# Detailed information about PostgreSQL usage in Fab-manager

<a name="run-postgresql-cli"></a>
## Run the PostgreSQL command line interface

You may want to access the psql command line tool to check the content of the database, or to run some maintenance routines.
This can be achieved doing the following:

   ```bash
   cd /apps/fabmanager
   docker-compose exec postgres psql -Upostgres
   ```

## Dumping the database

Use the following commands to dump the PostgreSQL database to an archive file
```bash
cd /apps/fabmanager/
docker-compose exec postgres bash
cd /var/lib/postgresql/data/
pg_dump -U postgres fabmanager_production > fabmanager_production_$(date -I).sql
tar cvzf fabmanager_production_$(date -I).tar.gz fabmanager_production_$(date -I).sql
```

If you're connected to your server thought SSH, you can download the resulting dump file using the following:
```bash
scp root@remote.server.fab:/apps/fabmanager/postgresql/fabmanager_production_$(date -I).tar.gz .
```

Restore the dump with the following:
```bash
tar xvf fabmanager_production_$(date -I).tar.gz
sudo cp fabmanager_production_$(date -I).sql /apps/fabmanager/postgresql/
cd /apps/fabmanager/
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d postgres
docker-compose exec postgres dropdb -U postgres fabmanager_production
docker-compose exec postgres createdb -U postgres fabmanager_production
docker-compose exec postgres psql -U postgres -d fabmanager_production -f /var/lib/postgresql/data/fabmanager_production_$(date -I).sql
docker-compose up -d
```

<a name="postgresql-limitations"></a>
## PostgreSQL Limitations

- While setting up the database, we'll need to activate two PostgreSQL extensions: [unaccent](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/unaccent.html) and [trigram](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/pgtrgm.html).
  This can only be achieved if the user, configured in `config/database.yml`, was granted the _SUPERUSER_ role **OR** if these extensions were white-listed.
  So here's your choices, mainly depending on your security requirements:
  - Use the default PostgreSQL super-user (postgres) as the database user. This is the default behavior in Fab-manager.
  - Set your user as _SUPERUSER_; run the following command in `psql` (after replacing `username` with you user name):

    ```sql
    ALTER USER username WITH SUPERUSER;
    ```

  - Install and configure the PostgreSQL extension [pgextwlist](https://github.com/dimitri/pgextwlist).
    Please follow the instructions detailed on the extension website to whitelist `unaccent` and `trigram` for the user configured in `config/database.yml`.
- If you intend to contribute to the project code, you will need to run the test suite with `scripts/tests.sh`.
  This also requires your user to have the _SUPERUSER_ role.
  Please see the [known issues](known-issues.md) documentation for more information about this.


<a name="using-another-dbms"></a>
## Using another DBMS
Some users may want to use another DBMS than PostgreSQL.
This is currently not supported, because of some PostgreSQL specific instructions that cannot be efficiently handled with the ActiveRecord ORM:
 - `app/services/members/list_service.rb@list` is using `ILIKE`, `now()::date` and `OFFSET`;
 - `app/services/invoices_service.rb@list` is using `ILIKE` and `date_trunc()`;
 - `db/migrate/20160613093842_create_unaccent_function.rb` is using [unaccent](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/unaccent.html) and [trigram](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/pgtrgm.html) modules and defines a PL/pgSQL function (`f_unaccent()`);
 - `app/controllers/api/members_controller.rb@search` is using `f_unaccent()` (see above);
 - `db/migrate/20150604131525_add_meta_data_to_notifications.rb` is using [jsonb](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html), a PostgreSQL 9.4+ datatype;
 - `db/migrate/20160915105234_add_transformation_to_o_auth2_mapping.rb` is using [jsonb](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html), a PostgreSQL 9.4+ datatype;
 - `db/migrate/20181217103441_migrate_settings_value_to_history_values.rb` is using `SELECT DISTINCT ON`;
 - `db/migrate/20190107111749_protect_accounting_periods.rb` is using `CREATE RULE` and `DROP RULE`;
 - `db/migrate/20190522115230_migrate_user_to_invoicing_profile.rb` is using `CREATE RULE` and `DROP RULE`;
 - `db/migrate/20200511075933_fix_accounting_periods.rb` is using `CREATE RULE` and `DROP RULE`;
 - `app/models/project.rb` is using the `pg_search` gem.
 - `db/migrate/20200622135401_add_pg_search_dmetaphone_support_functions.rb` is using [fuzzystrmatch](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/fuzzystrmatch.html) module and defines a PL/pgSQL function (`pg_search_dmetaphone()`);
 - `db/migrate/20200623134900_add_search_vector_to_project.rb` is using [tsvector](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/datatype-textsearch.html), a PostgreSQL datatype and [GIN  (Generalized Inverted Index)](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/textsearch-indexes.html) a PostgreSQL index type; 
 - `db/migrate/20200623141305_update_search_vector_of_projects.rb` defines a PL/pgSQL function (`fill_search_vector_for_project()`) and create an SQL trigger for this function;
 - `db/migrate/20200629123011_update_pg_trgm.rb` is using [ALTER EXTENSION](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/sql-alterextension.html);
 - `db/migrate/20201027101809_create_payment_schedule_items.rb` is using [jsonb](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html);