Dear friends,
As usual, I am working in pgAdmin2, Dave Page's excellent GUI
(http://pgadmin.postgresql.org).
Sometimes I create objects in the GUI, sometimes I run SQL queries directly.
In this case, pgAdmin2 is not aware when the schema changes. Then, I have to
refresh display manually. But what if I am working in development teams? How
can pgAdmin2 be aware that some schema objects were modified by another user?
Why not create a "pg_dump --schema-only database_name" md5sum footprint each
time an object is modified. Maybe this can be done automatically or by a
server-side function like :
md5_schemafootprint_save;
This md5 footprint could be stored in the database and accessed by a server
side function, like :
md5_schemafootprint_load;
Maybe this boils down to a more general question of dependency information of
linked objects. Such a feature may also be needed in replication (to be aware
of schema object changes). In this case, we might need a special table
carrying md5 footprints of each schema object. This will allow to reload only
the needed objects (provided that we have proper efficient CREATE OR REPLACE
solutions).
But by now, as for pgAdmin2, a simple footprint of the entire schema would
suffice. Is this worth adding such a feature to the 7.3 to-do-list ?
Just my $0.002.
Cheers,
Jean-Michel POURE
