[ic] centralized variable table - can it be done?

[Stefan Hornburg]

Bruno Cantieni wrote:
>  
> 
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: interchange-users-bounces at icdevgroup.org 
>>[mailto:interchange-users-bounces at icdevgroup.org] On Behalf 
>>Of Bruno Cantieni
>>Sent: November 14, 2005 4:49 PM
>>To: interchange-users at icdevgroup.org
>>Subject: RE: [ic] centralized variable table - can it be done?
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: interchange-users-bounces at icdevgroup.org 
>>>[mailto:interchange-users-bounces at icdevgroup.org] On Behalf 
>>>Of Stefan Hornburg
>>>Sent: November 14, 2005 8:38 AM
>>>To: interchange-users at icdevgroup.org
>>>Subject: Re: [ic] centralized variable table - can it be done?
>>>
>>>Bruno Cantieni wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hello all.
>>>>
>>>>Our client runs a merchant network of 40+ merchants/catalogs.
>>>>All the merchants catalogs are administered centrally 
>>>
>>>(individual merchants
>>>
>>>>have no admin functions other than basic order management) 
>>>
>>>and many tables
>>>
>>>>are global using a merchant_id field to identify 
>>
>>individual merchant
>>
>>>>records.
>>>>For ease of administration we would now also like the 
>>>
>>>catalogs to read their
>>>
>>>>rsp. variables from a "global" mysql variable table (keyed by
>>>>catalog/merchant id) rather than from individual variable 
>>>
>>>tables (currently
>>>
>>>>using variable.gdbm) on restarts/reconfigs.
>>>>While globalizing tables such as "products" was a 
>>>
>>>no-brainer, I'm at a bit
>>>
>>>>of a loss as to how we might implement this with "variable" 
>>>
>>>or of it is even
>>>
>>>>possible.
>>>>Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
>>>
>>>You can add rows from an arbritrary database to the variabls:
>>>
>>># variable database
>>>ParseVariables Yes
>>>Database central central.txt __SQLDSN__
>>>Database central USER __SQLUSER__
>>>Database central PASS __SQLPASS__
>>>ParseVariables No
>>>
>>>NoImport central
>>>
>>>VariableDatabase central
>>>
>>>If you need changes immediately visible, you can put the values from
>>>"central" into the variables namespace with an Autoload routine.
>>>
>>>Example:
>>>
>>>Sub <<EOS
>>>sub load_settings {
>>>	$Tag->perl({tables => 'settings_names'});
>>>
>>>	my %other_keys = (base_url => 1,
>>>					  default_mo => 1,
>>>					  default_rabatt_1_shop => 1,
>>>					  min_amount_artikeldaten => 1,
>>>					  std_email_subj => 1,
>>>					  dollar => 1);
>>>
>>>	my $set = $Db{settings_names}->query({sql => 'select * 
>>>from settings_names', hashref => 1});
>>>	for (@$set) {
>>>		if ($_->{settings} =~ /^organization/ || 
>>>$other_keys{$_->{settings}}) {
>>>			$::Variable->{uc($_->{settings})} = $_->{value};
>>>		}
>>>	}
>>>}	
>>>EOS
>>>
>>>Please consider the affect on the performance.
>>>
>>>Bye
>>>	Racke
>>>
>>
>>Thank you Racke.
>>The approach confirms the one idea I had come up with and 
>>your sample code
>>will save me oodles of time racking my brain (couldn't help 
>>that one :)
>>Tschüss
>>Bruno Cantieni
>>
> 
> 
> I have now played around with this idea for a bit with limited success.
> I was really hoping to be able to pick up all variables normally supplied by
> "VariableDatabase variable" this way, however it appears I can not eliminate
> "VariableDatabase" altogether.
> My current code (just the meaty bits) is as follows:
> 
> Variable    MERCHANT_ID        1001
> ParseVariables Yes
> NoImport merchant
> ### Spool up the variables
> Sub <<EOS
> sub load_settings {
> 	$Tag->perl({tables => 'merchant'});
> 	my $db = $Db{merchant};
> 	my @columns = $db->columns();
> 	my $rec = $db->row_hash(__MERCHANT_ID__);

With $db->row_hash($Variable->{MERCHANT_ID}) you can save the
ParseVariables around the sub.

> 	for (@columns) {
> 		$::Variable->{uc($_)} = $rec->{$_};
> 	}
> }	
> EOS
> 
> ParseVariables No
> 
> ## Autoload above defined routine
> Autoload load_settings
> 
> VariableDatabase variable
> 
> If I eliminate (comment out) the "VariableDatabase variable" line (or delete
> certain variables from the variable db),
> I won't get a whole bunch of variables picked up by reconfig even though
> they have been placed in $::Variable by the above sub.
> e.g. "ORDERS_TO", "CGI_URL" and others.
> Many others work just fine this way.

Presumably the variable has been changed, but not the configuration directives
"MailOrderTo" and "VendURL".

Try:

$Config->{MailOrderTo} = $Variable->{ORDERS_TO}

after setting the variables to the custom value.

Bye
	Racke