---+ Package ==
*extends* <tt>CGI::Session::Driver::DBI </tt>


%TOC%
=head1 NAME

CGI::Session::Driver::postgresql - PostgreSQL driver for CGI::Session

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use CGI::Session;
    $session = CGI::Session->new("driver:PostgreSQL", undef, {Handle=>$dbh});

=head1 DESCRIPTION

CGI::Session::PostgreSQL is a L<CGI::Session|CGI::Session> driver to store session data in a PostgreSQL table.

=head1 STORAGE

Before you can use any DBI-based session drivers you need to make sure compatible database table is created for CGI::Session to work with. Following command will produce minimal requirements in most SQL databases:

    CREATE TABLE sessions (
        id CHAR(32) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
        a_session BYTEA NOT NULL
    );

and within your code use:

    use CGI::Session;
    $session = CGI::Session->new("driver:PostgreSQL", undef, {Handle=>$dbh, ColumnType=>"binary"});

Please note the I<ColumnType> argument. PostgreSQL's text type has problems when trying to hold a null character. (Known as C<"\0"> in Perl, not to be confused with SQL I<NULL>). If you know there is no chance of ever having a null character in the serialized data, you can leave off the I<ColumnType> attribute. Using a I<BYTEA> column type and C<< ColumnType => 'binary' >> is recommended when using L<Storable|CGI::Session::Serialize::storable> as the serializer or if there's any possibility that a null value will appear in any of the serialized data.

To use different column names, change the 'create table' statement, and then simply do this:

    $s = CGI::Session->new('driver:pg', undef,
    {
        TableName=>'session',
        IdColName=>'my_id',
        DataColName=>'my_data',
        DataSource=>'dbi:pg:dbname=project',
    });

or

    $s = CGI::Session->new('driver:pg', undef,
    {
        TableName=>'session',
        IdColName=>'my_id',
        DataColName=>'my_data',
        Handle=>$dbh,
    });

For more details see L<CGI::Session::Driver::DBI|CGI::Session::Driver::DBI>, parent class.

Also see L<sqlite driver|CGI::Session::Driver::sqlite>, which exercises different method for dealing with binary data.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2002 Cosimo Streppone. All rights reserved. This library is free software and can be modified and distributed under the same terms as Perl itself.

=head1 AUTHORS

Cosimo Streppone <cosimo@cpan.org>, heavily based on the CGI::Session::MySQL driver by Sherzod Ruzmetov, original author of CGI::Session.

Matt LeBlanc contributed significant updates for the 4.0 release.

=head1 LICENSING

For additional support and licensing see L<CGI::Session|CGI::Session>

