How to Establish WordPress PostgreSQL Connection in Minutes?

WordPress has become the most sought-after Content Management System (CMS) for Forums, Promotional Websites, and E-Commerce Stores. The Open-Source CMS was written in PHP and supplemented with a MariaDB or MySQL database. With growing popularity and usage comes the need to integrate WordPress PostgreSQL databases.

People ask us questions- “Is it possible to use WordPress with PostgreSQL rather than MySQL?”. This blog will answer that. We’ll explore three methods to integrate WordPress PostgreSQL databases and the possible limitations associated with each. This way, you can narrow it down to the best choice and select it.

WordPress PostgreSQL Integration

Unfortunately, the official WordPress distribution only supports MySQL and MariaDB database engines. WordPress has identified a number of obstacles in developing a version that includes support for the PostgreSQL database engine. According to the official documentation, it would be costly to implement WordPress PostgreSQL integration because every new WordPress version would have to be tested against the PostgreSQL database back-end. Because many plugins also rely on MySQL-specific calls, making ‘everything’ multi-database compatible will probably never be possible.

Meanwhile, the available WordPress PostgreSQL plugins like PostgreSQL for WordPress (PG4WP) or WPPG aren’t reliable options since they haven’t been tested with the latest three major releases of WordPress. These plugins might result in incompatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Note: If you still choose to use these plugins, you should be aware of the following: WordPress PostgreSQL plugin, PG4WP is expected to be slower than the original WordPress with MySQL because PG4WP does much SQL rewriting for any page view. Some WordPress plugins should work out of the box, but many plugins won’t because they need specific code in PG4WP. 

With that being said, let’s take a look at how you can perform WordPress PostgreSQL integration using these three methods:

Methods to Integrate WordPress with PostgreSQL

You can go through the three methods shown below to integrate WordPress with PostgreSQL.

Method 1: WordPress PostgreSQL Integration Using Hevo

Hevo Data, a No-code Data Pipeline, helps you transfer data from WordPress and other 150+ data sources to PostgreSQL & lets you visualize it in a BI tool.

Steps to use Hevo Data for WordPress PostgreSQL Connection:

Hevo Data focuses on two simple steps to get you started:

• Step 1– Configure Source: The first step is to connect Hevo Data with a data source of your choice- such as WordPress. You need to specify a couple of settings to configure this, namely the pipeline name, database host, name, port, user, and password.

Read more about integrating with WordPress here.

• Step 2- Configure destination: Load data from WordPress to PostgreSQL by providing your PostgreSQL database credentials, such as your authorized PostgreSQL account, along with a name for your database, destination, and project ID. 

You can read more about PostgreSQL as a destination connector in Hevo.

Check out why Hevo is amazing:

• Data Transformation: It provides a simple interface to perfect, modify, and enrich the data you want to transfer. 
• Schema Management: Hevo can automatically detect the schema of the incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
• Incremental Data Load: Hevo allows the transfer of data that has been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.

Method 2: WordPress PostgreSQL Integration Using a Fork Version of PG4WP

Unlike the original PG4WP plugin, the fork version of PG4WP is a much more stable and superior solution that allows users to install and use WordPress with a PostgreSQL database as a backend.

Note: Before you begin, remember that the fork version of PG4WP requires WordPress version 2.9.2 or higher and has been tested up to WordPress version 4.5.3. If you are using WordPress 5.x, you should avoid utilizing this approach.

Installing the Fork Version of PG4WP

For things to operate correctly, you must install the PG4WP plugin before configuring your WordPress installation. This is because the database must be operational before any plugin can be loaded. 

To get started, open your terminal on Ubuntu and follow the instructions:

Step 1: Download WordPress.

# Point to your webserver root - typically 
$ cd /var/www/html
$ wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

# Then untar
$ tar xzf latest.tar.gz
# There will a folder named wordpress

Step 2: Create a database in PostgreSQL and grant all privileges. For example, in our case, we’ve created a database named wp1.

$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql
$ create database wp1;
$ create user adminwp1 with password 'secret123';
$ grant all privileges on database wp1 to adminwp1;
$ q 

Step 3: Edit the config file with the database from Step 2. 

# Using sed to edit the file
$ sed -e 's/database_name_here/wp1/g' -e 's/username_here/adminwp1/g' -e 's/password_here/secret123/g' -i ./wp-config.php

# that will make the following changes in wp-config.php
define( 'DB_NAME', 'wp1' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'adminwp1' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'secret123' );

Step 4: Perform this only if setting up the development environment.

$ sed 's/(def.*WP_DEBUG.*,) true/1 false/g' -i ./wp-config.php

#That will make the following changes  in wp-config.php
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

Step 5: Install PostgreSQL driver called PG4WP.

#Go into wp-content subfolder
$ cd wp-content

#Download the repository of the driver code
$ git clone https://github.com/kevinoid/postgresql-for-wordpress.git
$ mv postgresql-for-wordpress/pg4wp Pg4wp
$ cp Pg4wp/db.php db.php

Step 6: Confirm driver is set to PostgreSQL (pgsql).

$ grep DB_DRIVER db.php
# this will return the following
# define('DB_DRIVER', 'pgsql'); // 'pgsql' or 'mysql' are supported for now

Step 7: Clean up if necessary.

$ rm -rf postgresql-for-wordpress
$ rm ../../latest.tar.gz
#Finally complete the installation via web browser
https://<webserver>/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

Limitations of WordPress to PostgreSQL Integration Using a Fork Version of PG4WP

• There might be compatibility issues between WordPress’s latest version and fork.
• Plug-ins used for standard My SQL setup in WordPress might not work properly with PG4WP.
• The security issues may arise with the fork as it is not maintained properly.

Method 3: WordPress PostgreSQL Integration Using a Bridge

Another solution for integrating WordPress PostgreSQL is by creating an Application Server Bridge using a fast proxy server like HAProxy. HAProxy is free and open-source software that provides a high-availability load balancer and proxy server for TCP and HTTP-based applications.

You can also supplement your bridge with a database management system like ClusterControl for easily deploying PostgreSQL database instances with a point-and-click interface.

The only problem- this process can get time-consuming and complex especially for beginners who wish to integrate the WordPress PostgreSQL database.

Limitations of Using a Bridge for WordPress PostgreSQL Integration

• It can be complex to set up and maintain the application server bridge. You need to have expertise in both application server configuration and database interaction for this
• Application server bridge may have limited functionality as it might be designed for basic data transfer. Also, it might be cumbersome to resolve errors in it.

Use cases of WordPress PostgreSQL Integration

• PostgreSQL can handle large amounts of data with confidentiality. Thus, it is used widely in the Fintech industry. It enables complex querying and data integrity.
• It is used by enterprises as it can handle ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), HR management systems, etc.
• In the telecommunications industry, PostgreSQL is used to manage call detail records, billing information, network configurations, etc., because of its reliability and scalability.
• Healthcare: It is used in healthcare to manage patient records, medical imaging, and clinical research data.

Conclusion

WordPress PostgreSQL integration can happen in many ways- whether you want to connect using plugins like P4GWP or employ a bridge technique, both of these methods can become time-consuming and inefficient for you, causing friction in the process.

Ensure your WordPress site remains accessible and performs optimally with high availability strategies. Learn more at WordPress High Availability.

We recommend using effective ETL tools like Hevo, a simple solution to data integration that is created expressly to handle the issue of heterogeneous data source connection, allowing Small and Medium Businesses to operate smoothly with their everyday applications, including WordPress.

Hevo is the only real-time ELT No-code Data Pipeline platform that cost-effectively automates data pipelines that are flexible to your needs. With its strong integration with 150+ Sources & BI tools such as WordPress and PostgreSQL, it allows you to not only export data from sources & load data in the destinations but also transform & enrich your data, & make it analysis-ready so that you can focus only on your key business needs and perform insightful analysis using BI tools. 

References

1. https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management/all

FAQs about WordPress PostgreSQL Integration