Why can I select the view definition but not the view itself, despite correct permissions? - sql

Question

I'm having a strange issue on PostgreSQL 9.0.1 on Windows Server 2003 SP2.
I connect as a superuser and then SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION to user
"X" who is a member of group role "extranet_user" which inherits
membership from group role "user". "X", "extranet_user", and even
"user" are all INHERIT.
I have the following view:
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW page_startup AS
SELECT contact.name, contact.nickname, COALESCE(
CASE
WHEN has_table_privilege('mandate'::text, 'select'::text)
THEN ( SELECT false AS bool
FROM mandate
NATURAL JOIN task
WHERE task.waiting_for = "session_user"()::text::integer AND
task.deadline < now()
LIMIT 1)
ELSE NULL::boolean
END, true) AS no_mandates
FROM contact
WHERE contact.id = "session_user"()::text::integer;
GRANT SELECT ON TABLE page_startup TO "user";
If I run this:
set session authorization "X";
select pg_has_role('user','member')
I get 't' as a result. Also, if I run this (just copying the
definition of the view):
set session authorization "X";
SELECT contact.name, contact.nickname, COALESCE(
CASE
WHEN has_table_privilege('mandate'::text, 'select'::text)
THEN ( SELECT false AS bool
FROM mandate
NATURAL JOIN task
WHERE task.waiting_for = "session_user"()::text::integer AND
task.deadline < now()
LIMIT 1)
ELSE NULL::boolean
END, true) AS no_mandates
FROM contact
WHERE contact.id = "session_user"()::text::integer;
I get the single row of data I'm looking for.
However, if I try to use the view instead of copying its definition:
set session authorization "X";
select * from page_startup
I get the following:
ERROR: permission denied for relation page_startup
********** Error **********
ERROR: permission denied for relation page_startup
SQL state: 42501
Strange, no? Any ideas why this might be?

Answer 1

Turns out restarting pgAdminIII somehow fixed it. I had, at some point after first encountering this error, changed the permissions of extranet_user to inherit, and the results had not changed. This morning I started up pgAdminIII, copied the code from this post, and it worked.