NAME SQLite::Archive - Version-agnostic storage and manipulation of SQLite databases DESCRIPTION SQLite (and the Perl module for it DBD::SQLite) is an extremely handy database for storing various types of simple information. However, as SQLite has developed, the binary structure of the SQLite database format itself has changed and evolved, and continues to change and evolve. As new releases come out, new versions of DBD::SQLite are also released with matching code. This makes SQLite database files suboptimal (at best) for use in distributing data sets between disparate systems. At the same time, a giant raw .sql script says very little about the data itself (such as which database and version it is intended for), requires a client front end to throw the SQL script at, and it not easily editable or manipulatable while dumped. SQLite::Archive provides a straight forward mechanism for exporting (and importing) SQLite databases, and moving that data around as a single file to (or from) other hosts. It uses a regular tar archive, with the data stored in CSV files, and the table structure stored in a create.sql file. Given a SQLite archive file (SQLite::Archive will take anything supported by Archive::Extract) it will extract the tarball to a temporary directory, create a SQLite database (in a location of your choice or also in a temp directory) and then populate the SQLite database with the data from the archive. METHODS new SQLite::Archive->new( file => 'data.tar.gz' ); SQLite::Archive->new( file => '' ); SQLite::Archive->new( dir => 'extracted' ); The "new" constructor creates a new SQLite archive object. It takes a data source as either a "file" param (which should be an Archive::Extract-compatible archive, or a "dir" param (which should contain the equivalent of the content of the archive, but already expanded as single files). Returns a new SQLite::Archive object, or throws an exception on error. create_db $dbh = $archive->create_db; # Temp file created $dbh = $archive->create_db( 'dir/sqlite.db' ); The "create_db" method create a new (empty) SQLite database. It optionally takes a single param of a path at which it should create the SQLite file. If created as a temp file, the database file will be destroyed until END-time (as opposed to being destroyed when the DBI connection handle goes out of scope). Returns a DBI connection (as a DBI::db object) or throws an exception on error. build_db $dbh = $archive->build_db; # Temp file created $dbh = $archive->build_db( 'dir/sqlite.db' ); The "build_db" method provides the main functionality for SQLite::Archive. It creates a new SQLite database (at a temporary file if needed), executes any SQL scripts, populates tables from any CSV files, and returns a DBI handle. Returns a BDI::db object, or throws an exception on error. SUPPORT No support is available for this module AUTHOR Adam Kennedy SEE ALSO SQLite::Temp COPYRIGHT Copyright 2007 Adam Kennedy. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.