NAME Apache::DBI::Cache - a DBI connection cache SYNOPSIS use Apache::DBI::Cache debug=>3, bdb_env=>'/tmp/tmp', plugin=>'Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql', plugin=>['DBM', sub {...}, sub {...}], ...; INSTALLATION This installs 2 modules "Apache::DBI::Cache" und "Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql". perl Makefile.PL make make test make install Testing MySQL Since Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql depends on MySQL you need 2 databases on the same DB server listening on port 3306 to test it. Nothing will be written to them. Only connections are established and the "SHOW PROCESSLIST" command is executed. The connection parameters are passed to the test as environment variables. If you do not want to test it leave them empty and the plugin test ("t/100mysql") is silently skipped. These environment variables are used: MYSQL1, MYSQL2 the 2 database names MYSQL_HOST the database host. If omitted "localhost" is used. MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWD you credentials. My "make test" command looks like: MYSQL1=dbitest1 MYSQL2=dbitest2 make test BerkeleyDB If "BerkeleyDB" is not available a few tests are skipped. DEPENDENCIES BerkeleyDB is used if installed to make DBI handle statistics visible for the whole Apache process group instead of a single process. DBI 1.37 perl 5.8.0 DESCRIPTION This module is an alternative to the famous Apache::DBI module. As Apache::DBI it provides persistent DBI connections. It can be used with mod_perl1, mod_perl2 and even standalone. WHY ANOTHER MODULE FOR THE SAME? Apache::DBI has a number of limitations. Firstly, it is not possible to get multiple connections with the same parameters. A common scenario for example is to use one connection to perform transactions and another to perform simple lookups in the same database. With Apache::DBI it is very likely to get the same connection if you mean to use different. With Apache::DBI all connections are reset at end of a request. Apache::DBI does not regard database specific functions to cache handles more aggressively. For example a mysql DSN can look like dbi:mysql:test:localhost:3306 or dbi:mysql:host=localhost;db=test Both point to the same database but for Apache::DBI they are different. Apache::DBI::Cache recognizes these two by means of a *mysql* plugin. The plugin even recognizes connections to different databases on the same mysql server as the same connection and issues a "USE database" command before returning the actual handle to the user. Hence, with Apache::DBI::Cache many the overall number of connections to a DB server can be dramatically reduced. HOW DOES IT WORK? To decide whether to use Apache::DBI::Cache or not it is essential to know how it works. As with Apache::DBI Apache::DBI::Cache uses a hook provided by the DBI module to intercept "DBI->connect()" calls. Also do Apache::DBI::Cache maintain a cache of active handles. When a new connection is requested and the cache is empty a new connection is established and returned to the user. At this point it is not cached at all. Here Apache::DBI::Cache differs from Apache::DBI. Later either "disconnect" is called on the handle or it simply goes out of scope and the garbage collector calls a "DESTROY" method if provided. Both events are intercepted by Apache::DBI::Cache. Only then the handle is put in the cache. This means a handle is never really disconnected. "$dbh->{Active}" will always return true no matter how often "disconnect" is called. Further, you can prevent a handle from getting reused by simply not forgetting it. USAGE Different to Apache::DBI Apache::DBI::Cache must be "use"ed not "require"ed. That means it's "import" function must be called. When used with mod_perl (versions 1.x or 2.x) this is best done in a "startup.pl" or in a "" section in the "httpd.conf". See mod_perl documentation for more information. Thereafter, "DBI->connect" is called as usual. No special treatment is needed. When Apache::Status or Apache2::Status is used Apache::DBI::Cache provides an extra menu item to show statistics on handles. The loading order of the Apache::Status and Apache::DBI::Cache is irrelevant. FUNCTIONS import - "use" parameter Parameters to the "use" statement are given in a "key => value" fashion. use Apache::DBI::Cache debug=>3, logger=>sub {...}, plugin=>['driver', sub {}, sub {}], plugin=>'Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql', use_bdb=>1, bdb_env=>'/tmp/mybdbenv', bdb_memcache=>20*1024, ...; * plugin loads a plugin, see also "PLUGINS" below. The plugin can be specified as a 3-element array or by name. In the second case the "import" simply "use"s the module. This option can be given multiple times. * use_bdb, bdb_env and bdb_memcache Apache::DBI::Cache can use BerleleyDB as a shared memory implementation to maintain statistics for a group of processes instead of a single process. "use_bdb" specify whether to use BerkeleyDB or not. If ommitted Apache::DBI::Cache will try to load and use BerkeleyDB. If that fails it silently provides per process statistics. If "use_bdb" is true Apache::DBI::Cache dies if it cannot use BerkeleyDB. If "use_bdb" is false per process statistics are maintained and BerkeleyDB is not used. "bdb_env" specifies a path to a directory where BerkeleyDB can put it's temporary files. If omitted "/tmp/Apache::DBI::Cache" is used. The parent directory of this directory must exists and be writeable. "bdb_memcache" specifies the size of the shared memory segment that is allocated by BerkeleyDB. Depending on the number of handles in your configuration a few kilobytes are enough. If omitted 20 kB are used. "bdb_env" and "bdb_memcache" can also be specified by the "APACHE_DBI_CACHE_ENVPATH" and "APACHE_DBI_CACHE_CACHESIZE" environment variables. * debug set a debug level. Under mod_perl this is almost irrelevant, see "logger" below. * logger here a logger function can be specified. It is called with the message verbosity level as the first parameter. The remaining parameters are concatenated to build the actual message. Currently there are 2 verbosity levels used 1 and 2. 0 is reserved for real errors. 1 mentions that the module has been initialized. 2 rattle off normal processing messages. Apache::DBI::Cache provides 2 logger functions. One is controlled by the "debug" level setting (see above). A message is printed to STDERR if it's level is equal or greater the current debug level. The other logger is used when running under mod_perl. It is mainly controlled by the Apache "LogLevel" setting. Messages at level 0 are printed as "$log->error", level 1 as "$log->info" and level 2 as "$log->debug". For level 2 messages additionally the current debug level is checked to be greater or equal 2. * delimiter Here the internal key delimiter can be changed. It defaults to "\1". Changing it is necessary only when your DSN, username or password contain it or to provide more readable debugging messages. statistics returns a reference to the statistics hash. If BerkeleyDB is used it is tied to BerkeleyDB::Btree. statistics_as_html returns a reference to an array of HTML fragments. If mod_perl and Apache::Status or Apache::Status2 is used the output of this function is shown under http://HOST/STATUS/URI?DBI_conn. plugin( 'name', \&mangle, \&setup ) installs a new plugin, see "PLUGINS" below. If a plugin for the specified database type was already installed it is returned as a 2-element list: ($old_mangle, $old_setup)= plugin( 'name', \&new_mangle, \&new_setup ); If called with an name only the current plugin is returned: ($old_mangle, $old_setup)=plugin( 'name' ); To delete a plugin call ($old_mangle, $old_setup)=plugin( 'name', undef, undef ); connect_on_init call this function multiple times with parameters you would pass to "DBI->connect" before calling "Apache::DBI::Cache::init", i.e. in your "startup.pl". Then "init" will establish all these connections. init This function is called once per child process to initialize Apache::DBI::Cache. If mod_perl is used this is done automatically in a PerlChildInitHandler finish This function must be called before a process is going to terminate. Under mod_perl it is automatically called in a PerlChildExitHandler. As of version 0.08 calling this function is optional. undef_at_request_cleanup( \$dbh1, \$dbh2, ... ) When an application uses global variables to store handles they probably won't be reused because a global variable is ..., well global. This can be fixed by explicitly undefining these handles at request cleanup or by using this function. It simply collects all handle references passed in between 2 calls to "Apache::DBI::Cache::request_cleanup". When "Apache::DBI::Cache::request_cleanup" is called all these handles are undefined. The first call to this function during a request cycle installs "Apache::DBI::Cache::request_cleanup" as PerlCleanupHandler. With mod_perl2 this requires the PerlOption "GlobalRequest" to be set: PerlOption +GlobalRequest in your httpd.conf. request_cleanup This is the PerlCleanupHandler. If Apache::DBI::Cache is used standalone the application can call it from time to time. EXPORT Nothing. DBI SUBCLASSING For a module like Apache::DBI::Cache it is complicated to cope with DBI subclasses. There are 2 problems to solve. First, make sure that our "disconnect" and "DESTROY" methods are called instead of the original. Apache::DBI::Cache solves this problem by inserting its own methods into the foreign class. Hence, if a subclass provides "disconnect" and "DESTROY" methods they will never be called. This is ugly but works in most cases. To insert our methods into the subclass we need to know its name. This is the second problem. To create a subclassed DBI handle one calls either DBI->connect( $dsn, $user, $passwd, {RootClass=>SUBCLASS} ); or SUBCLASS->connect( $dsn, $user, $passwd, {} ); The first case is simple since the attribute hash is passed to our connect method. Unfortunately, the second case is not simple since "SUBCLASS" is known only by "DBI::connect". This is solved by searching the current call stack for the DBI::connect call. Then we use its first parameter. That works for me but is even uglier. If you encounter problems don't hesitate to mail me. Class::DBI and Ima::DBI To make "Class::DBI" or "Ima::DBI" work with "Apache::DBI::Cache" see Apache::DBI::Cache::ImaDBI. PLUGINS Plugins are used to modify the caching for certain database types. They can change the caching key, issue database commands just before a handle is returned to the user or prevent handle caching entirely for a database type. There can only be one plugin per database type at a time. A plugin registers itself by calling "Apache::DBI::Cache::plugin" passing 3 parameters. The first parameter is simply the name of the database type. It matches the DBI driver name. Thus, a MySQL plugin passes the string "mysql" since the corresponding DBI driver is named "DBD::mysql". Whereas a PostgreSQL plugin passes either "Pg" or "PgPP" depending on the driver actually used. The 2nd and 3rd parameters are CODE references that are called just before a connection is chosen from the cache or newly established and after the connection is made just before it is returned to the caller. The first function can mangle the connection parameters the second perform additional setup steps. Further, I will call them *mangle* and *setup*. Thus, a plugin is registered this way: Apache::DBI::Cache::plugin('Name', \&mangle, \&setup); Normally, it is implemented as a separate module according to the following template, see Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql for example: package Apache::DBI::Cache::DRIVER; use strict; BEGIN { die "Please load Apache::DBI::Cache before" unless defined &Apache::DBI::Cache::plugin; ... Apache::DBI::Cache::plugin ( 'DRIVER', sub {}, sub {} ); } 1; Calling Conventions * mangle ($dsn, $user, $passwd, $attr, $ctx, $nocache)= mangle($dsn, $user, $passwd, $attr); *mangle* is called with almost the same parameters as the original call to "DBI->connect". The "dbi:DRIVER:" prefix is stripped from the DSN. It is expected to return similar values plus an arbitrary context that is later passed to *setup* and an optional "nocache" flag. If $nocache is true or *mangle* returns an empty list a new connection is made and the handle is directly passed to the caller without further processing. Also *setup* will not be called. Such a handle will not be cached on "disconnect" or "DESTROY". *mangle* can change all parameters. The MySQL plugin for example deletes the actual database name from the DSN, reformats it according to a standard format and adds the standard port if it is omitted. The database is put in the context. * setup $rc=setup($dbh, $dsn, $user, $passwd, $attr, $ctx); The *setup* function performs additional setup steps on $dbh. The MySQL plugin for example issues a "USE database" command using the database from the context. A connection is considered dead if *setup* returns false. TODO * periodically ping all cached handles * correct statistics when a process is finishes without calling "finish()" * redirect BerkeleyDB errors to logger SEE ALSO Apache::DBI::Cache::mysql Apache::DBI AUTHOR Torsten Foertsch, With suggestions from Andreas Nolte < andreas dot nolte at bertelsmann dot de > Dietmar Hanisch < dietmar dot hanisch at bertelsmann dot de > and Ewald Hinrichs < ewald dot hinrichs at bertelsmann dot de > SPONSORING Sincere thanks to Arvato Direct Services (http://www.arvato.com/) for sponsoring this module and providing a test platform with several thousand DBI connections. COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE Copyright (C) 2005-2006 by Torsten Foertsch This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.