[ppa-dev] The "right way" to process multiple user-supplied sql statements

[Karl O. P. <ko...@me...>]

Hi,

So, after long pursuing what now seem the wrong path,
if ppa is to take
multiple sql statements from the user's
entry on the free-form sql page and supply
the user with results from all the statements
the way forward now seems clear.
(For me this has been the holy grail, to have
ppa be interactive in the same way that psql is.)

The libpq functions PQsendQuery() and PQgetResult()
put the burden of distinguishing one sql statement
from another on libpq.  These functions are in php,
but not in adodb or pdo.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/libpq-async.html

It seems clear that we want to avoid having write and
maintain an SQL statement parser in ppa if at all possible.  Since
libpq supplies a parser I think that if we want this feature
we need to use what libpq supplies.  I don't see this feature
getting into either adodb or even pdo any time soon,
if ever, since they are supposed to be cross-database
abstractions, other databases in so far as I am aware
do not have this feature, and neither adodb nor pdo
is likely to implement a parser in order to supply
the feature across all databases.

As I see it there are only 2 possible approaches:
hack the functionality into adodb and maintain
that patch forever. or use the postgres functions
built into php, including PQsendQuery() and
PQgetResult(), when processing user supplied sql.
Although postgres will not then be abstracted away
in the user-supplied query processing code,
and will be different from the rest of the code, I don't
see this as a huge obstacle for reasons that 
I'd be happy to go into.

So, my inclination is to go ahead and implement the
ability to process multiple user-supplied sql statements
using php's postgres db functions.  But I want some
consensus before I get started, this time.  :-)

I'd like to discuss all options.  Can this be on the
table?  How should we proceed, email, irc, or ???

Thanks,

Karl <ko...@me...>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                 -- Robert A. Heinlein