Postgreql Hacks -- firing a trigger "for each transaction"

The problem

I spent today learning about triggers in postgresql - there are triggers "for each statement" and "for each row". I went searching for triggers "for each transaction", and found a few other folks with the same question but no compelling answer.

My use case is this - I have 2 tables, a parent (entries) and child (reports), with a one-to-many relationship. I need to add multiple reports for one entry in a single transaction, and then update the associated entry if the transaction succeeds. Here are the table definitions:

create schema transtest;
set searchpath to transtest,public;
    -- it's nice to have a sandbox
    -- remember to reset searchpath when done

create table myents ( id serial primary key, sum integer);
    -- the entries table
create table myrecs ( id serial primary key, entid integer references myents (id), cases integer);
    -- the reports table, many reports per entry
create table myids ( id integer primary key references myents (id));
    -- table used to store trigger state

The solution

It appears that deferred constraint triggers are *almost* "per transaction". But constraint triggers are *always* for each row. Yet Postgresql 9.0 allows conditions on triggers - so all I need is to store some state of whether to fire the trigger or not for each row. First, the function that I'll be using in the condition:

-- function for when-clause (condition) in trigger
-- add id to the "to-do" list if it's not there already
-- return True only if it's been added to the least
create or replace function f_condition(myid integer) returns boolean as $_$
    DECLARE
        myret boolean := True;
        newid integer;
    BEGIN
        RAISE NOTICE 'Return Value here is %', myret;
        select count(*) into newid from myids where id = myid;
        if newid > 0 then -- id is there, return False 
           myret := False; 
        else    -- add id to queue, return True
            insert into myids (id) values (myid);
        end if;
        return myret;
    END;
$_$ language plpgsql;

Next, the trigger function, which will clean up after the above function when it's done:

-- trigger function to rebuild myent.sum for this myrecs.id
create or replace function f_refresh() returns trigger as $_$
    DECLARE
        mysum integer;
        myid integer;
    BEGIN
        IF (TG_OP = 'DELETE') THEN
            myid := OLD.entid;
        ELSE 
            myid := NEW.entid;
        END IF;
        RAISE NOTICE 'Return Value here is %', myid;
        select sum(cases) into mysum from myrecs where entid = myid;
            -- compute entry sum from records and update it.
            -- PL/pgSQL rules on queries are quirky.  Read the docs.
        update myents set sum = mysum where id = myid;
        delete from myids where id = myid;
            -- clean up
    RETURN NULL;
    END;
$_$ language plpgsql;

Finally, the trigger definitions using the above.

-- only fire trigger once per myent.id using when clause (condition)
-- eval is deferred until transaction concludes
create constraint trigger t_cache after insert or update 
    on myrecs initially deferred for each row 
    when ( f_condition(NEW.entid) )  -- comment out for pre pg 9.0
    execute procedure f_refresh();

-- need 2, one for each for NEW (insert and update) and OLD (delete)
create constraint trigger t_cache_del after delete
    on myrecs initially deferred for each row 
    when ( f_condition(OLD.entid) )
    execute procedure f_refresh();

The test

All software needs to be tester, right?
I don't have pg9.0 yet, and it won't hit Ubuntu mainline until Ubuntu Natty, but it looks easy enough to install via a backports repo. So, this isn't fully tested. Comment out the "when" lines in the trigger defines and it will work, albeit running once per row *after* the commit.

In any event, here goes! The sum should be zero until after the commit. If the when clause works correctly, then the trigger should only fire (and emit a notice) once. Likewise, the myids table should be empty.

insert into myents (sum) VALUES ( 0);
begin;
    insert into myrecs (entid, cases) VALUES ( 1, 0), (1, 1), (1,2);
    select * from myents;  -- 0
    select * from myids;   -- entid from above
commit;
select * from myents;   -- new sum
select * from myids;   -- empty

References -- Postgresql Docs:

• Trigger Procedures
• Create Trigger
• PL/pgSQL