PlatzCart.com e-commerce SaaS based on PostgreSQL

Evgeny Panferov

Abstract

We explain why we chose PostgreSQL for a big SaaS application, how we use it, how we delegate most work to a database by minimizing the role of PHP-scripts --it could be even eliminated in the future. We describe the implementation, use of specific PostgreSQL features, scalability solutions.

The talk also describes efficient access control, stored functions, the HSTORE data type which keeps the database quite normalized, database 'partitioning' (one DB per user), scalability, using apgdiff to manage updates and the question "Should this be a trigger?"

Bio

Evgeny Panferov was born in 1976 in Krasnodar, Russia. He graduated in applied math at Kuban State University in 1998, trained in theory and several languages and paradigms and is employed in IT since 1997.

He participated in several web projects, including bankir.ru, and he designed and programmed platzcart.com almost solely.