terms): wrapper sub
	get_outline(@outline_terms): Returns an arrayref of node objects. A node
		object contains the following attributes:
			value: search term used by search functions
			results: Class::DBI objects from search
			indent: indent/outline level
	input_to_nodes(@outline_terms): splits input on a $level_delimiter to return array of nodes
	get_indents(@input_to_nodes): returns an indent value for each node based on a $level_delimiter
	get_values(@get_indents): returns a value for each node
	set_results(\@node): sets results attribute of a node object
	alias_otl(@search_terms): unaliases outline search terms to make it compatible with
		:CDBI::Basic search terms 
	search_outline(@search_terms): does a search using one of the search functions from
		:CDBI::Basic
	makeNodeOutline(@node): makes a node outline by indenting properly and displaying Class::DBI
		search results

Fry::Shell,Fry::Lib::CDBI::Tags

Me. Gabriel that is. If you want to bug me with a bug: cldwalker@chwhat.com If you like using perl,linux,vim and databases to make your life easier (not lazier ;) check out my website at www.chwhat.com.

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