Programming the Perl DBI

Resources

To help you navigate some of the topics in this book, here are some resources that you might want to check out before, during, and after reading this book:

http://dbi.perl.org

The DBI home page. This site contains lots of useful information about DBI and where to get the various modules from. It also has links to the very active dbi-users mailing list and archives.

http://www.perl.com/CPAN

This site includes the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network multiplexer, upon which you find a whole host of useful modules including the DBI.

An Introduction to Database Systems, by C. J. Date

This book is the standard textbook on database systems and is highly recommended reading.

A Guide to the SQL Standard, by C. J. Date and Hugh Darwen

An excellent book that’s detailed but small and very readable.

http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm
http://www.jcc.com/SQLPages/jccs_sql.htm
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/sql.html

These web sites contain information, specifications, and links on the SQL query language, of which we present a primer in Chapter 3. Further information can be found by entering “SQL tutorial” or similar expressions into your favorite web search engine.

Learning Perl, by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen

A hands-on tutorial designed to get you writing useful Perl scripts as quickly as possible. Exercises (with complete solutions) accompany each chapter. A lengthy new chapter introduces you to CGI programming, while touching also on the use of library modules, references, and Perl’s object-oriented constructs.

Programming Perl, by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz

The authoritative guide to Perl version 5, the scripting utility that has established itself as the programming tool of choice for the World Wide Web, Unix system administration, and a vast range of other applications. Version 5 of Perl includes object-oriented programming facilities. The book is coauthored by Larry Wall, the creator of Perl.

The Perl Cookbook, by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington

A comprehensive collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples for anyone programming in Perl. Topics range from beginner questions to techniques that even the most experienced of Perl programmers will learn from. More than just a collection of tips and tricks, The Perl Cookbook is the long-awaited companion volume to Programming Perl, filled with previously unpublished Perl arcana.

Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C, by Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern

This book teaches you how to extend the capabilities of your Apache web server regardless of whether you use Perl or C as your programming language. The book explains the design of Apache, mod_perl, and the Apache API. From a DBI perspective, it discusses the Apache::DBI module, which provides advanced DBI functionality in relation to web services such as persistent connection pooling optimized for serving databases over the Web.

Boutell FAQ (http://www.boutell.com/faq/) and others

These links are invaluable to you if you want to deploy DBI-driven web sites. They explain the dos and don’ts of CGI programming in general.

MySQL & mSQL, by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King

For users of the MySQL and mSQL databases, this is a very useful book. It covers not only the databases themselves but also the DBI drivers and other useful topics like CGI programming.