Software Voices

[Update: I've been informed that you should be using DBIx::Class instead of Class::DBI because the latter is no longer supported, but I haven't had time to switch yet.]

The DBI manpage describes how to subclass DBI to override certain methods on database and statement handles (search for MySubDBI in the DBI manpage). If you are using Class::DBI, however, the instructions there won't work and it won't be obvious why.

The secret to being able to override DBI methods when using Class::DBI (and subclasses like Class::DBI::mysql) is to instead subclass DBIx::ContextualFetch. That class is used by Ima::DBI (a parent of Class::DBI) to add functionality to the database handles and statement handles even if you or Class::DBI thought your code was directly calling DBI->connect().

Here's a sample following the naming conventions in the DBI manpage. Note that the "connected" sub is not needed and is only provided as a sample which can be used to make sure that the subclassing is actually working for you.Important: When opening the database handle for your Class::DBI objects, you need to specify the following attribute in the DSN string: "RootClass=MySubDBI" (where MySubDBI is the name of your subclass above). For example the DSN might look like:Specifying RootClass in the %attr hash does not seem to be sufficient, possibly due to the way that DBIx::ContenxtualFetch overrides the attributes and tries to insert its own RootClass, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly why.