Honored monks,
I am making the administrative methods for a largish educational project using Class::DBI, Template-Toolkit, and CGI::Application. I have had three occasions now when attempting to use the sequence

my $id = shift;

$id ||= $q->param('id');

my $obj = myDBI::SomeTable->find_or_create({ id => $id });

foreach my $field ($q->param) {
        $obj->$field(scalar $q->param($field)) if $obj->can($field);
}
    
$obj->update;
[download]

If I set $id explicitly to undef then the Class::DBI record object $obj has the new record's row in $obj->id after find_or_create(). Thing is I need to check @_ and $q->param() for $id. Now, if either @_ or $q->param() has a value for $id, the the record gets appropriately put into $obj, altered in my foreach and then updated by $obj->update;

The bug shows up when $q->param and @_ do not have a value for $id. Class::DBI's find_or_create() inserts the new row in the db but $obj->id is undef, and consequently the $obj->update does no good.

So my question to you is how best to do this. Should I make a test for the contents of $id and set it explicitly to undef if it fails? What is a Good way to do this?
TIA
jg

sub save_to_db {      
    my $self = shift;
    my $class_id = shift;
    my $educator_id = shift;
    
    # get CGI query object
    my $q = $self->query;

    # find or create an object for this class
    $class_id ||= $q->param('class_id');
    $educator_id ||= $q->param('educator_id');
    my $class = AIOC::Class->find_or_create({ id => $class_id });
    # set the values of each field in the object
    foreach my $field ($q->param) {
        $class->$field(scalar $q->param($field)) if $class->can($field
+);
    }
    $class->educator($educator_id);
    
    # save the values to the database
    $class->update;
    
    # class_id may have been undef before create()
    $class_id ||= $class->id; 

    # print data_form
    return $self->render_page('cp/cp_index.html', { educator_id    => 
+$class->educator }); 
} # end save_to_db()
[download]

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