Thread: REALLY stupid question
Greetings, all - Apologies to everyone for contributing an extremely uninteresting and ultra-novice-level question to the community. In fact, if the following question suggests a particular help or research source that can be recommended to me, I would be very grateful to be made aware of it (I have already combed through the online document "PostgreSQL 8.3.4 Documentation" to try and find the answer myself - I think my question is too elemental.) Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I interface with the RDBMS? I know how to start and stop the server, even without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. But when I activate the SQL command window I'm faced with having to supply several parameters that I don't recall setting and haven't a clue why I'd need to set them, i.e. "server", "port", etc. I can live without a hand-holding interface like Access provides, but I need a little middle ground here - what's the application I should be using to create, load, etc. DBs? I do have some SQL experience, but it's all in a canned, administered environment such as host-based DB2 or stand-alone Access. I have no experience as a DBA, so you can see how clueless I truly am ... Thanks for your indulgence, Rebecca Jones |
Try this client application
Or if you like command line interface, you can find on the bin directory a program named psql
For help psql -?
Best,
Oliveiros
----- Original Message -----From: Rebecca JonesSent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:51 PMSubject: [NOVICE] REALLY stupid question
> Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I interface with the RDBMS? > I know how to start and stop the server, even without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. > But when I activate the SQL command window I'm faced with having to supply several parameters > that I don't recall setting and haven't a clue why I'd need to set them, i.e. "server", "port", > etc. I can live without a hand-holding interface like Access provides, but I need a little > middle ground here - what's the application I should be using to create, load, etc. DBs? Rebecca, Have you tried PgAdmin III. I think it gets installed as part of Windows install, but if per chance it doesn't, you can find it here http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/pgadmin3/release/v1.8.4/win32/ Hope that helps, Regina ----------------------------------------- The substance of this message, including any attachments, may be confidential, legally privileged and/or exempt from disclosure pursuant to Massachusetts law. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Rebecca Jones <rmj0nes@yahoo.com> wrote: > Apologies to everyone for contributing an extremely uninteresting and > ultra-novice-level question to the community. In fact, if the following > question suggests a particular help or research source that can be > recommended to me, I would be very grateful to be made aware of it (I have > already combed through the online document "PostgreSQL 8.3.4 Documentation" > to try and find the answer myself - I think my question is too elemental.) > > Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I > interface with the RDBMS? I know how to start and stop the server, even > without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. But when I activate the SQL > command window I'm faced with having to supply several parameters that I > don't recall setting and haven't a clue why I'd need to set them, i.e. > "server", "port", etc. I can live without a hand-holding interface like > Access provides, but I need a little middle ground here - what's the > application I should be using to create, load, etc. DBs? Others have pointed to possible options in terms of "friendly, quasi-graphical apps" to use in lieu of the command line interface, which is well and good. You will still need to supply those same parameters. It's worth noting that all sorts of databases require similar sorts of parameters to connect to the database. Here's a link to the "diversity" of how this works with a lot of databases: http://www.connectionstrings.com/ When you are connecting to a PostgreSQL database, the following parameters are frequently ones that need to be set: - host - what is the name of the database server. Defaults to localhost (e.g. - the computer you're on) - hostaddr - what is the numeric IP address (e.g. - like 172.28.40.9); this is an alternative to host - port - The PostgreSQL database server listens at a particular port, by default, port 5432 - dbname - you may have multiple databases set up on a particular server; you need to specify which one to connect to - user - this identifies the database user. When the DB is initially installed, there is normally a single "superuser" set up; you may want to set a less-super user for less-privileged use. Usually that user is the same name as the user on your system that "owns" the database installation. That might be the name you login to your computer as. - password - password for that user There are some other *possible* parameters, but they're not usually needed. For authoritative info on the parameters, see: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/libpq-connect.html When connecting to the database in different ways, the way those parameters get passed in may differ. A Java application that uses JDBC will collect them together somewhat differently from an application using ODBC which is different from applications using "libpq". But the set of parameters will be much the same. You may want to start out by trying out pgadmin, as others have suggested; that will provide menu-guided ways for you to do the sorts of things you ask about (e.g. - creating and setting up databases). -- http://linuxfinances.info/info/linuxdistributions.html Laurence J. Peter - "It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week."
Rebecca,
If you're familiar with MS Access you can use it as an interface. It has to be configured so it uses ODBC. PhpPGAdmin is also a good choice. Using it, you can interface with a browser.
I don't really know much about postgres in a Windows environment, but in Unix I don't have to supply those parameters unless there is ambiguity. For example, I have two instances running on the same machine. One uses port number 5432 and the other uses 5433. In this case, I specify the port so that postgres will know which instance I want it to connect to.
Carol
On Jan 29, 2009, at 10:51 AM, Rebecca Jones wrote:
Rebecca Jones wrote: > Greetings, all - > > Apologies to everyone for contributing an extremely uninteresting and ultra-novice-level question to the community. Infact, if the following question suggests a particular help or research source that can be recommended to me, I would bevery grateful to be made aware of it (I have already combed through the online document "PostgreSQL 8.3.4 Documentation"to try and find the answer myself - I think my question is too elemental.) > > Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I interface with the RDBMS? I know how to start andstop the server, even without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. But when I activate the SQL command window I'm facedwith having to supply several parameters that I don't recall setting and haven't a clue why I'd need to set them, i.e."server", "port", etc. I can live without a hand-holding interface like Access provides, but I need a little middleground here - what's the application I should be using to create, load, etc. DBs? > > I do have some SQL experience, but it's all in a canned, administered environment such as host-based DB2 or stand-aloneAccess. I have no experience as a DBA, so you can see how clueless I truly am ... > > Thanks for your indulgence, > Rebecca Jones > ... A perfectly reasonable Q. Personally I use phpPgAdmin which is a web-based admin interface, there a a whole lot of other normal desktop applications you can use but I don't use them and don't know which to recommend, perhaps someone else could advise...
Rebecca Jones wrote: > Greetings, all - > > Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I > interface with the RDBMS? I know how to start and stop the server, > even without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. But when I > activate the SQL command window I'm faced with having to supply > several parameters that I don't recall setting and haven't a clue why > I'd need to set them, i.e. "server", "port", etc. I can live without > a hand-holding interface like Access provides, but I need a little > middle ground here - what's the application I should be using to > create, load, etc. DBs? > > I do have some SQL experience, but it's all in a canned, administered > environment such as host-based DB2 or stand-alone Access. I have no > experience as a DBA, so you can see how clueless I truly am ... Hi Rebecca, As others have mentioned, psql should already be available, and PgAdminIII is an excellent client for administrators and developers. It displays and allows you to update just about every option and feature in the server. It also provides a hierarchical view of the DBMS, and any databases, schema's, roles, views, scripts, etc. that are in there. After that, it depends on your applications and tools. With a web server, PHP can be compiled with Postgres support built in. For Perl, there is DBI with the Postgres DBD drivers. I know there are libraries around for C and C++, as well as Java and several other languages. OpenOffice.Base can use it as a back end. If you can provide a few more details about what you are trying to do, I'm sure there is someone that can point you in the right direction. Bob McConnell N2SPP
I believe in 8.3 on Windows the client utility is named pgAdmin3 not pgAdminIII It is installed in the postgresql folder under the start button program files in Windows as part of the windows install of postgresql. After you open from the same machine that postgres is on, there should be a list on the left that includes something like "PostgreSQL Database Server 8.3 (localhost:5432)" - that is the local instance - right click on it and from the pop up menu select connect. You will then have your database interface. You can then do most maintenance, create databases, tables, etc. PgAdmin3 also has the help file bundled into it - including information on how to use the command line psql tool. If you want to use psql from any folder in a command window, you'll need to add it to the "path" environmental variable. Otherwise you'll need to be in the bin folder in order to use (this is something like "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.3\bin") Keith Right click on the local -----Original Message----- From: Bob McConnell [mailto:rmcconne@lightlink.com] Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 4:26 PM To: Rebecca Jones Cc: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org Subject: Re: REALLY stupid question Rebecca Jones wrote: > Greetings, all - > > Now that I've installed version 8.3.4 on my WinXP HP laptop, how do I > interface with the RDBMS? I know how to start and stop the server, > even without really knowing what I'm doing thereby. But when I > activate the SQL command window I'm faced with having to supply > several parameters that I don't recall setting and haven't a clue why > I'd need to set them, i.e. "server", "port", etc. I can live without > a hand-holding interface like Access provides, but I need a little > middle ground here - what's the application I should be using to > create, load, etc. DBs? > > I do have some SQL experience, but it's all in a canned, administered > environment such as host-based DB2 or stand-alone Access. I have no > experience as a DBA, so you can see how clueless I truly am ... Hi Rebecca, As others have mentioned, psql should already be available, and PgAdminIII is an excellent client for administrators and developers. It displays and allows you to update just about every option and feature in the server. It also provides a hierarchical view of the DBMS, and any databases, schema's, roles, views, scripts, etc. that are in there. After that, it depends on your applications and tools. With a web server, PHP can be compiled with Postgres support built in. For Perl, there is DBI with the Postgres DBD drivers. I know there are libraries around for C and C++, as well as Java and several other languages. OpenOffice.Base can use it as a back end. If you can provide a few more details about what you are trying to do, I'm sure there is someone that can point you in the right direction. Bob McConnell N2SPP
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@gmail.com> wrote: > http://www.connectionstrings.com/ Good stuff.