[Catalyst] RE: Choosing the right ORM

[Dami Laurent (PJ)]

> There are other ORMs available, but only one, DBIx::Class gets some 
> attention here.
> 
> How about Alzabo or Rose::DB::Object or maybe others?
> Anybody here who has tried any of them and would share some 
> experiences?
> 
> TIA
> --
> Bernhard Graf

Well, I'll take the opportunity for making some publicity about my own ORM named DBIx::DataModel. I just uploaded the last version 0.14 to CPAN.
http://pause.perl.org/incoming/DBIx-DataModel-0.14.tar.gz

This has no Catalyst::Plugin wrapper (don't see any need for it), but nevertheless was written explicitly for working with Catalyst. Main features are UML modelling, tight collaboration with SQL::Abstract, flexibility to tune retrieved columns and database joins.
See the doc for more details and for understanding why this was written instead of just adopting one of the (many) existing ORMs.

> 
> Ideally, ORMs should be interchangeable without requiring any app code 
> changes, and without sacrificing any features.  What we need is a sort 
> of meta-ORM layer with ORM-specific "driver" layers.  Gack, it never 
> ends... ;)
> 
> -John

I totally disagree. The design space for ORMs is vast, as can be seen from the number of different proposals on CPAN. There is definitely more than one way to do it, and the way you choose has a strong impact on the API; so there is no hope to find a meta-API that would cover all possible needs.

Best regards, 

Laurent Dami
Conseiller en systèmes d'information
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