generic trigger to capture table data for audit in postgres - postgresql

Need help to create a generic trigger to log all tables.
i have table named "system" and need to log it.
the log table name system_audit is created with all columns of "system" table along with additional three columns named
modified_dt,modified_by and modified_type.
modified_dt will be current_timestamp
modified_by will be the user
and modified_type specifies whether its insert,update or delete.(Need to capture new data for insert/update and old for delete)
How to write a function to capture the above said data. Also it needs to be dynamics, so that i can use it across all the tables in my schema
Note: All audit tables contains the modified_dt,modified_by and modified_type as mandatory.
I got a couple of codes from the net, but it is not working, I was working on with oracle before, and new to postgres, not sure on how to code it properly.Please help

I have managed to create a generic function and its working fine.Thanks for the help.
create or replace function audit.fn__audit()
returns trigger as
$func$
declare
col_name text:='';
audit_table_name text := TG_TABLE_NAME || '_audit';
begin
if TG_OP = 'UPDATE' or TG_OP = 'INSERT' THEN
EXECUTE format('INSERT INTO audit.%1$I SELECT ($1).*,current_timestamp,user,'''||TG_OP||'''',audit_table_name) using NEW;
else
EXECUTE format('INSERT INTO audit.%1$I SELECT ($1).*,current_timestamp,user,'''||TG_OP||'''',audit_table_name) using old;
end if;
return new;
END $func$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;

Related

Duplicate INSERT to another PostgreSQL table

I have checked similar threats but not match exactly that I am trying to do.
I have two identical tables:
t_data: we will have the data of the last two months. There will be a job for delete data older than two months.
t_data_historical: we will have all data.
I want to do: If an INSERT is done into t_data, I want to "clone" the same query to t_data_historical.
I have seen that can be done with triggers but there is something that I don't understand: in the trigger definition I need to know the columns and values and I don't want to care about the INSERT query (I trust of the client that to do the query), I only clone it.
If you know that the history table will have the same definition, and the name is always constructed that way, you can
EXECUTE format('INSERT INTO %I.%I VALUES (($1).*)',
TG_TABLE_SCHEMA,
TG_TABLE_NAME || '_historical')
USING NEW;
in your trigger function.
That will work for all tables, and you don't need to know the actual columns.
Laurenz,
I created the trigger like:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION copy2historical() RETURNS trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
EXECUTE format('INSERT INTO %I.%I VALUES (($1).*)', TG_TABLE_SCHEMA, TG_TABLE_NAME || '_historical')
USING NEW;
END;
RETURN NULL;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
COST 100;
CREATE TRIGGER copy2historical_tg
AFTER INSERT
ON t_data
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE copy2historical();
thanks for your help.

PostgreSQL: Checking for NEW and OLD in a function for a trigger

I want to create a trigger which counts rows and updates a field in an other table. My current solution works for INSERT statements but failes when I DELETE a row.
My current function:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update_table_count()
RETURNS trigger AS
$$
DECLARE updatecount INT;
BEGIN
Select count(*) into updatecount
From source_table
Where id = new.id;
Update dest_table set count=updatecount
Where id = new.id;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
The trigger is a pretty basic one, looking like.
CREATE TRIGGER count_trigger
AFTER INSERT OR DELETE
ON source_table
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE update_table_count();
When I excute a DELETE statement the following error occurs:
ERROR: record "new" is not assigned yet
DETAIL: The tuple structure of a not-yet-assigned record is indeterminate.
I know one solution could be to create just one set of trigger and function for the DELETE and one for the INSERT statement. But I want to do it a bit more elegant and want to know, if there is a solution to check if NEW or OLD is present in the current context and just implement an IF ELSE block. But I dont know how to check for this context sensitive items.
Thanks for your help
The usual approach to make a trigger function do different things depending on how the trigger was fired is to check the trigger operation through TG_OP
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update_table_count()
RETURNS trigger AS
$$
DECLARE
updatecount INT;
BEGIN
if tg_op = 'UPDATE' then
select count(*) into updatecount from source_table where id = new.id;
update dest_table set count=updatecount where id = new.id;
elsif tg_op = 'DELETE' then
... do something else
end if;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Unrelated, but: the language name is an identifier. Do not quote it using single quotes.
From PostgreSQL's documentation:
NEW
Data type RECORD; variable holding the new database row for INSERT/UPDATE operations in row-level triggers. This variable is null in statement-level triggers and for DELETE operations.
OLD
Data type RECORD; variable holding the old database row for UPDATE/DELETE operations in row-level triggers. This variable is null in statement-level triggers and for INSERT operations.
So, for example, if NEW is NULL, then the trigger was invoked on DELETE.

Postgres trigger that will insert a row into another table before it's deleted

I have a table (entry_table) filled with various geographic location data currently used by clients for our front end Web feature service. If a user deleted their entry in the WFS it is deleted in our postgres database. I would like to create a trigger that will run an INSERT command to copy the row(roughly 25 columns of data) to a second table(historical_entry_table) so if the entries are needed again in the future they can be easily retrieved.
Here's what I have working so far. I'm new to Triggers so I know the syntax is off. Not sure where to go from here. Im running postgres 8.4
In the table :
CREATE TRIGGER trigger_name BEFORE DELETE
ON entry_table
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE trigger_backup_row
The Function itself:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trigger_backup_row()
LANGUAGE SQL
RETURNS trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
INSERT INTO historical_entry_table (col1, col2, etc) values (OLD.col1, OLD.col2, OL
RETURN NULL:
END;
$BODY$
I will put a working example here:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trigger_backup_row()
RETURNS trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
INSERT INTO PCIcards_backup (MODEL, SUBSYSTEM_DEVICE, ADAPTER, MAPPING) values (NEW.MODEL, NEW.SUBSYSTEM_DEVICE, NEW.ADAPTER, NEW.MAPPING);
RETURN NEW;
END;
$BODY$
language PLPGSQL
As you can see, you only need to set the language at the end of a file with param PLPGSQL because SQL cannot return triggers.
you have just about got it. your code here, updated :
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trigger_backup_row()
RETURN trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
INSERT INTO historical_entry_table (col1, col2, etc) values (OLD.col1, OLD.col2, OLD.etc);
END;
$BODY$
Posting the correct version of the last answer:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trigger_backup_row()
RETURN trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS
$$
BEGIN
INSERT INTO historical_entry_table (col1, col2, etc) values (OLD.col1, OLD.col2, OLD.etc);
RETURN new;
END;
$$

Create Alias for PostgreSQL Table

I have a table called assignments. I would like to be able to read/write to all the columns in this table using either assignments.column or homework.column, how can I do this?
I know this is not something you would normally do. I need to be able to do this to provide backwards compatibility for a short period of time.
We have an iOS app that currently does direct postgresql queries against the DB. We're updating all of our apps to use an API. In the process of building the API the developer decided to change the name of the tables because we (foolishly) thought we didn't need backwards compatibility.
Now, V1.0 and the API both need to be able to write to this table so I don't have to do some voodoo later to transfer/combine data later...
We're using Ruby on Rails for the API.
With Postgres 9.3 the following should be enough:
CREATE VIEW homework AS SELECT * FROM assignments;
It works because simple views are automatically updatable (see docs).
In Postgres 9.3 or later, a simple VIEW is "updatable" automatically. The manual:
Simple views are automatically updatable: the system will allow
INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements to be used on the view in
the same way as on a regular table. A view is automatically updatable
if it satisfies all of the following conditions:
The view must have exactly one entry in its FROM list, which must be a table or another updatable view.
The view definition must not contain WITH, DISTINCT, GROUP BY, HAVING, LIMIT, or OFFSET clauses at the top level.
The view definition must not contain set operations (UNION, INTERSECT or EXCEPT) at the top level.
The view's select list must not contain any aggregates, window functions or set-returning functions.
If one of these conditions is not met (or for the now outdated Postgres 9.2 or older), a manual setup may do the job.
Building on your work in progress:
Trigger function
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trg_ia_insupdel()
RETURNS trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS
$func$
DECLARE
_tbl CONSTANT regclass := 'iassignments_assignments';
_cols text;
_vals text;
BEGIN
CASE TG_OP
WHEN 'INSERT' THEN
INSERT INTO iassignments_assignments
VALUES (NEW.*);
RETURN NEW;
WHEN 'UPDATE' THEN
SELECT INTO _cols, _vals
string_agg(quote_ident(attname), ', ') -- incl. pk col!
, string_agg('n.' || quote_ident(attname), ', ')
FROM pg_attribute
WHERE attrelid = _tbl -- _tbl converted to oid automatically
AND attnum > 0 -- no system columns
AND NOT attisdropped; -- no dropped (dead) columns
EXECUTE format('
UPDATE %s t
SET (%s) = (%s)
FROM (SELECT ($1).*) n
WHERE t.published_assignment_id
= ($2).published_assignment_id' -- match to OLD value of pk
, _tbl, _cols, _vals) -- _tbl converted to text automatically
USING NEW, OLD;
RETURN NEW;
WHEN 'DELETE' THEN
DELETE FROM iassignments_assignments
WHERE published_assignment_id = OLD.published_assignment_id;
RETURN OLD;
END CASE;
RETURN NULL; -- control should never reach this
END
$func$;
Trigger
CREATE TRIGGER insupbef
INSTEAD OF INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON assignments_published
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE trg_ia_insupdel();
Notes
assignments_published must be a VIEW, an INSTEAD OF trigger is only allowed for views.
Dynamic SQL (in the UPDATE section) is not strictly necessary, only to cover future changes to the table layout automatically. The names of table and PK are still hard coded.
Simpler and probably cheaper without sub-block (like you had).
Using (SELECT ($1).*) instead of the shorter VALUES ($1.*) to preserve column names.
My naming convention: I prepend trg_ for trigger functions, followed by an abbreviation indicating the target table and finally one or more of the the tokens ins, up and del for INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE respectively. The name of the trigger is a copy of the function name, stripped of the first two parts. This is purely a matter of convention and taste but has proven useful for me since the names tell the purpose and are still short.
More explanation in the related answer that has already been mentioned:
Update multiple columns in a trigger function in plpgsql
This is where I am with the trigger functions so far, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. It's a combination of http://vibhorkumar.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/instead-of-trigger/ and Update multiple columns in a trigger function in plpgsql
Table: iassignments_assignments
Columns:
published_assignment_id
name
filepath
filename
link
teacher
due date
description
published
classrooms
View: assignments_published - SELECT * FROM iassignments_assignments
Trigger Function for assignments_published
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION assignments_published_trigger_func()
RETURNS TRIGGER
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $function$
BEGIN
IF TG_OP = 'INSERT' THEN
EXECUTE format('INSERT INTO %s SELECT ($1).*', 'iassignments_assignments')
USING NEW;
RETURN NEW;
ELSIF TG_OP = 'UPDATE' THEN
DECLARE
tbl = 'iassignments_assignments';
cols text;
vals text;
BEGIN
SELECT INTO cols, vals
string_agg(quote_ident(attname), ', ')
,string_agg('x.' || quote_ident(attname), ', ')
FROM pg_attribute
WHERE attrelid = tbl
AND NOT attisdropped -- no dropped (dead) columns
AND attnum > 0; -- no system columns
EXECUTE format('
UPDATE %s t
SET (%s) = (%s)
FROM (SELECT ($1).*) x
WHERE t.published_assignment_id = ($2).published_assignment_id'
, tbl, cols, vals)
USING NEW, OLD;
RETURN NEW;
END
ELSIF TG_OP = 'DELETE' THEN
DELETE FROM iassignments_assignments WHERE published_assignment_id=OLD.published_assignment_id;
RETURN NULL;
END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$function$;
Trigger
CREATE TRIGGER assignments_published_trigger
INSTEAD OF INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON
assignments_published FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE assignments_published_trigger_func();
Table: iassignments_classes
Columns:
class_assignment_id
guid
assignment_published_id
View: assignments_class - SELECT * FROM assignments_classes
Trigger Function for assignments_class
**I'll create this function once I have received feedback on the other and know it's create, so I (hopefully) need very little changes to this function.
Trigger
CREATE TRIGGER assignments_class_trigger
INSTEAD OF INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON
assignments_class FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE assignments_class_trigger_func();

Alias a table (read/write view)

I'm wondering if it's possible in postgresql to create an additional name for a table, such that the table can be referred to by either its new alias or the original name?
Like adding a view for the table, but which writes to the underlying table when you update or insert on the 'view'.
The purpose of this is to be able to rename a table without having to update all of the db clients at once (no downtime).
You can use Postgres RULES to do this.
Check out this article.
#CraigRinger mentions this answer:
CREATE VIEW alias_as_view as SELECT * FROM original_table;
CREATE FUNCTION write_to_underlying_table() RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
IF TG_OP = 'INSERT' then
raise notice 'INSERT trigger, NEW = [%]', NEW;
ELSIF TG_OP = 'UPDATE' then
raise notice 'UPDATE trigger, OLD = [%], NEW = [%]', OLD, NEW;
ELSE
raise notice 'DELETE trigger, OLD = [%]', OLD;
END IF;
RETURN NULL;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
CREATE TRIGGER view_writable_trigger INSTEAD OF INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE
ON alias_as_view FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE write_to_underlying_table();
I've rejected it for the moment as e.g. a failing query:
INSERT INTO alias_as_view VALUES ('existing_key', 'some_value');
Seems to have executed successfully, even though the actual INSERT statement on original_table failed due to a unique key violation.