Re: problem--pg_connect() and odbc_connect() return the same connection

pntil(at)shentel(dot)net wrote:
> I was having problems because pg_connect() (and odbc_connect()), when
> given the same connection credentials, return the SAME IDENTICAL
> connection.
>
> Given this, it is difficult to write functions that use a database
> connection but do not have unwanted side effects.
> ...
> It seems to me that much of the transaction handling, and the (ACIDity
> therein) of postgresql is lost because of this "feature" that multiple
> connection requests with the same parameters return the same exact
> connection.
>
> How do you web developers out there deal with this? Do you have some
> elegant workaround for this?
>
> Also, is there anyone on this list who works on the PHP pg_xxxxx
> extension? Has this issue ever been brought up before?

I think in many cases we wouldn't want a single script to open multiple
connections to PostgreSQL due to the per-connection overhead and limited
number of backends available. But if you really want to, there is a way
with the PostgreSQL extension:

$conn_handle = pg_connect($connstring, PGSQL_CONNECT_FORCE_NEW);

This gives you a fresh new connection regardless of any existing connection
which used the same connection info string $connstring. This feature was
added in PHP-4.3.0, so make sure you are running at least that version. It
hasn't really made the documentation, so it might be considered experimental.
But it works.