Thread

I recently decided to switch to ExpressionEngine after using CodeIgniter for quite some time. I am currently fine with using MySQL for my websites, but with the recent news that MySQL is no longer releasing the source code of its enterprise server, I am worried that MySQL will not remain an adequate choice for long.  Is there any news about future plans to support PostgreSQL databases? 

I believe that PostgreSQL will only increase in popularity over time and that more and more hosting companies will provide PostgreSQL as option.  I am hoping that the people behind EE will consider adding PostgreSQL support in the future.

Actually, MySQL still does release its source code, although it’s become a bit more difficult to find. Anyway, the product as such certainly continus to be free, so there’s no need to jump ship just yet. With that in mind, there is currently no PostgreSQL support, and I am not sure how high it ranks on the list. Developers certainly have considered it in the past, but it is appearently not trivial to implement.

I believe I recall seeing something somewhere mentioned that other DB support is either slated for or at least being considered for version 2.0 of EE.  Coming from CI, I would imagine they are doing some sort of active record DB implementation. 

I too think that other DB support is nice, though certainly not crucial yet.  I can wait for version 2.0 of EE for it.  😊

To be honest, I am more used to PostgreSQL than I am with MySQL.  I don’t have a strong opinion either way, I would just prefer to use PostgreSQL.  Do you know if there is a way to at least access a PostgreSQL database through a plugin or something?

As for version 2.0.  If I purchase a license for 1.6, will I have to pay the full price again for 2.0 whenever it is released?

You might enjoy this post by Rick.

Ah, thanks for the link Lisa.  I didn’t think to look in the CI forums for info about EE.  Its good to know that Ellis Labs is interested in adding support for additional databases to EE.  I am looking forward to the release of version 2.0.

Do you know if there is a way to at least access a PostgreSQL database through a plugin or something?

Likely depends on what you need to do specifically but if all you are doing is calling certain info out of a PostgreSQL database then simply using php directly in a EE template would do it.

I realize that EE is a lot different than the frameworks I’m used to, but I’ve gotten in the habit of placing PHP code in a separate file (model) rather than in the page (view) directly.  Are templates in EE supposed to contain PHP code like this?

Hi, James - they certainly can, or you can build a plugin/module/extension to handle your needs.

EE templates can contain PHP code, yes.