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Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

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Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#61

Post by dmos62 »

hebrox wrote: post #55

Looks really cool! I tried the install script and it asked me for my computer password. It feels really dangerous to give a random script from the internet my password. Could you maybe change this, so this is not necessary?

We might do well to add to the script a more in-depth explanation of why elevated privileges are needed. We did take care to not run the whole script as sudo, but only parts of it (always read a script before giving it privileges!).

So elevated privileges are needed because we're installing using Docker Compose and you can't use Docker without some form of elevated privileges (most people always run it with sudo). MacOS is a slightly different story, but anyway.

The reason we use Docker Compose is because we need to not only deploy Mathesar, but also a Postgres database (if you're not using your own), and we want maximally simple installs and in-app upgrading (upgrading is implemented via Watchtower, which is basically fancy docker pulls with automatic container restarts).

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#62

Post by mathemancer »

hultner wrote: post #59

Looks cool however I don’t like that it needs to be setup with a super-user and that it’s limited to your three predetermined access roles. I have a project in mind where this tool could be useful but everything is built with row level security policies and roles, the database includes sensitive data and authentication user for the connection have basically no access by itself, so it looks like Mathesar wouldn’t be u…

I agree that we have some work to do on access control. In fact, we have setting up Mathesar users with the 1:1 database user mapping in our roadmap[1]. Assuming you're referring to the Database super user as being a problem, we also have giving more granular control over that to the installer in the future. I completely understand reluctance to give a webapp super user access to a production database.

[1] https://mathesar.org/roadmap.html

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#63

Post by x98asfd »

dmos62 wrote: post #61
hebrox wrote: post #55

Looks really cool! I tried the install script and it asked me for my computer password. It feels really dangerous to give a random script from the internet my password. Could you maybe change this, so this is not necessary?

We might do well to add to the script a more in-depth explanation of why elevated privileges are needed. We did take care to not run the whole script as sudo, but only parts of it (always read a script before giving it privileges!). So elevated privileges are needed because we're installing using Docker Compose and you can't use Docker without some form of elevated privileges (most people always run it with sudo). Ma…

Thanks for the explanation. Is there a way to NOT use docker. For those of us who are NOT on linux, and are quite comfortable with postgres install and running. Would prefer just a postgres connection string.

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#64

Post by silentninja »

x98asfd wrote: post #63
dmos62 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We might do well to add to the script a more in-depth explanation of why elevated privileges are needed. We did take care to not run the whole script as sudo, but only parts of it (always read a script before giving it privileges!). So elevated privileges are needed because we're installing using Docker Compose and you can't use Docker without some form of elevated privileges (most people always run it with sudo). Ma…

Thanks for the explanation. Is there a way to NOT use docker. For those of us who are NOT on linux, and are quite comfortable with postgres install and running. Would prefer just a postgres connection string.

We are actively working on adding a new install process to help users install Mathesar without Docker. We have an issue[1] to track it.

[1] https://github.com/centerofci/mathesar/issues/2427

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#66

Post by hultner »

mathemancer wrote: post #62
hultner wrote: post #59

Looks cool however I don’t like that it needs to be setup with a super-user and that it’s limited to your three predetermined access roles. I have a project in mind where this tool could be useful but everything is built with row level security policies and roles, the database includes sensitive data and authentication user for the connection have basically no access by itself, so it looks like Mathesar wouldn’t be u…

I agree that we have some work to do on access control. In fact, we have setting up Mathesar users with the 1:1 database user mapping in our roadmap[1]. Assuming you're referring to the Database super user as being a problem, we also have giving more granular control over that to the installer in the future. I completely understand reluctance to give a webapp super user access to a production database. [1] https://ma…

Very nice to hear, I will follow your project. One of the projects I was thinking about is financial systems used by government actors such as correctional services. For these customers there’s strong legal requirements for data handling so a database super user with full access is a big no-no even for the most trusted developers internally.

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#67

Post by mathemancer »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #65

Looks really nice. Is there any way to export an exploration as SQL? I guess this can be useful when creating complicated views etc.

Not at the moment, but it is in our roadmap[1]. In fact, we're planning to help users start or tinker with data explorer, then switch to an SQL editor starting from their exploration so far. That way, they can use features or queries beyond what we currently support in the GUI.

[1] https://mathesar.org/roadmap.html

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#69

Post by nickreese »

nickreese wrote: post #68

Wow, this is the best explanation of db relationship types I've seen. https://capture.dropbox.com/A3a1aybKNDy1ttEx Really polished. Congrats on the launch!

Tried tossing in some of the datasets found here: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/archived-data/nursing-hom... and none of the file uploads worked.

Either way, really stoked for this.

Re: Show HN: Mathesar – open-source collaborative UI for Postgres databases

#70

Post by mathemancer »

nickreese wrote: post #69
nickreese wrote: post #68

Wow, this is the best explanation of db relationship types I've seen. https://capture.dropbox.com/A3a1aybKNDy1ttEx Really polished. Congrats on the launch!

Tried tossing in some of the datasets found here: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/archived-data/nursing-hom... and none of the file uploads worked. Either way, really stoked for this.

I think some of those data sets are likely too big for our poor demo server. It's had a stressful day.

I did try with some of the smaller sets, though, and they seem to work. An advantage of Mathesar is that you can always self-host, and provision enough resources for whatever data size you have!

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