NAME

DBIx::BLOB::Handle - Read Database Large Object Binaries from file handles

SYNOPSIS

use DBI;

use DBIx::BLOB::Handle;

# use DBIx::BLOB::Handle qw( :INTO_STATEMENT );

$dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:Oracle:ORCL','scott','tiger', {RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 0 } )

or die 'Could not connect to database:' , DBI->errstr;

$dbh->{LongTruncOk} = 1; # very important!

$sql = 'select mylob from mytable where id = 1';

$sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);

$sth->execute;

$sth->fetch;

$fh = DBIx::BLOB::Handle->new($sth,0,4096);

...

print while <$fh>;

# print $fh->getlines;

print STDERR 'Size of LOB was ' . $fh->tell . " bytes\n";

...

# read default buffer size

# fastest way to process a LOB

print $chunk while read($fh,$chunk,undef);

...

# fastest way to read a LOB into a scalar

local $/;

$blob = <$handle>;

...

# or if we used the dangerous :INTO_STATEMENT pragma,

# we could say:

# $fh = $sth->blob_as_handle(0,4096);

...

$sth->finish;

$dbh->disconnect;

DESCRIPTION AND RATIONALE

DBI has a blob_copy_to_file method which takes a file handle argument and copies a database large object binary (LOB) to this file handle. However, the method is undocumented and faulty. Constructing a similar method yourself is pretty simple but what if you wished to read the data and perform operations on it? You could use the DBI's blob_read method yourself to process chunks of data from the LOB or even dump its contents into a scalar, but maybe it would be nice to read the data line by line or piece by piece from a familiar old filehandle?!

DBIx::BLOB::Handle constructs a tied filehandle that also extends from IO::Handle and IO::Selectable. It wraps DBI's blob_read method. By making LOB's available as a file handle to read from we can process the data in a familiar (perly) way.

Additionally, by making the module respect $/ and $. then we can read lines of text data from a textual LOB (CLOB) and treat it just as we would any other file handle!

CONSTRUCTOR

new

$fh = DBIx::BLOB::Handle->new($sth,$column,$blocksize);

$fh = $statement->blob_as_handle($column,$blocksize);

Constructs a new file handle from the given DBI statement, given the column number (zero based) of the LOB within the statement. The column number defaults to '0'. The blocksize argument specifies how many bytes at a time should be read from the LOB and defaults to '4096'

...

By 'use'ing the :INTO_STATEMENT pragma as follows;

use DBIx::BLOB::Handle qw( :INTO_STATEMENT );

DBIx::BLOB::Handle will install itself as a method of the DBI::st (statement) class. Thus you can create a file handle by calling

    $fh = $statement->blob_as_handle($column,$blocksize);

which in turn calls new.

METHODS

readline

$line = $handle->getline;

$line = scalar <$handle>;

@lines = $handle->getlines;

@lines = <$handle>;

Read from the LOB. $handle->getline, or <$handle> in scalar context will return a line, according to the current definition of a line (everything up to the next value of $/); $handle->getlines or <$handle> in list context will return an array of lines.

Note: the actual implementation is to do a read (see below) at the default blocksize. The data read back is then split to find the actual rows. Thus there is a trade off between number of network reads performed and the amount of storage on the client.

Bug: Mixing reads and readlines on the same handle will screw everything up! This is because the stored position within the blob is the position from the last read, not the number of bytes from the currently returned lines.

getc

$char = $handle->getc;

$char = getc $handle;

Returns the next byte from $handle. Returns undef if there are no more bytes to read. This is SLOW as it fetches one byte from the database each time. A future implementation might fetch the default (blocksize) number of bytes from the database and then return these as single characters. Thoughts anyone?

read

$handle->read($chunk,[$length], [$offset]);

read $handle, $chunk, $length, [$offset];

Read $length bytes from $handle into $chunk, starting at position $offset in $chunk (thus you can build up a scalar data structure). If $length is omitted then the default blocksize will be used. If $length is omitted then the bytes read will fill $chunk. Returns the number of bytes read.

seek

$handle->seek($offset, $whence);

seek $handle $offset, $whence;

Positions the file pointer for $handle. The first position is 0, not 1. Units are bytes, not line numbers; $whence specifies what file position $offset uses; 0, the beginning of the file; 1, the current position; or 2, the end of the file.

Note: The behaviour currently differs from that of a standard file handle. Seeking before the beginning or after then end of the handle will reset the handle position to the beginning or end respectively.

Note: Seeking backwards for $handle is efficient because we don't have to do any further network traffic. Seeking forward means we have to do more reads from the blob as i am unaware of any (database independant) method to get the size of a LOB. Currently reads are NOT cached since we don't know the final size of the blob. Thus seeking to the end of the blob, and then reading it backward or reading the entire blob, seeking to position 0 and re-reading (as examples) would result in double the amount of network traffic.

tell

$handle->tell;

tell $handle;

Gives the current position (in bytes, zero based) within the LOB

eof

$handle->eof;

eof $handle;

Returns true if we have finished reading from the LOB.

SEE ALSO

Perls Filehandle functions, The Tied Handle interface, IO::Handle, IO::Seekable

BUGS

Don't use the read method and the readline methods on the same handle.

The handle position ( tell method ) and thus eof follow the chunks read via the READ method NOT lines accessed via the READLINE ( <$handle> ) methods.

Otherwise please report them!

AUTHOR

Mark Southern (mark_southern@merck.com)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2002, Merck & Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)

cpanm DBIx::BLOB::Handle

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install DBIx::BLOB::Handle