I have a complex PostgreSQL database application which requires extensibility using a scripting language, so naturally I thought of Perl. Does it make more sense to:
  1. Store function bodies in a table and eval them: 
    # SQL
create table _perlsub (name text,code text);
insert into _perlsub (name,code) values ('get_time',
'my $x=shift; scalar localtime $x');

# PERL
# invoke code for any function, assume strict, $dbh is active, error c
+hecking omitted for brevity
my $func='get_time';  my $arg=1226940421;  my %perlsubs;
unless (exists $perlsubs{$func}) {  # cache compiled subs
   my $sth=$dbh->prepare("select code from _perlsub where name='$func'
+");
   $sth->execute();
   my $code=$sth->fetchrow;
   $sth->finish;
   eval "$perlsubs{$func}=sub $func { $code }";  
}
print $perlsubs{$func}->{$arg};  # prints Mon Nov 17 16:47:01 2008

    [download]
  2. OR, would it be better to use something like Module::Loader, and store the individual routines (there are about 18 of them in the production environment) in individual .pm or .pmc files?
The application is running Apache with mod_perl/DBI/DBD::Pg on RedHat 9, if that helps to know. The extensible subs all do things like data validation or generating pieces of the interface like findboxes and alphalinks.

Appreciate all commentary, critical and otherwise!

SSF

In reply to storing perl code in database by sflitman

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