Re: A few questions

Comments prefixed with DP:

_____________Original message ____________
Subject: [pgadmin-support] A few questions
Sender: Dino Nardini <dnardini(at)rivendellsoftware(dot)com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:33:52 +0000

Hello there,

I am currently evaluating linux databases solutions, looking for a viable
alternative to MS SQL Server.

Although there seems to be a growing swell of interest in MySQL (especially
with it's PHP sidekick), I found this system seriously lacking in a few
features which I have come to depend on from an enterprise-level RDBMS,
namely foreign keys/referential integrity, sub-queries, and transaction
processing. Personally, I wouldn't consider a database system in the
RDBMS category unless it supported referential integrity.

I was pleased to find that Postgres supports many, if not all, of the
features I require. It's been a number of years since I've used Postgres
(with Perl/CGI) and it's nice to see that the software has made big
advances into the enterprise-level database world.

I've decided to evaluate by porting an existing web application over to
Postgres. What I needed was a nice GUI tool to re-create the database...
which is how I stumbled upon pgAdmin. First of all, I'd like to commend
the developers on a great tool that seems to fill a void in the postgres
development world. I could not find many other postgres GUI tools out
there, and none with as many features.

DP: Thanks.

I proceeded to create the tables and fields... but then ran into a few
issues. When I originally create a table, pgAdmin will allow me to create
columns, assign properties and create foreign keys. However, when I return
to edit columns in the table, I find that I can no longer add foreign keys,
or edit column properties. Am I missing something here?

DP: No, these features don't exist mainly because they are not in PostgreSQL itself yet.

It is common in my development cycle to return and edit tables many times
as code is created. The code must fit the business processes, and the
database must fit the code. I chalk it up to bad project management :)

Is there a way to edit column properties once a table is created? I
understand that this is a young product, and possibly these features may be
forthcoming?

DP: You can rename columns, and change the default values & comments by selecting them in the treeview, then right-click properties.

Otherwise, a damn fine product.

DP: Thanks,

regards Dave.