PostgreSQL Server Programming

Extend PostgreSQL using PostgreSQL server programming to create, test, debug, and optimize a range of user-defined functions in your favorite programming language

About This Book

• Acquaint yourself with all the options to extend PostgreSQL using the programming language of your choice such as C++ and PL/Python
• Work with PostgreSQL 9.4 so you can immediately take advantage of all the improvements and new features
• Utilize the extensive code examples and many novel tips and tricks for maximum performance gain

Who This Book Is For

This book is for moderate to advanced PostgreSQL database professionals who wish to extend PostgreSQL, utilizing the most updated features of PostgreSQL 9.4. For a better understanding of this book, familiarity with writing SQL, a basic idea of query tuning, and some coding experience in your preferred language is expected.

In Detail

This book will show you that PostgreSQL is so much more than a database server. In fact, it could even be seen as an application development framework, with the added bonuses of transaction support, massive data storage, journaling, recovery, and a host of other features that the PostgreSQL engine provides.

You will get to grips with creating libraries of useful code, grouping them into even more useful components, and distributing them to the community. Then, you will take a look at user-defined functions, and how to define and utilize them efficiently. You will also learn how to extract data from a multitude of foreign data sources and extend PostgreSQL to do it natively. What's more, you can do all of this in a nifty debugging interface that will allow you to do it efficiently and reliably. This book explores all possible ways to extend PostgreSQL and write server-side code using various programming languages with concrete and easy-to-understand examples.

Usama Dar

Usama Dar is a seasoned software developer and architect. During his 14 years' career, he has worked extensively with PostgreSQL and other database technologies. He worked on PostgreSQL internals extensively while he was working for EnterpriseDB. Currently, he lives in Munich where he works for Huawei's European Research Center. He designs the next generation of high-performance database systems based on open source technologies, such as PostgreSQL, which are used under high workloads and strict performance requirements.

Hannu Krosing

Hannu Krosing was a PostgreSQL user before it was rewritten to use SQL as its main query language in 1995. Therefore, he has both the historic perspective of its development, as well as almost 20 years of experience in using it to solve various real-life problems. He was the first database administrator and database architect at Skype, where he invented the sharding language PL/Proxy that allows you to scale the user database in order to work with billions of users. After he left Skype at the end of 2006 about a year after it was bought by eBay he has been working as a PostgreSQL consultant with 2ndQuadrant, the premier PostgreSQL consultancy with a global reach and local presence in most parts of the world. He has coauthored PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook, Packt Publishing, together with one of the main PostgreSQL developers, Simon Riggs.

Jim Mlodgenski

Jim Mlodgenski is the CTO of OpenSCG, a professional services company focused on leveraging open source technologies for strategic advantage. He was formerly the CEO of StormDB, a database cloud company focused on horizontal scalability. Prior to StormDB, he has held highly technical roles at Cirrus Technology, Inc., EnterpriseDB, and Fusion Technologies. Jim is also a fervent advocate of PostgreSQL. He is on the board of the United States PostgreSQL Association as well as a part of the organizing teams of the New York PostgreSQL User Group and Philadelphia PostgreSQL User Group.

Kirk Roybal

Kirk Roybal has been an active member of the PostgreSQL community since 1998. He has helped organize user groups in Houston, Dallas, and Bloomington, IL. He has mentored many junior database administrators and provided cross-training to senior database engineers. He has provided solutions using PostgreSQL for reporting, business intelligence, data warehousing, applications, and development support. He saw the scope of PostgreSQL when his first small-scale business customer asked for a web application. At that time, competitive database products were either extremely immature or cost prohibitive.