Foreign Data Wrappers: Accessing External Data from a PostgreSQL database

Foreign data wrappers are part of Postgres's implementation of the SQL/MED (Management of External Data) extension to the SQL standard, which provides the specs for accessing data that's not actually in your database.

This might sound stuffy and boring, but it's not! If you're managing multiple datastores and want to Just Use Postgres, foreign data wrappers are a good option. There are loads of them available, for nearly every datastore you can think of, and you can write your own if you can't find what you're looking for.

This mostly-demo talk showcases file_fdw, which allows you to query local resources from your database, and postgres_fdw, which allows you to query other PostgreSQL databases. Gabrielle will cover use (and mis-use) cases, the configuration of each, and interesting quirks.

Familiarity with psql is helpful but not required for this all-levels talk.

Gabrielle Roth has been using Postgres since sometime in the version 7s, and thinks that the best part of using Open Source software is the culture of sharing knowledge. She's a Senior Data Engineer at NS1 and co-founder and former co-lead of PDXPUG.