DBI - A Database Interface Module for perl5

DBI

``The DBI is a database interface module for Perl. It defines a set of methods, variables and conventions that provide a consistent database interface independent of the actual database being used.''
                                     -- Tim Bunce

[ DBI Modules ] | [ FAQs + Documentation ] | [ Mailing Lists ]

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DBI Module Availability

Module Information
View README	Download	View Summary	Version	Release Date
DBD::ADO	Bundled with DBI	View	0.14	12-Jul-1999
DBD::Adabas	Download	No Summary	0.2003	01-Nov-1999
DBD::Altera	Download	No Summary	0.09	23-JUN-98
DBD::CSV	Download	View	0.1022	07-Oct-1999
DBD::DB2	Download	View	0.71a	07-Feb-2000
DBD::Empress	Download	View	0.52	07-Jul-1999
DBD::Illustra	Download	No Summary	0.04	13-Oct-1999
DBD::Informix	Download	View	1.00.PC1	16-Mar-2000
DBD::Ingres	Download	View	0.25	31-Jan-2000
DBD::InterBase	Download	View	0.021	21-Sep-1999
DBD::ODBC	Download	View	0.28	23-Mar-2000
DBD::Oracle	Download	View	1.03	12-Jul-1999
DBD::Pg	Download	View	0.93	29-Sep-1999
DBD::SearchServer	Download	View	0.21	05-Mar-1999
DBD::Solid	Download	No Summary	0.13a	24-Nov-1999
DBD::Sybase	Download	View	0.22	24-Mar-2000
DBD::Unify	Download	No Summary	0.05	29-Mar-2000
DBD::XBase	Download	View	0.160	12-Feb-2000
DBI	Download	No Summary	1.13	12-Jul-1999
DBI::FAQ	Download	No Summary	0.38	08-Feb-2000
Msql-Mysql-modules	Download	View	1.2210	30-Nov-1999

FAQs, Documentation and Examples
- Documentation
  - Frequently Asked Questions
    The ``official'' DBI Frequently Asked Questions as distributed in the DBI::FAQ module available on its own from CPAN or bundled with the DBI module.
  - Driver Summaries
    The driver summaries that form the second appendix to the "Programming the Perl DBI" book by Alligator Descartes & Tim Bunce have been made available online for reading. These summary documents detail the features, and compliance, of each driver in a standard way to allow you to more easily compare and contrast database systems.
    Each driver summary can be accessed via the links in the table above.
  - Sample Chapter from ``Programming the Perl DBI''
    Here's a sample chapter from the O'Reilly book ``Programming the Perl DBI'' written by Alligator and Tim. This chapter discusses the architecture of the DBI, data sources and connecting to and disconnecting from databases. Essential reading ( and purchasing! )!
    
    The chapter on the WWW site is beta quality and reflects an early draft. The complete chapter as published in the book is of higher quality and correctness.
  - Jeffrey Baker's WWW Database Performance Tutorial
    Some useful tips and discussion on optimising your DBI programs especially within a WWW environment.
  - Connecting UNIX and Microsoft Access / SQLServer Tutorial
    Some tips and tricks on using the DBI Proxy Architecture to access Win32 databases from UNIX machines.
  - Article on DBI from ``The Perl Journal #5''
    The original article by Tim and Alligator on the DBI published years ago when we were young. This is a little out of date now, but still contains useful theory on how the DBI works.
  - ``A Short Guide to DBI''
    A new article written by Mark-Jason Dominus for the O'Reilly Perl site. This article is generally quite decent, if a little choppy in the reading. It does, however, contain errors, some of which really shouldn't be there. ( This is quite embarrassing considering O'Reilly never asked Tim nor Alligator ( the people they're paying to write the DBI book for them ) to check the article over ). It also doesn't bother listing the upcoming DBI book nor this WWW site in the References section!
  - DBI Article at about.com
    This article about the DBI has been written by About.com's "expert" Perl guide. There's not much to these articles in terms of real meat about writing code with DBI and there's a horrendous amount of errors. Highly unrecommended and liable to confuse rather than clarify.
- Conference Presentations
  Some conference presentations by Tim and Alligator. All Tim's presentations from the Perl Conferences 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 are here as is Alligator's introductory DBI presentation from 3.0. All presentations are available for on-line browsing or as downloadable Powerpoint presentations.
- Demonstrations
  - The Megalithic Database
    This demonstration is taken from the ``Programming the Perl DBI'' book written by Alligator Descartes and Tim Bunce, to be published by O'Reilly & Associates. The database was also used for the ``DBI: The Neophyte's Guide'' tutorial presented by Alligator Descartes at the Perl Conference 3.0.
  - Pictish Symbol Stones Database
    A fully functional on-line database of Pictish Symbol Stones found in the north and east of Scotland.
- Tidbits
  - Alligator rambles about DBI, methods, example CGI scripts and life in general
  - Alligator rambles about writing drivers and how the vendor API hooks into the DBI API
Mailing Lists and Archives
- Join the DBI Mailing Lists here!
- US Mailing List Archives
  http://outside.organic.com/mail-archives/dbi-users/
  Searchable hypermail archives of the three mailing lists, and some of the much older traffic have been set up for users to browse.
- European Mailing List Archives
  http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/PerlDB-Interest
  As per the US archive above.