Re: Admin functions contrib

Dave Page wrote:
> > Also, what happens if you find that the contrib package
> > doesn't do everything you need? You'll be stuck for another
> > PG release cycle, whereas rejiggering a plperl function that
> > pgadmin is defining for itself is no problem.
>
> pgAdmin I used to create helper functions and views on the server, and
> not only were they a *real* pain in the neck to manage, but they were
> also the most often complained about 'feature' of pgAdmin, to the extent
> that when pgAdmin II was written, rule number #1 was 'it must offer 100%
> functionality on a clean, standard database with no server side
> objects'. In pga1 it even got to the stage that I wrote a cleanup wizard
> to allow ppl to remove the stuff that was created. We also had problems
> with people who had limited access to their servers (because they were
> ISP hosted etc). I've not even persuaded hub.org to install pl/pgsql for
> the postgresql.org sites for example - I can't imagine the response I'd
> get if I asked for pl/perlu!!
>
> This is primarily why we want to get the functionality into the backend.
> Secondary to that, it will also allow phpPgAdmin and other tools to
> offer the same functionality. It could be argued of course, that a
> contrib module violates our standard database rule (which it does), but
> it does at least allow us to get some standard code into the
> distribution, in a way that /might/ be compatible with the feature
> freeze, with a view to full integration in the next cycle. As Bruce has
> seen, this is some pretty nice functionality that Andreas has added to
> pga3, and is one of the few areas that we lag behind SQL Server etc. in
> on the management front.

Ouch, that is a powerful argument! The big problem is that we are
designing features a month after feature freeze. Not that the ideas
weren't around before feature freeze, but they are still not solid from
a community agreement perspective. Let's get the logging working and
then figure out what to do, OK?

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us | (610) 359-1001
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