Database Driver - PostgreSQL

The DBPostgreSQL database driver allows you to connect to PostgreSQL databases through the standard API provided by the Database Framework module.

Requirements

You will need the PostgreSQL (libpq) client libraries installed. You can download these from the PostgreSQL website.

The DBPostgreSQL module has been developed and tested using the latest version 8 PostgreSQL database and libraries. It is suggested that this is the version you use, as previous versions may not have all the functionality required for this driver.

Platform Specifics

On Windows, a libpq.a file has been provided (in the lib folder) for compilation. This should be copied into the BlitzMax/lib folder.

Linux users should install the PostgreSQL "dev" packages to enable correct linking of the applications to take place.

For MacOS, a pre-compiled package can be downloaded from here.
Note : To link to the OS X shared objects (.dylib) requires a tweak to bmk. Until the new version is released officially, see the Module Tweaks section of the Blitz forums for details of what to change.

Accessing a PostgreSQL Database

To enable a PostgreSQL connection, you simply pass a dbtype of "POSTGRESQL" to the LoadDatabase function.

The dbname parameter refers to the name of the database you wish to connect to.

The host and port parameters are optional if you are connecting to a local PostgreSQL server.

user and password should be filled in as required.

Prepared Statement Placeholders

PostgreSQL placeholders are defined by the form $n. Where n is a number starting at 1. (for example, $1, would be the first parameter).

Remember that the Database Framework bindings start at 0, rather than 1, so in the code, binding to 0 would actual bind to the placeholder $1.

SQL with PostgreSQL

For a complete guide to the PostgreSQL syntax, you can browse the excellent online documentation here.

Module Information