Refresh a materialized view automatically using a rule or notify

Question

I have a materialized view on a PostgreSQL 9.3 database which seldom changes (about twice a day). But when it does, I\'d like to update its data promptly.

Here is wha

Answer 1

You should refresh the view in triggers after insert/update/delete/truncate for each statement on table1 and table2.

create or replace function refresh_mat_view()
returns trigger language plpgsql
as $$
begin
    refresh materialized view mat_view;
    return null;
end $$;

create trigger refresh_mat_view
after insert or update or delete or truncate
on table1 for each statement 
execute procedure refresh_mat_view();

create trigger refresh_mat_view
after insert or update or delete or truncate
on table2 for each statement 
execute procedure refresh_mat_view();

In this way your materialized view is always up to date. This simple solution might be hard to accept with frequent inserts/updates and sporadic selects. In your case (seldom changes about twice a day) it ideally fits your needs.

---

To realize deferred refresh of a materialized view you need one of the following features:

• asynchronous trigger
• trigger before select
• rule on select before

Postgres has none of them, so it seems that there is no clear postgres solution.

Taking this into account I would consider a wrapper function for selects on mat_view, e.g.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION select_from_mat_view(where_clause text)
RETURNS SETOF mat_view AS $body$
BEGIN
  -- here is checking whether to refresh the mat_view
  -- then return the select:
  RETURN QUERY EXECUTE FORMAT ('SELECT * FROM mat_view %s', where_clause);
END;
$body$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

If it is acceptable in practice depends on particulars I do not know about.