[SQLHat] Proposal

Hello! I just subscribed to pecl-dev mailing list after discussing the library that I've created on the pear-dev's mailing list. It's about a piece of software called SQLHat. SQLHat is a class library that goes together with a viewer/tester, both of which are currently written in PHP. I'm considering the possibility to rewrite the library as a PHP extension in "C" and to leave the viewer as it is except by integrating it with the MDB library. Here is some information from the SQLHat's README file. NAME: SQLHat - SQL-queries wrapper SYNOPSIS: require 'SQLHat.php'; $hl = SQLHat::getInstance("sql/query.sql"); $params['lbound'] = 29; $params['rbound'] = 32; $query = $hl->process($params); DESCRIPTION: What is SQLHat? SQLHat is a library and a test tool and it suggests a better aproach for quering databases with SQL queries. The traditional aproach is embedding the queries in the program by assigning them to variables as strings. It has several disadvantages: First of all this way we have to mix the program code with the SQL code. We have to pay atention to quotes and we usually can not use capabilities of an advanced editior such as syntax highlighting for the SQL code. Second of all there is no easy way to test the query without testing the program code. In order to test the query we have to copy it and paste it somewhere. The problem gets even bigger if this query contains parameters. In that case we have to edit it before even trying to execute. Finally if the language we use needs to be compiled each time we change the query we have to recompile the program. The suggested approach solves this problems and adds additional features that make the programming easier and faster. Testing the queries without testing of the rest of the code is possible because we isolate them in separate program files - each one in different .sql file. SQLHat allows using parameters in the queries and introduces 3 parameter type definitions - string, int and float parameters. The last thing we add is the opportunity to wrap fragments of the query in blocks and to include them conditionally depending on the value of a condition. Here is an example of the capabilities that SQLHat provides: Example 1. SQLHat query ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ string $status, $hair, $eyes int $age condition $I_CARE SELECT name, phone FROM all_girls WHERE makes_love_with = 'men' AND status = $status AND hair = $hair AND eyes = $eyes IF $I_CARE AND age = $age ORDER BY age ENDIF SQLHat is from two parts. The first one is the library. It allows using SQLHat-queries. The second part is the query tester. Currently it's possible to test a query and to see the results in a table on the web browser. SQHat should be available in various programming languages (PHP, Perl, Python, Java,...) and should work with any databases. COPYRIGHT: Copyright (C) 2003 Kamen TOMOV. All rights reserved. This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Please read the disclaimer at the top of the SQLHat.php file. You can download the library and the viewer from the GNA!'s CVS. Here are some links: The project's main site: https://gna.org/projects/sqlhat http://cvs.gna.org/viewcvs/sqlhat/sqlhat/ http://cvs.gna.org/viewcvs/sqlhat/sqlhat-viewer/ Here are some links to the discussion on the pear-dev's list: http://news.php.net/article.php?group=php.pear.dev&article=27078 http://news.php.net/article.php?group=php.pear.dev&article=27087 http://news.php.net/article.php?group=php.pear.dev&article=27090 Thank you for your attention and thanks in advance for your comments. Regards, -- Kamen A. TOMOV :. http://www.cybuild.com/ .: