POSTGRES and ESPACE

The tar file contains basically two programs:
     1.) db_rw_sql : reads an ESPACE data base and creates a file containing
                     SQL statements that create a set of tables containing the
                     database.

     2.) db_ESPACE.py: a PYTHON script that extracts the data base
     from the SQL server (in this case POSTGRES) and creates a file
     that is readable by ESPACE.

To create the program do the following steps:

     1) extract the db_sql.tar.gz file into the spectra directory

     2) make -f db_rw_sql.mak : compiles the code and creates a
     subdirectory called sql.

     3) the program that has been created is called db_rw_sql. It can
     be run from any directory. However where ever you are running it
     it expects a sql subdirectory.

     4) Create a new SQL database using postgres. I am always using here the
     psql code, '>' is assumed to be the system prompt.
     
     >psql -c "create database my_database" or createdb my_database

     (to erase en entire database use: > psql -c "drop database my_database"
      or dropdb my_database)

     To insert the new data:
     cat sql/create_tables.sql | psql my_database

Now all the data are entered and can be accessed graphically via the
tool pgaccess which is distributes by POSTGRES or you can access the
data using psql. Using perl or PYTHON also allow you to access the
database and extract data. This is used in the PYTHON script
db_ESPACE.py that creates an ESPACE readable file from the data stored
in the SQL database using SQL queries. The same could also be
acomplished using PERL but I know PYTHON better. To run db_ESPACE.py
you habe to edit the first few lines to enter your server, user and
database name. In a future version one will be able to enter these
data via command line arguments.Running the script :

     > python db_ESPACE.py

creates a file called db_flat which is the created ESPACE database.

Notes:

Depending on your local installation of POSTGRES the configuration
file pg_hba.conf has to be edited, and you as database user need to be
allowed to create a database. For more information on POSTGRES check
their documentation e.g. at
"http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.3/static/index.html"