CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator - Download and summarize CPAN Testers data
% cpanstats # ... wait patiently, very patiently # ... then use cpanstats.db, an SQLite database # ... or the MySQL database
This distribution was originally written by Leon Brocard to download and summarize CPAN Testers data. However, all of the original code has been rewritten to use the CPAN Testers Statistics database generation code. This now means that all the CPAN Testers sites including the Reports site, the Statistics site and the CPAN Dependencies site, can use the same database.
This module downloads articles from the cpan-testers newsgroup, generating or updating an SQLite database containing all the most important information. You can then query this database, or use CPAN::WWW::Testers to present it over the web.
A good example query for Acme-Colour would be:
SELECT version, status, count(*) FROM cpanstats WHERE distribution = "Acme-Colour" group by version, state;
To create a database from scratch can take several days, as there are now over 2 million articles in the newgroup. As such updating from a known copy of the database is much more advisable. If you don't want to generate the database yourself, you can obtain the latest official copy (compressed with gzip) at http://devel.cpantesters.org/cpanstats.db.gz
With over 2 million articles in the archive, if you do plan to run this software to generate the databases it is recommended you utilise a high-end processor machine. Even with a reasonable processor it can takes days!
The cpanstats database schema is very straightforward, one main table with several index tables to speed up searches. The main table is as below:
+--------------------------------+ | cpanstats | +----------+---------------------+ | id | INTEGER PRIMARY KEY | | state | TEXT | | postdate | TEXT | | tester | TEXT | | dist | TEXT | | version | TEXT | | platform | TEXT | | perl | TEXT | | osname | TEXT | | osvers | TEXT | | date | TEXT | | guid | TEXT | | type | INTEGER | +----------+---------------------+
It should be noted that 'postdate' refers to the YYYYMM formatted date, whereas the 'date' field refers to the YYYYMMDDhhmm formatted date and time.
The articles database schema is again very straightforward, and consists of one table, as below:
+--------------------------------+ | articles | +----------+---------------------+ | id | INTEGER PRIMARY KEY | | article | TEXT | +----------+---------------------+
With the release of v0.31, a number of changes to the codebase were made as a further move towards CPAN Testers 2.0. The first change is the name for this distribution. Now titled 'CPAN-Testers-Data-Generator', this now fits more appropriately within the CPAN-Testers namespace on CPAN.
The second significant change is to now reference a MySQL cpanstats database. The SQLite version is still updated as before, as a number of other websites and toolsets still rely on that database file format. However, in order to make the CPAN Testers Reports website more dynamic, an SQLite database is not really appropriate for a high demand website.
The database creation code is now available as a standalone program, in the examples directory, and all the database communication is now handled by the new distribution CPAN-Testers-Common-DBUtils.
new
Instatiates the object CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator. Accepts a hash containing values to prepare the object. These are described as:
my $obj = CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator->new( logfile => './here/logfile', config => './here/config.ini' );
Where 'logfile' is the location to write log messages. Log messages are only written if a logfile entry is specified, and will always append to any existing file. The 'config' should contain the path to the configuration file, used to define the database access and general operation settings.
In addition the binary keys of 'ignore' and 'nostore' are available. 'ignore' is used to ignore NNTP entries which return no article and continue processing articles, while 'nostore' will delete all articles, except the last one received, thus reducing space in the SQL database.
generate
Starting from the last recorded article, retrieves all the more recent articles from the NNTP server, parsing each and recording the articles that either upload announcements or reports.
rebuild
In the event that the cpanstats database needs regenerating, either in part or for the whole database, this method allow you to do so. You may supply parameters as to the 'start' and 'end' values (inclusive), where all records are assumed by default. Note that the 'nostore' option is ignored and no records are deleted from the articles database.
reparse
Rather than a complete rebuild the option to selective reparse selected entries is useful if there are posts which have since been identified as valid and now have supporting parsing code within the codebase.
In addition there is the option to exclude fields from parsing checks, where they may be corrupted, and can be later amended using the 'cpanstats-update' tool.
cleanup
In the event that you do not wish to store all the articles permanently in the articles database, this method removes all but the most recent entry, which is kept to ensure that subsequent runs will start from the correct article. To enable this feature, specify 'nostore' within the has passed to new().
commit
To speed up the transaction process, a commit is performed every 50 inserts. This method is used as part of the clean up process to ensure all transactions are completed.
nntp_connect
Sets up the connection to the NNTP server.
parse_article
Parses an article extracting the metadata required for the stats database.
insert_article
Inserts an article into the articles database.
insert_stats
Inserts the components of a parsed article into the statistics database.
The CPAN testers was conceived back in May 1998 by Graham Barr and Chris Nandor as a way to provide multi-platform testing for modules. Today there are over 2 million tester reports and more than 100 testers each month giving valuable feedback for users and authors alike.
Whether you have a common platform or a very unusual one, you can help by testing modules you install and submitting reports. There are plenty of module authors who could use test reports and helpful feedback on their modules and distributions.
If you'd like to get involved, please take a look at the CPAN Testers Wiki, where you can learn how to install and configure one of the recommended smoke tools.
For further help and advice, please subscribe to the the CPAN Testers discussion mailing list.
CPAN Testers Wiki - http://wiki.cpantesters.org CPAN Testers Discuss mailing list - http://lists.cpan.org/showlist.cgi?name=cpan-testers-discuss
There are no known bugs at the time of this release. However, if you spot a bug or are experiencing difficulties, that is not explained within the POD documentation, please send bug reports and patches to the RT Queue (see below).
Fixes are dependant upon their severity and my availablity. Should a fix not be forthcoming, please feel free to (politely) remind me.
RT Queue - http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=CPAN-Testers-Data-Generator
CPAN::WWW::Testers, CPAN::Testers::WWW::Statistics
http://www.cpantesters.org/, http://stats.cpantesters.org/, http://wiki.cpantesters.org/
Original author: Leon Brocard <acme@astray.com> (C) 2002-2008 Current maintainer: Barbie <barbie@cpan.org> (C) 2008-2010
This code is distributed under the Artistic License 2.0.
To install CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install CPAN::Testers::Data::Generator
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.