[Dbix-class] update_or_insert from hash reference

[Fernan Aguero]

Hi!

I'm new to DBIx::Class and after setting up a mysql database
I'm trying to test DBIx::Class by defining a minimal
object-relational mapping for a single table:

TABLE users (
  user_id (PK, auto_increment),
  username,
  firstname,
  lastname.
  is_allowed_to_edit_database,
  date_modified,
  date_added )
	
What I want to do to populate the DB is something like this:

my $userHashRef = {
  username  => $username,
  firstname => $firstname,
  lastname  => $lastname,
  ... ...
  };

And then 

# get an object
my $appUser = MyApp::DB::User->new( $userHashRef );

# update or insert
$appUser->update_or_insert;


However, I don't know if what I'm trying to do is possible
...  reading the pod for DBIx::Class::Row suggests to me
that this can be done.  So I went ahead and did this:

package MyApp::DB::Users;

use base qw/DBIx::Class/;
use DBIx::Class::Row;

__PACKAGE__->load_components( qw/Core/ );

# set the table name
__PACKAGE__->table('users');

# set columns in the table
__PACKAGE__->add_columns( qw/
  user_id username password date_modified date_added firstname
  lastname is_allowed_to_edit_database / );
  
# set the primary key
__PACKAGE__->set_primary_key( qw/ user_id /);


sub new {
  my ( $class, $hashRef ) = @_; 
  $class = ref( $class ) || $class; 
  my $userObj = DBIx::Class::Row->new( $hashRef );  
  bless( $userObj, $class );
  return $userObj;
}
 
and in my insertdb test script:
use MyApp::DB::Users;
my $userObj = MyApp::DB::Users->new( $userHashRef );
$userObj->update_or_insert;

However, I'm getting the following error: 
Can't locate object method "has_column" via package "DBIx::Class::Row" at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/DBIx/Class/Row.pm line 42.

What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance,

Fernan

PS: I know there are other ways to populate the DB. I've
read the DBIx::Class::Manual::Example but I found the
insertdb.pl example (using ->populate) to be more confusing
to read and understand than the above.