I spent all day yesterday trying to get some decent CRUD running. I tried some projects again (HTML::FormFu) which again failed (HTML::FormFu) and as much as I'm sure it can work generally, it isn't flexible enough for the situation I needed it to.
I started working on a module, MyApp::CRUD, for my Catalyst application. Basically It's a Moose module that has the definitions of the main id and the table. The module has 5 methods:
Now I'm able to use the API as such:
BEGIN {
use Moose;
extends 'Catalyst::Controller';
}
has 'crud' => (
is => 'rw',
isa => 'MyApp::CRUD',
lazy => 1,
default => sub {
MyApp::CRUD->new(
id => 'data_id',
table => 'Sections',
)
},
);
sub add : Local {
my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
my $id = $self->crud
->start($c)
->create('sections/add');
if ( defined $id ) {
$c->res->redirect("/sections/view/$id");
$c->detach();
}
$c->stash->{'template'} = 'sections/add.tt2';
}
sub delete : Local {
my ( $self, $c, $id ) = @_;
$self->crud
->start($c)
->delete($id);
$c->res->redirect('/sections/view');
$c->detach;
}
sub view : Local {
my ( $self, $c, $id ) = @_;
$self->crud
->start($c)
->read($id);
$c->stash->{'template'} = 'sections/view.tt2';
}
# ... and so on
All in all, it didn't take too much to write and I spent most of the time trying to make modules do what I want them to do, and what they are suppose to do and not why they are doing.
It's like I'm 14 years old again and I'm trying to fix my uncle's busted old computer. Shitty hardware but you have to make due, right? I use Perl because I DON'T LIKE TO MAKE DUE.
/rantRe:InstantCRUD
xsawyerx on 2009-02-16T14:24:32
Sounds interesting!
I'll check it out, thanks!Re:InstantCRUD
zby on 2009-02-16T14:53:55
Some of my plans about it: http://dev.catalystframework.org/wiki/crud/instantcrud
And some more musing on the subject: http://dev.catalystframework.org/wiki/crud/crud_and_rest
I want it to have features - but the number one concern is API simplicity. You can notice that the first CPAN release was in January 2006 - I can say that it was a failed experiment - but I think I've learned from it. Since then I've mostly worked on the underlying libraries and now it looks like a good time to reactivate the project.Re:InstantCRUD
xsawyerx on 2009-02-16T15:54:24
I've checked the links.
I think our biggest problem is that we're unable to define a clear cut API to CRUD. I think it would be very difficult to do this even if we decide to do it since some technologies take over that part altogether. For example, when using AJAX, you go over the rendering through the Javascript, so you have to convert portions of the rendering to Javascript (using Jemplate or ExtJS or whatnot).
Another such situation exists generally with templates, in the fact that they do the rendering instead of some generic module. That's good that it's possible, but it leaves a crack open for bypassing the API (or layers model) for a generic CRUD.
I'll try and sort my thoughts together and write a normal post on it.
Re:InstantCRUD
zby on 2009-02-16T16:23:53
I have no much experience with Ajax - but I was thinking that hopefully REST will take care of converting the data into JASON and generally be a good base for AJAX.
I need to add that CatalystX::CRUD is very close to all of my requirements and I was thinking about maybe merging my project into it and exchanged many emails with Peter. But in the end it just seem too heavy for me.Re:InstantCRUD
xsawyerx on 2009-02-16T16:46:19
AJAX is worthless if applied as a complete CRUD solution instead of a layer of Read in CRUD or fetching information back to the layer of form handling, such as JSON is worthless if applied as the onetime solution for CRUD instead of as a layer of data representation within a certain (or multiple) views.
Basically, you should be able to say "I want to use AJAX (ExtJS, Dojo, JQuery) as the front end for a CRUD system and represent the data in JSON. Oh wait, I actually want to not use AJAX for this specific table/database but I still prefer to use JSON so I could have inline AJAX". Right now, that type of work would be.. insane for one person to do on their own.
That's why I think we should design a layer model for CRUD, separating data representation (JSON, XML, etc.), data formatting (ExtJS, Jemplate, Template, Text::Template, JQuery, etc.) and data storing/fetching (DBIC, DBI, Class::DBI) and of course the information we're working on (have this table and not that one, etc.) and form handling itself which is analyzing data coming from parameters and working them into the database, and allow the user to manipulate them.
Re:InstantCRUD
zby on 2009-02-16T20:35:51
OK - I think I have very similar views on what needs to be done. Still I don't know how the reality of InstantCRUD will please you, but I uploaded the new version of it to CPAN. Much of it is still very ancient - but I did not want to keep it too long to myself:)