PostgreSQL FOREIGN KEY with second database

Question

I'm running the following queries on PostgreSQL 9.3:

CREATE TABLE "app_item" 
  ( 
     "id"          SERIAL NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, 
     "location_id" UUID NOT NULL 
  ); 

CREATE INDEX app_item_e274a5da 
  ON "app_item" ("location_id"); 

ALTER TABLE "app_item" 
  ADD CONSTRAINT app_item_location_id_5cecc1c0b46e12e2_fk_fias_addrobj_aoguid 
  FOREIGN KEY ("location_id") REFERENCES "fias_addrobj" ("aoguid") deferrable 
  initially deferred;

Third query returns:

ERROR: relation "fias_addrobj" does not exist

• app_item - table in first database
• fias_addrobj - table in second database

How to do correct query with this databases?

Answer 1

I've not had occasion to use this myself, but you might want to look into Foreign Data Wrappers, which are essentially the successor to dblink. In particular, postgres-fdw.

Once the general setup of the fdw is in place (steps 1-3 in the link above), you could create a foreign table via CREATE FOREIGN TABLE, defined like the table in your remote DB, and then use that table as part of the foreign key CONSTRAINT, and see if it works.

If that doesn't work, another option would be to have a process which ETL's the data (say, via a Python script) from the remote server over to the local server (say, on an hourly or daily basis, depending on the size), and then you would have a true local table to use in the foreign key CONSTRAINT. It wouldn't be real-time, but depending on your needs, may suffice.