Update and Insert in a View Insert Rule - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hello all,
I have a table jobs that holds both historical and current jobs:
jobid  SERIAL
jobemployee  INT4
jobiscurrent INT2
etc

the users manipulate two views: historicaljob and currentjob.  These
views are simply defined by the value of jobiscurrent (0 for historical,
1 for current - yes i know it should be a boolean but erwin won't
generate a postgres boolean may it rot in hell)

now i have the insert rule working fine for historical jobs.  however
for currentjob, there is a small twist.  First the old current job must
be set to historical, then the new current job inserted.

my insert rule is:

CREATE RULE insert_current_job AS
   ON INSERT TO currentjob
   DO INSTEAD
       UPDATE job set jobiscurrent=0, lastuser=New.lastuser
          WHERE jobemployee = NEW.jobemployee and jobiscurrent=1;
       INSERT INTO job (
            jobemployee,
            jobagencybureau,
            jobbranch,
            blah, blah, blah,
            jobiscurrent
       ) VALUES (
            NEW.jobemployee,
            NEW.jobagencybureau,
            NEW.jobbranch,
            blah, blah, blah,
            1
       )

unfortunately this gives me an error when I attempt to load the rule I
get:
ERROR:  NEW used in non-rule query

I don't understand why this wouldn't work.  Unless it has something to
do with NEW getting "lost" in the update call?  should i move the update
out to a function and calling it from the rule?

thanks for your time
--

Tom Jenkins
Development InfoStructure
http://www.devis.com