How to use variable settings in trigger functions?

Question

I would like to record the id of a user in the session/transaction, using SET, so I could be able to access it later in a trigger function, using current_setting. Basically, I'm trying option n2 from a very similar ticket posted previously, with the difference that I'm using PG 10.1 .

I've been trying 3 approaches to setting the variable:

• SET local myvars.user_id = 4, thereby setting it locally in the transaction;
• SET myvars.user_id = 4, thereby setting it in the session;
• SELECT set_config('myvars.user_id', '4', false), which depending of the last argument, will be a shortcut for the previous 2 options.

None of them is usable in the trigger, which receives NULL when getting the variable through current_setting. Here is a script I've devised to troubleshoot it (can be easily used with the postgres docker image):

database=$POSTGRES_DB
user=$POSTGRES_USER
[ -z "$user" ] && user="postgres"

psql -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 --username "$user" $database <<-EOSQL
    DROP TRIGGER IF EXISTS add_transition1 ON houses;
    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS houses (
        id SERIAL NOT NULL,
        name VARCHAR(80),
        created_at TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE DEFAULT now(),
        PRIMARY KEY(id)
    );

    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS transitions1 (
        id SERIAL NOT NULL,
        house_id INTEGER,
        user_id INTEGER,
        created_at TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE DEFAULT now(),
        PRIMARY KEY(id),
        FOREIGN KEY(house_id) REFERENCES houses (id) ON DELETE CASCADE

    );

    CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION add_transition1() RETURNS TRIGGER AS \$\$
        DECLARE
            user_id integer;
        BEGIN
            user_id := current_setting('myvars.user_id')::integer || NULL;
            INSERT INTO transitions1 (user_id, house_id) VALUES (user_id, NEW.id);
            RETURN NULL;
        END;
    \$\$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

    CREATE TRIGGER add_transition1 AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE ON houses FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE add_transition1();

    BEGIN;
    %1% SELECT current_setting('myvars.user_id');
    %2% SELECT set_config('myvars.user_id', '55', false);
    %3% SELECT current_setting('myvars.user_id');
    INSERT INTO houses (name) VALUES ('HOUSE PARTY') RETURNING houses.id;
    SELECT * from houses;
    SELECT * from transitions1;
    COMMIT;
    DROP TRIGGER IF EXISTS add_transition1 ON houses;
    DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS add_transition1;
    DROP TABLE transitions1;
        DROP TABLE houses;
EOSQL

The conclusion I came to was that the function is triggered in a different transaction and a different (?) session. Is this something that one can configure, so that all happens within the same context?

Answer 1

It is not clear why you are trying to concat NULL to user_id but it is obviously the cause of the problem. Get rid of it:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION add_transition1() RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
    DECLARE
        user_id integer;
    BEGIN
        user_id := current_setting('myvars.user_id')::integer;
        INSERT INTO transitions1 (user_id, house_id) VALUES (user_id, NEW.id);
        RETURN NULL;
    END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Note that

SELECT 55 || NULL

always gives NULL.