Unable to create Postgres trigger on AWS serverless database - postgresql

Question

I am trying to create a trigger on an AWS serverless Postgres database. The problem I am having is that AWS Query Editor is breaking up the create trigger statement into 3 partial statements.
When I submit this create function statement:
create or replace function init_vstamp()
returns trigger as $body$
begin
new.vstamp := 1;
end;
$body$ language plpgsql;
It is getting broken up into these three partial statements by Query Editor:
create or replace function init_vstamp()
returns trigger as $body$
begin
new.vstamp := 1;
end;
$body$ language plpgsql;
Query Editor is forcing each statement to terminate at the semicolon, and the semicolon is required by Postgres syntax.
The error for the first statement is:
Unterminated dollar quote started at position 60 in SQL create or replace function init_vstamp() returns trigger as $body$ begin new.vstamp := 1;DISCARD ALL. Expected terminating $$
I have been unable to find any AWS Query Editor options to run the contents of the editor window as a single statement.
Similar problems on a different platform were noted here. I tried some of the solutions there to no avail.

Answer 1

I did not find a way to do this from the AWS Query Editor UI, but I came up with this work around. Note that AWS Serverless databases do not support public access, so you must access the database from an EC2 instance on the same VPC.
Establish an EC2 instance on the same VPC.
Install docker on your EC2 instance. Instructions here.
Run a docker container with psql client. Container here. This container runs psql 10.3 which seems to work fine with a 10.7 database.
syntax:
docker run -it --rm jbergknoff/postgresql-client postgresql://{username}#{aws-endpoint}/{database}
Most likely your {username} and {database} will be 'postgres'. The {aws-endpoint} is the endpoint name assigned to your RDS cluster by AWS. The default port is 5432.
If connectivity is good, you will immediately be prompted for a password. From there you can run traditional psql commands.
If connectivity is bad, the command line will appear to hang with a flashing cursor. The most likely connectivity problems are:
EC2 and RDS are not on the same VPC.
RDS inbound traffic is not enabled for Postgres port 5432 from EC2.
The database is paused due to inactivity (this one will self-correct).