[Demexp-dev] MySQL and Postgresql

[Augustin]

Hi David,

You said you wanted to use posgresql instead of mysql. 
I am happy with that, but I must warn you of a few things, first.

Most (php) web sites, including most Drupal web sites use mysql and not 
postgresql.
It means that the mysql interface is much more tested, and therefore much less 
buggy and postgresql's. 

Support for postgresql in Drupal has improved since earlier versions (4.7 is 
already much better than 4.6). If postgresql doesn't work, it is considered a 
bug, so they try to fix it.
There are still a few problems: before a fix can be committed, it must be 
reviewed, but few have the ability to review them, because most use mysql. 

I don't think there will be any major problem with Drupal core. 
(two sample issues in core, both considered critical and awaiting reviews:
http://drupal.org/node/85486
http://drupal.org/node/76819 )

Where we are more likely to find bugs, will be in the contrib modules. Some 
may not have posgresql support at all. If there are bugs, it will be up to us 
to provide a patch, and hope it gets committed.

There are still other problems.
My host, ouvaton.coop, does not provide postgresql, so the test web site runs 
on mysql. 

I can try to install postgresql on my machine, to test it, but you'd have to 
teach me how to use the console to use it. My machine has hardware problems, 
so there are certain tasks that I cannot do, because some libraries were not 
installed properly -> I am not sure I will be able to properly install 
postgresql. 

For all of those reasons, I have not yet coded the pgsql part, esp. in 
demexp.install. Someone would have to help me a bit, here.

All of this means that we will need to properly test our whole setup (Drupal 
core + Drupal contrib modules + demexp.module) on postgresql before we can 
use it live. Probably, you'd have to test on your own machine. 

Even so, we can expect to find some bugs later on.


I had to warn you :)


yours,


Augustin.


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