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PostgreSQL Conversion

An entire 2.5 ODS database was scripted out and paintstakingly converted over so that it would execute successfully as pg-sql, thus building out the full ODS schema in a postgres database.

1. Eliminate boilerplate at the top of the script - things related to SQL Cmd mode, connection properties (e.g. ansi_padding), etc.
2. Replace all [ ] qualifiers with nothing. Postgres uses quotation marks as qualifiers as needed. However, when you use them to create a object, then you are stuck permanently using them. Best to create without the quotation marks.
3. Create a dbo schema, belonging to the postgres user.
4. Alter other schemas so that they belong to the postgres user instead of dbo.

5. Fix data types

   T-SQL Type	PG-SQL Type	Notes
   NVARCHAR	VARCHAR	postgres implicitly converts

   unicode encodings on-the-fly. Since the Ed-Fi ODS is for use in the United States, UTF-16 support hardly seems necessary anyway

   handles all text as Unicode.
   DATETIME	TIMESTAMP	Not using TIMESTAMPTZ (with timezone) because the source data has no record of the time zone to begin with.
   DATETIME2	TIMESTAMP
   UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	CHAR(40)
   BIT	SMALLINT	While postgres has a bit data type, it does not implicitly convert integer to bit. Instead it requires use a string '0' or '1' (or 'true', etc.). For maximum compatibility with existing code that uses the integer 0/1 instead of string '0'/'1', we should simply switch to smallint.

   
   

6. Postgres's cluster concept is different and more analysis is needed to know if it is needed (explicitly) for performance benefits. Remove CLUSTERED and NONCLUSTERED keywords from all indexes and primary key constraints. Also remove PAD_INDEX from constraints. Safe to leave in FILLFACTOR.
7. Remove WITH CHECK and NOCHECK from constraints.
8. The pg-equivalent of INT IDENTITY is SERIAL. Reg ex: /INT\s+IDENTITY\s*\(1, 1\)/ replace with SERIAL
9. Remove all PRINT statements and extended properties (table/column descriptions). Extended properties can be rewritten as COMMENTs but the effort was not worthwhile in this POC.
10.  Views
    1. Remove WITH SCHEMABINDING
    2. Replace COUNT_BIG(*) with COUNT(*), as postgres's COUNT function already returns a big integer.

    3. Remove all indexes on views.

       Note
       In a real conversion, some views might need to materialized views for performance optimization.

       
       

    4. Ensure that all view definitions end in a semi-colon.
    5. In auth.LocalEducationAgencyIdToStaffUSI, cast null values as integer.

    6. UNPIVOT must be rewritten with UNION ALL statements.

       Expand

       T-SQL PG-SQL Code Block language sql CREATE VIEW [auth].[EducationOrganizationIdToStateAgencyId] AS SELECT DISTINCT StateEducationAgencyId, EdOrgId as EducationOrganizationId FROM (SELECT * FROM auth.EducationOrganizationIdentifiers) As Source UNPIVOT (EdOrgId FOR IdType IN (EducationServiceCenterId, LocalEducationAgencyId, SchoolId)) -- Only ESCs, LEAs and Schools are accessible to State-level claims As UnpivotedSource UNION -- State-level claims also can access the State SELECT StateEducationAgencyId, StateEducationAgencyId AS EducationOrganizationId FROM edfi.StateEducationAgency GO Code Block language sql CREATE VIEW auth.EducationOrganizationIdToStateAgencyId AS SELECT StateEducationAgencyId, EducationServiceCenterId as EducationOrganizationId FROM auth.EducationOrganizationIdentifiers WHERE EducationServiceCenterId IS NOT NULL UNION SELECT StateEducationAgencyId, LocalEducationAgencyId as EducationOrganizationId FROM auth.EducationOrganizationIdentifiers WHERE LocalEducationAgencyId IS NOT NULL UNION SELECT StateEducationAgencyId, SchoolId as EducationOrganizationId FROM auth.EducationOrganizationIdentifiers WHERE SchoolId IS NOT NULL UNION -- State-level claims also can access the State SELECT StateEducationAgencyId, StateEducationAgencyId AS EducationOrganizationId FROM edfi.StateEducationAgency;

       
       

    7. Views that use common table expressions (CTE) recursively need to be modified by adding the keyword RECURSIVE immediately after WITH. Affected views: StudentAssessmentStudentObjectiveAssessmentH, ObjectiveAssessmentH_CTE, LocalEducationAgencyH, LearningStandardH, LearninbjectiveH, AssessmentFamilyH.

    8. Default values in postgres are not constraints, so the syntax needs to be altered.

       1. Substitute now() for getdate().

          From	To
          /ALTER TABLE ([^\s]+)[\s\n]+(?:ADD CONSTRAINT (?:[^\s]+)) DEFAULT \(getdate\(\)\) FOR (\w+)/	ALTER TABLE $1 ALTER COLUMN $2 SET DEFAULT now()

          
          

       2. Replace newid() with uuid_generate_v4(). This requires first configuring uuid support by running CREATE EXTENSION "uuid-ossp".

          From	To
          /ALTER TABLE ([^\s]+)[\s\n]+(?:ADD CONSTRAINT (?:[^\s]+)) DEFAULT \(newid\(\)\) FOR (\w+)/	ALTER TABLE $1 ALTER COLUMN $2 SET DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4()

          
          

    9. The maximum identifier length is 63. Longer identifiers are automatically truncated. This results in many foreign key names overlapping. To avoid this, use reasonable abbreviations to shorten these seven problematic beginnings to foreign keys:

       From	To
       fk_educationorganizationnetworkassociation_educationorganization	fk_edorgnetworkassociation_edorg
       fk_learningstandardprerequisitelearningstandard_learningstandard	fk_lrnstdprerequisitelrnstd_lrnstd
       fk_educationcontentderivativesourceeducationcontent_educationcontent	fk_edconderivativesourceedcon_edcon
       fk_studentassessmentstudentobjectiveassessmentperformancelevel	fk_studassessmentstudobjassessmentperflvl
       fk_postsecondaryeventpostsecondaryinstitutionidentificationcode	fk_pstscdryeventpstscdryinstidcode
       fk_postsecondaryeventpostsecondaryinstitutionmediumofinstruction	fk_pstscdryeventpstscdryinstmediumofnstrn
       fk_educationorganizationidentificationcode_educationorganization	fk_edorgidcode_edorg

       
       

Change Queries

I was able to evaluate some of the code for the Change Queries feature coming in version 3.1. Thankfully it is possible to convert this code.

Potential Application Problems

• As noted above, COUNT() in postgres returns a big integer, not an integer. This could potentially mean needing to switch return types in C# from int to long - and it might be difficult to find where this is needed.
• Exceptions coming back from the SQL connections will be of a different type, with different codes. Will need to look closely at the code base to see if this requires any changes.
• Hard-coded SQL exists in some places in the applications, and in many places in the unit tests. These SQL statements will all have to be evaluated with the conversion rules in mind. Preferably they would be completely removed from the code base, instead relying only on an ORM. Complex queries should be replaced with views. This is just a good practice, as hard-coded SQL embedded in C# is hard to maintain even if using only a single RDBMS.

Solution Challenges

Code Generation

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Install/Migration Scripts

Individual SQL scripts in the repositories often have some T-SQL-specific syntax in them. An example I saw while doing a code review of the new operational context work for 3.1:

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In this example, lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are all problematic in pg-sql.