Re: Constraint Triggers request - Mailing list pgadmin-support

Andreas Pflug wrote:
> Donald Fraser wrote:
> >> Donald Fraser wrote:
> >>
> >>> Do you think in a later version you can show non-system constraint
> >>> triggers that have been created by the user via:
> >>> CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER ?
> >>>
> >
> > Andreas Pflug wrote:
> >
> >> Definitively not. Creating constraint triggers directly is horribly
> >> outdated (pre-7.3), and still available for backwards compatibility
> >> only. Use contrib/adddepend to fix your database.
> >>
> >
> > I'm not talking about old versions of PostgreSQL that have been upgraded
to
> > later versions.
> > Prior to version 8.x.x all AFTER trigger events were deferred until the
end
> > of all statements for the current transaction.
> > As of version 8.x.x AFTER trigger events occur after each statement in
the
> > transaction - basically they are not deferred any more.
> > Unfortunately, for some of us, having deferred AFTER trigger events was
a
> > nice feature.
> > There are some things you simply cannot do unless the trigger event is
> > deferred! I shouldn't need to qualify that statement, but the fact that
> > referential integrity requires them points out one example of when its
nice
> > to have deferred trigger events.
> > Moving forward I am trying to upgrade a 7.4.x system to 8.0.x and I
cannot
> > upgrade it without converting a lot of trigger functions from standard
AFTER
> > trigger events to constraint trigger events, simply because I need them
to
> > be deferred until the end of the transaction.
> > So after converting these "normal" trigger functions to "constraint"
trigger
> > functions they disappear from view in pgAdmin...
> > They are not system generated trigger functions, they are not missing
any
> > dependencies, they are there in that form because I need them to be
there
> > and I created them using a PostgreSQL command "CREATE CONSTRAINT
TRIGGER..."
> > I know that the documentation says "...It is not intended for general
use."
> > Personally I don't see what's wrong with deferred trigger events, they
are
> > useful, PostgreSQL already supports them, there is no other way of
creating
> > deferred events yet!
> >

> I'm still disinclined to offer this to the normal pgadmin user.
> constraint triggers are internal implementation details, subject to
> change without prior notice blablabla. I didn't follow the deferred
> constraint discussion back then, but I really wonder why there's no such
> option for CREATE TRIGGER. How about contacting pgsql-hackers, maybe
> this could go into 8.2.

I'm hearing you.
It seems to be a problem with our project and PostgerSQL - using
non-standard features.
A feature which has been dropped in 8.1.x is the SYSID from CREATE USER. The
syntax is there but it doesn't actually use the number any more. The reason
is oids are now used for dependency checking. Unfortunately our project
depends heavily on the use of SYSID so an upgrade to 8.1.x want happen in a
hurry...:-(

I've already hacked pgAdmin to display manually created constraint triggers.
The property display adds properties: "Constraint Name", "Deferred?" and
"Initially deferred?"  but only when the trigger is a manually created
constraint trigger.
It correctly displays the reverse engineered SQL.
I left the creating of a trigger using the GUI "New Trigger" option as is,
i.e. you can only create standard triggers.
So basically only those that have manually created constraint triggers will
see them.

If you want the diff of the two files that got changed I'll send them, no
problem.

I'll have a go at contacting pgsql-hackers, but my guess is that constraint
triggers will stay, as they are heavily used internally, but the command to
create them manually will eventually be dropped. Hopefully we will have
deferred CHK constraints by that time, which would suffice.

Regards
Donald Fraser