ALEX::DB
========

This is an database abstraction layer for an integrated library
automation system.

Currently PostgreSQL is used as the back-end database,
but the module should be (fairly) easily extensible to
any database supported by DBI.

PRE-INSTALLATION

To properly test the module, you will need to create a
database called "calli_test", to which you have admin rights.

If this database is missing, most of the tests (like adding,
updating, deleting records) will be skipped.

You may safely remove this database after 'make test' finishes.

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

DEPENDENCIES

This module requires these other modules and libraries:

 MARC::Record
 MARC::Descriptions
 Test::More

This module also assumes that you have administrator access
to your database system.

TESTING SCHEME

The testing scheme might use a little clarification....

There will (eventually) be an large number of components to
this system (like ALEX::DB, ALEX::OPAC, ALEX::EDIT, ALEX::CIRC,
etc).

Each component may have multiple implementations (like 
ALEX::DB::PostgreSQL, ALEX::DB::MySQL, etc).

Each component implementation may have multiple functional areas
(like ALEX::DB::PostgreSQL::Records, ALEX::DB::PostgreSQL::Patrons,
etc).

All of which must be tested.  That's a lot of tests!

To keep some level of sanity, the tests are broken down into
one test file per component-implementation functional-area (e.g.
01-db-01-pg-01-record.t, 01-db-01-pg-02-patron.t, etc),
and then one test file per component implementation (e.g.
01-db-01-pg-99.t, 01-db-02-mysql-99.t, etc), and finally
one test file per component (e.g. 01-db.t, 02-opac.t, etc)

This numbering/naming scheme ensures that subcomponents are tested
before the component they belong to, and also makes it easy to
see which test tests what.

So, for example, you can tell at a glance that:
 t/01-db-01-pg-01-record.t tests the record-handling functions 
                           of the PostgreSQL implementation of
                           the Database layer.
 and
 t/01-db-99.t              tests *all* of the database layer
                           (including all implementations that
                           are available, and all of the
                           functional areas that make up those
                           implementations).

The numbers in the test names exist only to ensure the order of
testing, which is based on the sort order of the file names.

DEFINITIONS

workfile       - a separate, duplicate set of DB record and index
		 tables that operate exactly like the main DB record
		 and index tables, except that individual records can
		 be flagged as belonging to an 'owner'.  This is
		 intended to allow cataloguing by multiple cataloguers
		 each in their own sandbox without affecting the
		 main data or each other.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2004 by David A. Christensen

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