Generic database interface

Hi We use php for accessing databases a lot, and see some shortcommings in the interface. (we mostly use postgresql): * The interface is postgresql specific - makes it hard to migrate to/from other database systems. * pg_exec returns postgres datastrucure instead of php datastructure We would want to access the results of the queries directly by looking up in php datastructures instead of having to use functions to return the data To overcome theese shortcommings, we use our own wrapper library for all database access. However, we would like to see this functionality implemented more generally. A possible API: Connections: $conn=db_connect($dbms, $dbms_specific); db_disconnect($conn); db_setdefault($conn); Standard query-form: $res=sql_exec($query[, $conn]); sql_clear($res); $rows=sql_numrows($res); $cols=sql_numcols($res); $value=sql_value($res, $row, $col); $col=sql_colbyname($col_name); Simplified query-form: $value=sql_singleExec($query[, $conn]); // Fail if query returned multiple rows or multiple columns // Return value of first column in first row. $array=sql_horExec($query[, $conn]); // Fail if query returned multiple rows // Return array containing first row (indexed by field-names?) as array $array=sql_verExec($query[, $conn]); // Fail if query returned > 2 columns // If 1 column: Return array with values // If 2 columns: Return array with values from 2. column indexed by 1. // column $array=sql_fullExec($query[, $conn]); // Return array of array containing all the result-data All the simplified query-forms serves easier access to data of simple queries, and not having to "clean up" using sql_clear afterwards. Another possible interesting extention is supporting paralell databases: * send write queries to multiple database servers * send read queries to random database server Now, to my questions: * Are we the only ones that need/want this kind of interface, or is it a general feature that others could benefit from? * Is this the correct API? changes, additions, comments? * How should it be implemented? * Write a sql module on top of all the database modules in php * Implement a more generic framework for database modules in php, where each database module "registers" with a sentral database module offering services. * Implement the interface as a php-class, and make it available seperately from php Thanks. -- Ragnar Kjørstad Modus Media