Tangram::Type::Array::FromMany(3pm)			User Contributed Perl Documentation		       Tangram::Type::Array::FromMany(3pm)

NAME

       Tangram::Type::Array::FromMany - map Perl arrays using a link table

SYNOPSIS

	  use Tangram;

	  # or
	  use Tangram::Core;
	  use Tangram::Type::Array::FromMany;

	  $schema = Tangram::Schema->new(

	     classes => { Company => { fields => {

	     array =>
	     {
		# long form
		employee =>
		{
		   class => 'Person',
		   table => 'Company_employees',
		   coll => 'company',
		   item => 'employee',
		   slot => 'slot'
		},

		# short form
		assets => 'Asset',
	     }

DESCRIPTION

       Maps references to a Perl array. The persistent fields are grouped in a hash under the "array" key in the field hash.

       The array may contain only objects of persistent classes. These classes must have a common persistent base class.

       Tangram uses a link table to save the state of the collection. The table has three columns, which contain

       * the id of the container objects
       * the id of the elements
       * the position of the element in the array

       The field names are passed in a hash that associates a field name with a field descriptor. The field descriptor may be either a hash or a
       string. The hash uses the following fields:

       * class
       * aggreg
       * table
       * coll
       * item
       * slot
       * deep_update

       Mandatory field "class" specifies the class of the elements.

       Optional field "aggreg" specifies that the elements of the collection must be removed (erased) from persistent storage along with the con-
       taining object. The default is not to aggregate.

       Optional field "table" sets the name of the link table. This defaults to 'C_F', where C is the class of the containing object and F is the
       field name.

       Optional field "coll" sets the name the column containing the ids of the containing objects. This defaults to 'coll'.

       Optional field "item" sets the name the column containing the ids of the elements. This defaults to 'item'.

       Optional field "slot" sets the name the column containing the position of the elements. This defaults to 'slot'.

       Optional field "deep_update" specificies that all elements have to be updated automatically when "update" is called on the collection
       object. Automatic update ensures consisitency between the Perl representation and the DBMS state, but degrades update performance so use it
       with caution. The default is not to do automatic updates.

       If the descriptor is a string, it is interpreted as the name of the element's class. This is equivalent to specifying only the "class"
       field in the hash variant.

perl v5.8.8							    2006-03-29				       Tangram::Type::Array::FromMany(3pm)