pgAdmin III v1.8.0 Released

The pgAdmin Development Team are pleased to announce the release of
pgAdmin 1.8.0, the Open Source graphical PostgreSQL administration tool
for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Solaris, now available for
download in source and a variety of binary formats from:

http://www.pgadmin.org/download/

v1.8.0 represents nearly a year of development and testing to bring you
a host of new features and improvements including:

Major features
==============

- Add a macro facility to the Query Tool.
- Add support for multi-parameter aggregates.
- Treat view columns as first class citizens. Show them on the treeview,
  and allow their properties page to be viewed. Allow editting of the
  default value and comment, and reflect this in the reverse engineered
  SQL for the view.
- Integrate the EnterpriseDB pl/pgsql and EDB-SPL debugger with pgAdmin.
- Add support for enums in PostgreSQL 8.3+.
- Display catalogs separately from schemas, and don't treat them as
  system objects any longer (they can be hidden using the display
  options). Show only tables & views (as 'catalog objects') in
  pseudo-system catalogs such as information_schema and EDB's sys and
  dbo catalogs. Lock down functionality to prevent create/edit/drop
  options being offered.
- Treat all functions & procedures as 'Functions' in PostgreSQL, and
  class only EnterpriseDB edbspl functions returning void as
  'Procedures'.
- Add a set of options to allow the user to hide selected object types
  from the treeview. Note that the new default settings will hide less
  commonly used objects such as casts, languages, aggregates, operators
  etc.
- Browser support for Operator Families in PostgreSQL 8.3.
- Allow GUC variables to be preset on functions in PostgreSQL 8.3.

Enhancements
============

- Speed up loading of functions and procedures by rewriting some
  horribly inefficient code.
- Numerous changes to the database browser code to ensure changes to
  objects are properly reflected in the main window. In addition, the
  expanded/collapsed states of child nodes are retained wherever
  possible during refresh operations.
- Add an option to the Report Tool to open the output file in the
  default browser.
- Add keyboard shortcuts to show and hide UI elements.
- Display the output pane in the query tool at query completion if it's
  currently hidden.
- Retain column widths when refreshing the edit grid.
- Remove bundled copies of PostgreSQL/Slony docs to make it easier to
  localise the rest. Instead allow the use of local or online copies of
  the PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB or Slony docs, each independently of the
  other.
- Add a new command line option (-f ) to open an SQL script
  automatically when using -q or -qc.
- Add fillfactor support on tables and indexes.
- Add a new command line options (-cp ) to allow direct editing of
  pgpass files.
- Add auto-indent to the query tool.
- Add an option to show indent guides in the query tool.
- Allow spaces to be used instead of tabs in SQL editors, and ensure the
  width can be set sensibly.
- Allow detection and conversion of line ending format in the query
  tool.
- Add support for function cost and row estimations in PostgreSQL 8.3+.
- Display the is_called sequence flag.
- Position the cursor at the error position when an error occurs in the
  Query
  Tool. Ensure the line is visible.
- Use Oracle style syntax for edbspl triggers.
- Create and reverse engineer edbspl procedures using Oracle compatible
  syntax.
- Preserve column widths between queries in the query tool.
- Use EnterpriseDB's utilities for dump and restore EDB databases to
  ensure non-PG extensions can be handled.
- Add support for packages on EnterpriseDB.
- Add support for public synonyms on EnterpriseDB.
- Use pg_statindex (if available) to optionally display additional index
  statistics on a per-table basis. Also works for index-constraints.
- Allow install time re-branding. This allows rebranded versions of
  pgAdmin to be distributed without code modifications, but with
  references to the original pgAdmin being displayed instead. Also add
  support for shaped splash screens.
- Replace the Mac installer with code to create a distribution disk
  image.
- Allow entire servers to be backed up.
- Allow global objects to be backed up.
- Add a guru hint to warn the user of the consequences of storing
  passwords.
- Add options to enable/disable triggers, both individually and
  per-table.
- Use pg_stattuple (if available) to optionally display additional table
  statistics on a per-table basis.
- Add a 'Run Now' options for pgAgent jobs.
- Retain the clipboard contents on app exit.
- Add an option to show NULLs as  in the Query Tool.
- Remember last used save definition filename.
- Remember last used backup/restore filenames.
- Allow GUCs to be set on users, roles and databases at create time.

Bug fixes
=========

- Fixed UTF8 option was not effective by file reading and writing of a
  query and fixed crash at the time of file save.
- Ensure files can be converted to the required encoding before saving.
- Warn the user and allow her to abort before re-running a backup or
  restore to or from the same file, in the same session (can occur if
  the first attempt returns an error or warning).
- Ensure logfiles and pgpass files can be correctly saved on Windows
  when the username contains non-ASCII chars.
- Ensure we always allow the maximum string length possible to be
  entered in the Edit Grid.
- Sort server list alphabetically.
- Fix a crash in the Edit Grid which occured if Delete was pressed
  whilst editing a boolean.
- Load second and subsequent postgresql.conf files into the config
  editor correctly.
- Prompt the user to save changes before opening a file from the recent
  files menu on the Query Tool.
- Don't try to detect if integrated autovacuum is running on < 8.1.
- Display the constraint OID for index constraints, not the index OID.
  Add the index OID as a new property.
- Ensure the password change dialog works with stored passwords.
- Copy and paste data correctly when in a cell editor in the edit grid.
- Avoid creating graphical explain nodes for triggers as they aren't
  part of the plan and mess up the layout.
- Fix reverse engineering of data types with a size of 0, such as
  "timestamp(0) without timezone".
- Handle resetting of sequence values more consistently.
- Function/procedure signatures do not include OUT params. Fix this
  oversight, and cleanup much of the related code.
- Ensure pgAgent jobs can be managed on Greenplum database.
- Fix the table, index and index constraint tablespace property combo
  boxes to allow changes to tablespace.
- Refactor the Query Tool's execQuery function to prevent pgAdmin
  freezing while two long running queries are executing simultaneously.

Code cleanup/maintainability
============================

- Remove a lot debugging code of little or no use.
- Refactor code to remove support for building the Query Tool with a
  listview rather than a grid.
- Refactor code to remove database base classes
- Remove code specific to versions of wxWidgets that we no longer
  support.
- Remove obsolete support for non-Unicode builds.

As well as many other tweaks, improvements and bug fixes.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who gave their
time to help with the development, testing, translation and packaging of
this release.

Dave Page
pgAdmin Development Team