=pod

=head1 NAME

DBIx::LiveGrid -- Ajax LiveGrid tables from any DBI data source

=head1 SYNOPSIS

B<Automatically generate a basic sortable and scrollable
liveGrid table>

This will read an Ajax request; auto-generate a SQL query 
with ORDER BY, LIMIT and WHERE clauses; then send the 
results of the query as an Ajax response composed of rows in
an XHTML table.

 use DBI;
 my $dbh        = DBI->connect( ... any DBI datasource ... );
 my $table_name = 'countries'
 my @fields     = qw/name population human_development_index/;
 my @where      = ('population > 100000000');

 DBIx::LiveGrid->run( $dbh, $table_name, \@fields, \@where );

 __END__

B<Or you can fine-tune the SQL and/or the XHTML yourself,
see the POD>

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module provides a link between Rico LiveGrids 
(dynamically scrollable database tables within web pages) 
and DBI (Perl's database interface).  With a half dozen 
lines of perl script and a short HTML section, you can 
create AJAX web windows into any DBI accessible database.

DBIx::LiveGrid lets you build web pages containing tables 
which are dynamically sortable and scrollable.  From the 
user's perspective, live grids work like google maps -- as 
you scroll through the grid, the data is dynamically 
refreshed from the database.  Users can also sort on any  
column, simply by clicking on the column's header.

From the programmer's perspective, DBIx::LiveGrid is an
Ajax handler - it supplies XML data to XmlHttpRequests which
dynamically update parts of web pages.  It requires a server

(a short CGI or mod_perl script you write to create and use 
a DBIx::LiveGrid object) and an HTML client (a short HTML 
page which you create based on supplied templates).

On the client-side, DBIx::LiveGrid works in conjunction with
two open source, easily available AJAX libraries (rico.js 
and prototype.js).  Rico developed the LiveGrid portion of 
these libraries from work on very large databases (at Sabre 
Airline Solutions) and have optimized the client end to 
request only the data it needs at any one time, and to 
buffer and cache data as needed.

On the server-side, DBIx::LiveGrid works in conjunction with
L<SQL::Abstract> and especially with L<SQL::Abstract::Limit>
to translate Rico's requests for specific chunks of data
into SQL clauses appropriate for any DBI data source. Or, if
you prefer, you can skip the auto-generation and build your 
own SQL.

With Rico's optimzed AJAX on the frontend, DBIx::LiveGrid 
and SQL::Abstract::Limit in the middle, and DBI at the 
backend, you can serve very large databases and never query 
or send more than small chunks of data at any one time.

=cut