Subject: Testing required: pgAdmin 4 with new desktop runtime

From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2021 15:55:41 +0000

All,

As you know, when run in Desktop mode, pgAdmin 4 uses a server process
which runs all the time and opens a browser window to display the UI. Very
early versions used a Qt based runtime that integrated the browser and
server which gave a much more "normal" application feel, but unfortunately
we found that the Qt browser components had performance issues.

We've been working on a new runtime (based on NWjs, similar to Electron) to
allow us to get rid of the separate server process, and I'm please to offer
builds for testing at:

https://developer.pgadmin.org/builds/nwjs-2021-01-21-1/

There you'll find an installer for 64 bit Windows, a DMG for macOS, and RPM
and DEB packages for Fedora 31, 32 & 33, RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8, Debian 9, 10 &
11 and Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 20.10.

These builds are based on development code currently in git that will be
released as v4.30 next week. This includes phase 1 of our Kerberos support
(for logging into pgAdmin, but *not* the database servers), and the new ERD
tool. This code is still going through QA and final improvement, so please
bear that in mind.

We're aiming to release v5.0 of pgAdmin 4 in late February, based on the
new runtime, so would appreciate as much help and feedback as we can get
prior to the release.

Whilst I'm writing, I'd also like to give an update on platform support
changes;

- As previously noted in release announcements, Windows 32 bit builds are
deprecated. v4.29 will be the last 32 bit Windows build supported.

- Canonical have dropped support for Ubuntu 19.10, and now removed all of
the packages repositories. We have therefore had to drop support for it as
well; the last supported version of pgAdmin on Ubuntu 19.10 will be v4.29.

- Due to the age of the Python version it ships with, we've had to stop
producing builds for Ubuntu 16.04 (some of the security related Python
modules are no longer supported on older Python versions). v4.30 will be
the last version supported on Ubuntu 16.04.

- Builds for Ubuntu 20.10 and Debian 11 (Bullseye/testing) have been added
for the v4.30 release onwards.

Thank you!

-- 
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com

---

From: richard coleman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2021 11:01:14 -0500

Dave,

Sounds promising, can the new beta be installed alongside the existing
version?

Thanks,

rik.

On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 10:56 AM Dave Page <[email-masked]> wrote:

> We've been working on a new runtime (based on NWjs, similar to Electron)
> to allow us to get rid of the separate server process, and I'm please to
> offer builds for testing at:
>
> There you'll find an installer for 64 bit Windows, a DMG for macOS, and
> RPM and DEB packages for Fedora 31, 32 & 33, RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8, Debian 9,
> 10 & 11 and Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 20.10.
>

---

From: Doug Easterbrook <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:25:17 -0800

I’cew got it installed on my mac.   I’ll use it and see what I notice.

Doug Easterbrook
Arts Management Systems Ltd.
mailto:[email-masked]
http://www.artsman.com
Phone (403) 650-1978

> On January 21, 2021, at 7:55 AM, Dave Page <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> As you know, when run in Desktop mode, pgAdmin 4 uses a server process which runs all the time and opens a browser window to display the UI. Very early versions used a Qt based runtime that integrated the browser and server which gave a much more "normal" application feel, but unfortunately we found that the Qt browser components had performance issues.
> 
> We've been working on a new runtime (based on NWjs, similar to Electron) to allow us to get rid of the separate server process, and I'm please to offer builds for testing at:
> 
> https://developer.pgadmin.org/builds/nwjs-2021-01-21-1/ <https://developer.pgadmin.org/builds/nwjs-2021-01-21-1/>
> 
> There you'll find an installer for 64 bit Windows, a DMG for macOS, and RPM and DEB packages for Fedora 31, 32 & 33, RHEL/CentOS 7 & 8, Debian 9, 10 & 11 and Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 20.10.
> 
> These builds are based on development code currently in git that will be released as v4.30 next week. This includes phase 1 of our Kerberos support (for logging into pgAdmin, but *not* the database servers), and the new ERD tool. This code is still going through QA and final improvement, so please bear that in mind.
> 
> We're aiming to release v5.0 of pgAdmin 4 in late February, based on the new runtime, so would appreciate as much help and feedback as we can get prior to the release.
> 
> Whilst I'm writing, I'd also like to give an update on platform support changes;
> 
> - As previously noted in release announcements, Windows 32 bit builds are deprecated. v4.29 will be the last 32 bit Windows build supported.
> 
> - Canonical have dropped support for Ubuntu 19.10, and now removed all of the packages repositories. We have therefore had to drop support for it as well; the last supported version of pgAdmin on Ubuntu 19.10 will be v4.29.
> 
> - Due to the age of the Python version it ships with, we've had to stop producing builds for Ubuntu 16.04 (some of the security related Python modules are no longer supported on older Python versions). v4.30 will be the last version supported on Ubuntu 16.04.
> 
> - Builds for Ubuntu 20.10 and Debian 11 (Bullseye/testing) have been added for the v4.30 release onwards.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> -- 
> Dave Page
> Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com <http://pgsnake.blogspot.com/>
> Twitter: @pgsnake
> 
> EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com <http://www.enterprisedb.com/>
>

---

From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2021 20:29:20 +0000

Hi

> Sounds promising, can the new beta be installed alongside the existing

Only on macOS, due to the way appbundles work.

-- 
Dave Page
https://pgsnake.blogspot.com

EDB Postgres
https://www.enterprisedb.com

---

From: Jack Royal-Gordon <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2021 15:46:19 -0800

I’ve only just installed and started using the new version, but I love it. Especially that it’s in it’s own window instead of just another tab in the browser window. Kudos!

> On Jan 21, 2021, at 12:29 PM, Dave Page <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> On Thu, 21 Jan 2021 at 16:01, richard coleman <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
> Dave, 
> 
> Sounds promising, can the new beta be installed alongside the existing version?
> 
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 10:56 AM Dave Page <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
> All,
> 
> https://pgsnake.blogspot.com <https://pgsnake.blogspot.com/>
> 
> EDB Postgres
> https://www.enterprisedb.com <https://www.enterprisedb.com/>

---

From: Anthony DeBarros <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021 21:00:11 -0500

Dave,

> offer builds for testing at:
Been using this today on macOS Catalina. Very nice. No issues detected.

Nice to have it as a separate app -- makes switching between pgAdmin and
other tasks much easier.

One thing I would love now is if Command-s would save a changed file that's
open in the Query Tool. I tried looking in Preferences > Query Tool >
Keyboard Shortcuts and seeing how to make that work, but was not successful.

Anthony

---

From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2021 09:11:13 +0000

On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 11:46 PM Jack Royal-Gordon <[email-masked]> wrote:

> I’ve only just installed and started using the new version, but I love it.
> Especially that it’s in it’s own window instead of just another tab in the
> browser window. Kudos!
>

Thanks for the feedback :-)

>>> - As previously noted in release announcements, Windows 32 bit builds
>>> are deprecated. v4.29 will be the last 32 bit Windows build supported.
>>>
>>> - Canonical have dropped support for Ubuntu 19.10, and now removed all
>>> of the packages repositories. We have therefore had to drop support for it
>>> as well; the last supported version of pgAdmin on Ubuntu 19.10 will be
>>> v4.29.
>>>

---

From: Dave Page <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2021 09:13:31 +0000

> Been using this today on macOS Catalina. Very nice. No issues detected.

Great, thanks!

> One thing I would love now is if Command-s would save a changed file
> that's open in the Query Tool. I tried looking in Preferences > Query Tool
Hmm, I'm surprised that's not implemented. Please log a feature request at
https://redmine.postgresql.org/projects/pgadmin4/issues/new

Thanks.