Introduction

Howdy!

I am interested in helping to develop pgAdmin.

By way of e-introduction, my name is Mark Taff. I am a web and database
developer living near Seattle, Washington, USA.

There are a number of features/improvements to pgAdmin I would like to see
(and am willing to work on!), but I don’t want to waste my time, so I
thought it best to run them by you guys and get your feedback before I do
anything. I don’t want to be working at cross-purposes with the other
developers. So, in no particular order…

1. The treeview should automatically show newly created objects if other
objects of the same type are currently displayed. The user should never
have to `refresh below selection` unless they are in a multi-author
environment, and even then it may make sense to periodically (during low cpu
use) check the server for objects we aren’t aware of.
2. I would like to see the treeview root item be `servers`, which would have
sub nodes for different servers. I work in a multi-server environment, and
it would be nice to be able to work with objects on multiple servers at the
same time. This would open up the possibility of easily `copying` objects
from one server to another.
3. The re-engineered SQL code is nice, but it has limited usefulness. I do
most of my work using the execute sql window because in good coding
tradition, I like to leave lots of comments about just what the heck is
going on. This is most important for functions (and function-like objects).
I also like to save the SQL for each object as both an individual .sql file
and as part of a global class and object-type class files. This modular
approach allows me to pick and choose objects to quickly build a new
database. To implement such a creature, I would suggest an SQL IDE so to
speak, much like the VBA editor used in Office applications. Part of this
is also the desired ability to right-click an object in the tree and to be
able to edit _my_ sql code (with comments) rather than re-engineered SQL
code. I am keenly interested in making this a reality.
4. I would like to see a query designer with features like the one in MS SQL
Server 2000. This requires the graphical relationship plugin to be finished
first, as it would have to be an optional pane. The actual interface isn’t
really important. What I find important is having relationships, objects
and their properties, an sql pane, and a results pane all in one place.
Probably the only way to make that happen is with a full-size form in
addition to the main form.
5. Dependencies, dependencies, dependencies! On of my favorite features of
SQL Server is that it tells me when I am trying to delete an object that
other objects depend on. I realize that PostgreSQL doesn’t track such
dependencies, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. We could create a series of
PostgreSQL triggers/rules that would create/update a dependencies table on
object creation/deletion. We would then query this relation prior to
dropping an object. This is probably the cleanest approach. This shouldn’t
be too hard to implement, as PostgreSQL is kind enough to store object
information in selectable tables (hence triggerable, I think). As this
would be making some serious system changes to the server, we should get
user permission before creating these rules and triggers on the server, IMO.
6. The log window needs to have a close button to allow it to be closed. If
you are silly, as I am sometimes, you set the log window to always on top
positioned in the center of the screen space. The next time you open
pgAdmin, you can’t do anything because the tips form is modal and hidden
beneath the log window. I have to call myself silly, then use task manager
to forcibly kill pgAdmin, then edit the registry to change the log window
options.

Those are the items I would like to see implemented/fixed/improved. I would
greatly appreciate your feedback on whether these items fit in with the
development path you see for pgAdmin, as well as any other comments you may
have.

Thanks for your consideration.

Regards,

Mark Taff