SYNOPSIS package MyApp::Schema::Result::Artist; use DBIx::Class::Candy -autotable => v1; primary_column id => { data_type => 'int', is_auto_increment => 1, }; column name => { data_type => 'varchar', size => 25, is_nullable => 1, }; has_many albums => 'A::Schema::Result::Album', 'artist_id'; 1; DESCRIPTION DBIx::Class::Candy is a simple sugar layer for definition of DBIx::Class results. Note that it may later be expanded to add sugar for more DBIx::Class related things. By default DBIx::Class::Candy: * turns on strict and warnings * sets your parent class * exports a bunch of the package methods that you normally use to define your DBIx::Class results * makes a few aliases to make some of the original method names shorter or more clear * defines very few new subroutines that transform the arguments passed to them It assumes a DBIx::Class::Core-like API, but you can tailor it to suit your needs. IMPORT OPTIONS See "SETTING DEFAULT IMPORT OPTIONS" for information on setting these schema wide. -base use DBIx::Class::Candy -base => 'MyApp::Schema::Result'; The first thing you can do to customize your usage of DBIx::Class::Candy is change the parent class. Do that by using the -base import option. -autotable use DBIx::Class::Candy -autotable => v1; Don't waste your precious keystrokes typing table 'buildings', let DBIx::Class::Candy do that for you! See "AUTOTABLE VERSIONS" for what the existing versions will generate for you. -components use DBIx::Class::Candy -components => ['FilterColumn']; DBIx::Class::Candy allows you to set which components you are using at import time so that the components can define their own sugar to export as well. See DBIx::Class::Candy::Exports for details on how that works. -perl5 use DBIx::Class::Candy -perl5 => v10; I love the new features in Perl 5.10 and 5.12, so I felt that it would be nice to remove the boiler plate of doing use feature ':5.10' and add it to my sugar importer. Feel free not to use this. -experimental use DBIx::Class::Candy -experimental => ['signatures']; I would like to use signatures and postfix dereferencing in all of my DBIx::Class classes. This makes that goal trivial. IMPORTED SUBROUTINES Most of the imported subroutines are the same as what you get when you use the normal interface for result definition: they have the same names and take the same arguments. In general write the code the way you normally would, leaving out the __PACKAGE__-> part. The following are methods that are exported with the same name and arguments: belongs_to has_many has_one inflate_column many_to_many might_have remove_column remove_columns resultset_attributes resultset_class sequence source_name table There are some exceptions though, which brings us to: IMPORTED ALIASES These are merely renamed versions of the functions you know and love. The idea is to make your result classes a tiny bit prettier by aliasing some methods. If you know your DBIx::Class API you noticed that in the "SYNOPSIS" I used column instead of add_columns and primary_key instead of set_primary_key. The old versions work, this is just nicer. A list of aliases are as follows: column => 'add_columns', primary_key => 'set_primary_key', unique_constraint => 'add_unique_constraint', relationship => 'add_relationship', SETTING DEFAULT IMPORT OPTIONS Eventually you will get tired of writing the following in every single one of your results: use DBIx::Class::Candy -base => 'MyApp::Schema::Result', -perl5 => v12, -autotable => v1, -experimental => ['signatures']; You can set all of these for your whole schema if you define your own Candy subclass as follows: package MyApp::Schema::Candy; use base 'DBIx::Class::Candy'; sub base { $_[1] || 'MyApp::Schema::Result' } sub perl_version { 12 } sub autotable { 1 } sub experimental { ['signatures'] } Note the $_[1] || in base. All of these methods are passed the values passed in from the arguments to the subclass, so you can either throw them away, honor them, die on usage, or whatever. To be clear, if you define your subclass, and someone uses it as follows: use MyApp::Schema::Candy -base => 'MyApp::Schema::Result', -perl5 => v18, -autotable => v1, -experimental => ['postderef']; Your base method will get MyApp::Schema::Result, your perl_version will get 18, your experimental will get ['postderef'], and your autotable will get 1. SECONDARY API has_column There is currently a single "transformer" for add_columns, so that people used to the Moose api will feel more at home. Note that this may go into a "Candy Component" at some point. Example usage: has_column foo => ( data_type => 'varchar', size => 25, is_nullable => 1, ); primary_column Another handy little feature that allows you to define a column and set it as the primary key in a single call: primary_column id => { data_type => 'int', is_auto_increment => 1, }; If your table has multiple columns in its primary key, merely call this method for each column: primary_column person_id => { data_type => 'int' }; primary_column friend_id => { data_type => 'int' }; unique_column This allows you to define a column and set it as unique in a single call: unique_column name => { data_type => 'varchar', size => 30, }; AUTOTABLE VERSIONS Currently there are two versions: v1 It looks at your class name, grabs everything after ::Schema::Result:: (or ::Result::), removes the ::'s, converts it to underscores instead of camel-case, and pluralizes it. Here are some examples if that's not clear: MyApp::Schema::Result::Cat -> cats MyApp::Schema::Result::Software::Building -> software_buildings MyApp::Schema::Result::LonelyPerson -> lonely_people MyApp::DB::Result::FriendlyPerson -> friendly_people MyApp::DB::Result::Dog -> dogs 'singular' It looks at your class name, grabs everything after ::Schema::Result:: (or ::Result::), removes the ::'s and converts it to underscores instead of camel-case. Here are some examples if that's not clear: MyApp::Schema::Result::Cat -> cat MyApp::Schema::Result::Software::Building -> software_building MyApp::Schema::Result::LonelyPerson -> lonely_person MyApp::DB::Result::FriendlyPerson -> friendly_person MyApp::DB::Result::Dog -> dog Also, if you just want to be different, you can easily set up your own naming scheme. Just add a gen_table method to your candy subclass. The method gets passed the class name and the autotable version, which of course you may ignore. For example, one might just do the following: sub gen_table { my ($self, $class) = @_; $class =~ s/::/_/g; lc $class; } Which would transform MyApp::Schema::Result::Foo into myapp_schema_result_foo. Or maybe instead of using the standard MyApp::Schema::Result namespace you decided to be different and do MyApp::DB::Table or something silly like that. You could pre-process your class name so that the default gen_table will still work: sub gen_table { my $self = shift; my $class = $_[0]; $class =~ s/::DB::Table::/::Schema::Result::/; return $self->next::method(@_); }