SQLite-Work README

==== NAME ====

SQLite::Work - report on and update an SQLite database.

==== VERSION ====

This describes version 0.1002 of SQLite::Work.

==== DESCRIPTION ====

SQLite::Work is a perl module for interfacing with an SQLite database. It can be used to:

• generate nice HTML (and non-HTML) reports, which

: * have nested headers

: * have grouped data which clusters under the headers

: * can be sorted on multiple columns

:	*	can be customized with templates (both headers and body) which
		include some simple formatting for column values, for example:

            simple HTMLize
            titles (Title,The becomes The Title)
            names (Nurk,Fred becomes Fred Nurk)
            month names
            truncation
        (see Text::NeatTemplate)

:	*	one can select the columns and their order even if one isn't using
		templates

:	*	default templates can be selected which present the data in tables,
		in paragraphs (Column:Value) or in lists.

:	*	can be split into multiple HTML pages, with automatic index-page
		generation; the split can be on the values of a given column, and/or
		by number of rows

*	use a generic search CGI script ("show.cgi" using SQLite::Work::CGI)
	which

:	*	can search on all the fields in a table without having to hardcode
		the column names (it just gets them from the table information)

:	*	uses most of the power of the report engine to give nice search
		results

*	update the database with a CGI script ("edit.cgi" using
	SQLite::Work::CGI)

*	be able to mail reports to general addresses (such as a mailing list) or
	to specific addresses (such as sending notifications to individuals
	whose address is in the database). (using the sqlw_mail script)

This generates HTML (and non-HTML) reports from an SQLite database, taking care of the query-building and the report formatting. This also has methods for adding and updating the database.

The SQLite::Work::CGI module has extra methods which deal with CGI using the CGI module; the included "show.cgi" and "edit.cgi" are demonstration CGI scripts which use the SQLite::Work::CGI module. There is also the "show.epl" demonstration Embperl script which has the necessary alterations for using this with Embperl.

The sqlreport script uses SQLite::Work to generate reports from the command-line.

The sqlw_mail script uses SQLite::Work::Mail to email reports.

== Limitations ==

This only deals with single tables and views, and simple one-field, two-table joins. More complex joins should be dealt with by making a view.

This only deals with one database at a time.

==== REQUIRES ====

DBI
DBD::SQLite POSIX

Test::More

The CGI module requires:

CGI

Scripts require:

Getopt::Long Pod::Usage Getopt::ArgvFile

==== INSTALLATION ====

To install this module, run the following commands:

perl Build.PL ./Build ./Build test ./Build install

Or, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't like the "./" notation, you can do this:

perl Build.PL perl Build perl Build test perl Build install

In order to install somewhere other than the default, such as in a directory under your home directory, like "/home/fred/perl" go

perl Build.PL --install_base /home/fred/perl

as the first step instead.

This will install the files underneath /home/fred/perl.

You will then need to make sure that you alter the PERL5LIB variable to find the modules, and the PATH variable to find the script.

Therefore you will need to change: your path, to include /home/fred/perl/script (where the script will be)

PATH=/home/fred/perl/script:${PATH}

the PERL5LIB variable to add /home/fred/perl/lib

PERL5LIB=/home/fred/perl/lib:${PERL5LIB}

==== AUTHOR ====

Kathryn Andersen (RUBYKAT) perlkat AT katspace dot com http://www.katspace.com

==== COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE ====

Copyright (c) 2005 by Kathryn Andersen

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.