After just over a year of development and testing, I'm pleased to finally announce the 1.0 release of Handel. The 1.0 release has undergone a major rewrite from the 0.3x series of releases and includes many new features and fixes. The new features include:
Handel now uses DBIx::Class instead of Class::DBI as the default ORM. Many thanks to the DBix::Class folk for all the support. Without the flexibility that DBIx::Class provides, Handel 1.0 would be a much less flexible. Rose::DB::Object Support
For those who prefer working with Rose instead, Handel::Storage::RDBO 1.0 has also been released.
You can now add/remove columns from/to the default classes and schema with only a few lines of code.
If you already have an existing schema in your application, Handel can now use that instead of it's own.
Handel now uses an abstract storage layer for cart/order operations. The default layer is Handel::Storage::DBIC and a Handel::Storage::RDBO layer is also available. New storage layers may be written (XML, LDAP, SOAP, Amazon, Google, etc) and can be used by your Handel code with almost no code changes.
Handel now includes a Module::Starter module and scripts to quick get a custom cart/order system up an running and deploy the schema to an existing database.
To make the conversion to 1.0 a little less painful, 1.0 includes a few Compat modules allowing you used the old API with a new 1.0 install.
In addition to all of the new features and refactoring, Handel now has a plethora of tests and a 99% test coverage. That means that the code base is considered to be very stable and all new code has been accounted for.
The new version should be available on a CPAN mirror nearest you shortly. As always, you can find the latest version in the Subversion repository. If you need help, please join the mailing list or stop by #handel@irc.perl.org.
Happy Carting!
