Advantage Announcements

Advantage Database January Newsletter

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:43:48 GMT

The Advantage Database January Newsletter has been posted.

Advantage Database December Newsletter

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:06:37 GMT

The Advantage Database December Newsletter has been posted.

Ken Levy's VFP with ADS screencast

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:05:47 GMT

We have just posted a new screencast by Ken Levy, former VFP Product Manager at Microsoft, demonstrating concurrent data access scenarios with VFP and ADS. He describes how ADS can help extend VFP applications by integrating new technologies and how ADS is playing a key role in modernizing VFP applications.

http://video.sybase.com/products/advantage/Sybase_ADS_VFP.wmv

OLE DB Provider Update (9.10.0.16) / CloneDBC Utility now available

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:56:35 GMT

Version 9.10.0.16 of the OLE DB Provider is now available on the Advantage Database Developer's Zone.
http://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/content.aspx?key=20&Release=13&Product=15&Platform=6

This version includes a new utility for the Visual FoxPro community called CloneDBC. CloneDBC is an upgraded version of the popular DBCconvert utility previous shipped with the OLE DB Provider. CloneDBC was written by Doug Hennig and now includes a GUI, amongst other enhancements. The utility creates an Advantage Data Dictionary (ADD) from an existing DBC by cloning it. CloneDBC does not convert your current DBC, the DBC stays intact while its information it used to populate the new ADD.

Below is an explanation from the help file. For further information on additional enhancements and using the new utility, install the OLEDB Provider and search the help for CloneDBC.

"One of the most interesting things about the Advantage Database Server (ADS) from a Visual FoxPro (VFP) perspective is that it can use either a proprietary file format (files with an ADT extension) or DBF files for data storage. While there are benefits to using ADT files, including additional data types DBFs don't support, using DBFs makes it easier to migrate an existing VFP application to a client/server model. What's really interesting about this is that you can access your existing DBFs through ADS to take advantage of the features ADS provides while still accessing them directly as VFP tables. This makes a very attractive migration strategy: you can modify your application module by module to use client/server techniques while older modules continue to work unchanged.

Although ADS supports most VFP data features, some of this support relies on using an Advantage database rather than "free" tables. (From an ADS point-of-view, even tables in a VFP DBC are free tables if they aren't included in an ADS database.) This includes support for long field names, primary keys, referential integrity, field and table validation, triggers, and so on; in other words, the same things the VFP database container is used for. In anything but a small database, it would be quite a bit of work to create an Advantage database for an existing VFP database. Fortunately, the VFP Conversion Utility for ADS takes care of this work for you.

Note that the utility doesn't "convert" your VFP tables or database; it creates an Advantage database and populates it with information about the tables in a VFP database.

The utility comes with complete source code so you can see how it was written and customize it if you wish."

September Advantage Database Newsletter

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:14:58 GMT

The September Advantage Database Newsletter has been posted.

Advantage Delphi Components for RAD Studio 2010

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:57:08 GMT

The Advantage Delphi Components have been updated to support RAD Studio 2010.

The version 9.1 download can be found here.

The version 8.1 download can be found here.

Advantage CHM Help File

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:17:14 GMT

A new 9.1 Advantage CHM Help File is now available: See http://jdmullin.blogspot.com/2009/09/advantage-chm-help-file.html for details.

Advantage Delphi 2010 Support

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:30:08 GMT

As many of you have heard, Delphi 2010 (or “RAD Studio 2010”) has shipped. We will be updating the Advantage Delphi Components and releasing 8.1 and 9.1 updates in the next few weeks. Our first update will include basic changes in the Advantage Delphi Components to support Delphi 2010. This update will let you use our components in Delphi 2010 just as you do in Delphi 2009 and older versions today. A subsequent release will include updates that expand on some of the new functionality in Delphi (verb hints in the Object Inspector, JSON serialization, etc.).

July Advantage Database Newsletter

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:17:14 GMT

The July Advantage Database newsletter has been posted.

June Advantage Database Newsletter

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:40:47 GMT

The June Advantage Newsletter has been posted.

Advantage 9.1 now supports the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:01:33 GMT

Advantage 9.10.0.9 Supports the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework
The ADO.NET Entity Framework from Microsoft simplifies the development of data aware applications and reduces the amount of code database application developers must write. Typically, databases are designed by developers who ensure that all information is stored in schemas optimized for data retrieval. Although these schemas provide efficient access to data, they are not the best method of representing the business objects required by applications. Often, programmers must design and implement methods for transforming the data stored in relational systems into robust and reusable objects that are integral parts of enterprise solutions. The ADO.NET Entity Framework provides an intuitive approach to designing business logic based on relational data. Using the ADO.NET Entity Framework, Advantage developers can use LINQ to Entities to access data stored inside an Advantage Database.

To download the 9.10.0.9 maintenance release, go to: http://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/content.aspx?key=31

For more details on the framework visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb399567.aspx

Advantage Technical Training Summit in Washington D.C.

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:11:35 GMT

Mark you calendars! The Advantage Technical Training Summit in Washington
D.C. is set for August 26-28th. Registration will be available near the end
of this June.

For details check out http://www.sybase.com/adssummit

May Advantage Newsletter

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:07:24 GMT

The May Advantage Newsletter has been posted.

9.1 Update (9.10.0.9) is now available

Fri, 22 May 2009 17:45:34 GMT

A 9.1 Update (9.10.0.9) is now available on the Developer's Zone Product Download Area
http://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/content.aspx?key=20&Release=13

This Service Update addresses the following issues:

9.10.0.9 - Advantage Client Engine (ACE)
Fixed an issue where referential integrity violations that produce a 5016 error would fail to return the offending index name.

Fixed an issue that prevented Delphi grids from going to the bottom of static SQL result sets.

Fixed an issue that caused an extra trip to the server on table open operations.

Fixed an issue with AdsSetEmpty where BLOB fields would not be cleared until the record was committed.

Fixed an issue where attempting to create a dictionary table which already exists would destroy the existing table.

Fixed an issue where users in the DB:Admin group did not have permissions to the system.columns table, causing the Advantage Data Architect table designer to show an empty table schema.

Fixed an issue where ACE could cause an access violation if the AdsRestructureTable90 API was called with an invalid collation name.

Fixed an issue that caused incorrect results to be returned in a static cursor when transaction commands were used in user defined functions.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage Data Architect (ARC)
Fixed an issue where using the data import tool to import tables into an existing data dictionary resulted in the following error "There was an error changing the field: to the AutoInc type".

Fixed an issue where the Remote Management Utility inside the Advantage Data Architect would only show a maximum of 200 active users and tables.

Fixed ARC remote management utility grids to allow sorting, reordering columns, and multi-select when disconnecting users. Also modified file paths to display the full path in a hover hint when the path is larger than the column.

Fixed an issue where the Advantage Data Architect visual RI designer would return 5132 errors when working with tables with a name over 15 characters long.

Fixed an issue where the Advantage Data Architect import wizard would not correctly import Advantage FoxPro files that had full text search (FTS) indexes.

Modified the Advantage Data Architect to allow local server connections when used from a remote desktop client without raising the 5185 (AE_LOCAL_CONN_RESTRICTED) exception.

Modified the Advantage Data Architect table designer to automatically add the !deleted condition to primary key indexes on Visual FoxPro tables.

Added the ability to quickly scroll to a specific column in a table browser or the query utility in the Advantage Data Architect. The search can be activated by clicking the magnifying glass in the top left corner of the grid, by right-clicking and choosing "find column..." from the quick menu, or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL-ALT-F.

Improved how ARC handles directory names that contain .add in them.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage Database Server
Fixed an issue that could cause 9063 errors to be logged when appending records to Visual FoxPro (ADS_VFP) tables with referential integrity (RI) rules.

Fixed an issue in the server where the use of empty date parameters in Visual FoxPro (through ODBC) resulted in 2109 conversion errors.

Fixed an issue in the server where replication would not work if permissions checking was turned on and the first connection to the dictionary after a server restart was an anonymous connection (a connection without a user name).

Fixed an issue in the server that could result in 9000 errors (9067, 9070, 9025) and 8025 errors when using UDP/IP communications.

Fixed an issue in the Windows server installs where the values of the SQL_SORT_BUFFER and MAX_CACHE_MEMORY configuration values were not propagated during an upgrade.

Modified the configuration utility for Windows to include a checkbox to control the non-exclusive proprietary locking mode option. This option can also be set via the installer's setup.ini file or directly via the registry.

Fixed an issue in the server that made it possible for a 9095 error to be logged when the Advantage Database Server service was shutdown.

Fixed an issue in the server that prevented the ads_err.adt error log from being copied while Advantage Database Server had it open.

Fixed the adsstamp utility silent upgrade option to accept a new serial number & valcode on the command line.

Fixed an issue in the server that made it possible for an SQL query to return stale data.

Fixed an issue that caused a 9077 error when zapping a table.

Fixed an issue which could cause a 9060 error or the server to hang when running a 64 bit server on 64 bit linux.

Fixed an issue in the server where it was possible to read invalid memo data. If one user read a record and another user updated the memo or BLOB data for that record before the first user read the memo, it could result in the first user reading incorrect memo data.

Changed the system view and system.publications tables to return a relative path for the column Replication_Queue. This fixes an issue in Advantage Data Architect where an incorrect SQL creation script would be generated.

Fixed an issue in the server that caused the SQL clause "WHERE field IS NULL" to not be optimized even though the index existed on the field.

Fixed an issue that caused optimized filters to not be optimized when the filter's expression used a scalar function and the table had a field name that partially matched the scalar function name. For example, when the AOF expression was "FLD = STOD('19990217') and the table had a field named "ST" or "TOD". This bug only affected DBF tables.

Reduced blocking of read operations on an index file when concurrently flushing large amounts of cached updates.

Fixed an issue during a backup operation that created a memo file with an 8 byte block size instead of using the same memo block size as the source table. This issue would lead to memo corruption in the backup table when the memo file was greater than 32GB.

Fixed an issue backing up tables with server names 15 characters long.

Fixed an issue where CREATE DATABASE and CREATE TABLE calls would return a 7040 error if the subdirectories specified did not already exist. The directories are now created automatically.

Fixed a bug that caused the database restore functionality (e.g., sp_RestoreDatabase) to incorrectly return error code 1 when attempting to restore a database onto an open data dictionary.

Updated the AdsBackup.exe utility to not require the v9.x ACE DLLs. The updated version will now work with older ACE DLLs.

Fixed an issue in the server that could result in an access violation in rare circumstances when a client using inter-process communications disconnects.

Fixed an issue in the server where it was possible for differential backups to corrupt the memo data in the backup table.

Improved performance when creating many indexes on a # temporary table.

Fixed a rare deadlock situation with referential integrity.

Fixed an issue where the auto rebuilding of a corrupted index file could lead to a server crash when the index file was needed for referential integrity checks.

Changed the Field_Options field in system.tables to return 0 in all cases rather than being NULL.

Fixed an issue where a SELECT statement with a subquery in the values list that evaluates to NULL and is part of a UNION may cause the server to crash.

Fixed an issue where executing a SELECT statement within a script inside a DLL AEP would not return a result set.

Fixed an issue in the SQL parser that failed to parse a subquery in an algebraic expression.

Fixed an issue where the sp_enablequerylogging system procedure would not log any queries when a nonzero value was specified as the MinimumTimeBeforeLogging parameter.

Fixed an issue that caused regular character data types in the result cursor when they should be case insensitive character types.

Fixed an issue where an incorrect warning message was generated in the query execution plan when the SQL statement was a DELETE statement.

Fixed an issue where calling the sp_SetApplicationID system procedure with a NULL or empty value would crash the server.

Fixed an access violation when canceling a query that was executing nested SQL stored procedure calls.

Fixed a bug that caused the wrong result to be assigned to a variable when the expression was a "SELECT TOP 1 ..." query.

Fixed an issue that caused error 2119 to be returned when an ORDER BY or DISTINCT clause is required on a data column that is converted or cast from an ADT CICHAR field.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage .NET Data Provider
Added support for the Entity Framework Provider.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage JDBC Driver

Fixed an issue in the JDBC driver that caused a "Conversion error" when there were timestamp values in the query parameters or updated resultset columns and encrypted communication was used.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage OLE DB Provider

Fixed an issue in the OLE DB provider that caused empty date and timestamp fields in Visual FoxPro tables to be returned as NULL, which could also cause the Microsoft Client Cursor Engine to return error 1429.

Fixed a problem with the DBCConvert utility where it would incorrectly generate an ALTER TABLE statement when no work needed to be performed.

Fixed a problem with the DBCConvert utility where renaming Field1 to Field1Long and Field2 to Field1 would fail.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage PHP Extension

Fixed an issue where the garbage collection reference count on a connection would be incorrect if multiple SQL statements were opened on it.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage TDataSet Descendant

Fixed an issue where the function TAdsExtendedTable.AdsGetFieldType did not correctly handle the new field types added in version 9.0.
Fixed an issue where filter expressions that used the CONTAINS clause were not correctly parsed if using Delphi 2009, resulting in incorrect filter result sets.

Fixed an issue where datasets using the sequence level slExact could get 5041 errors when positioning using a grid scrollbar or directly via the SetRecNo method.

Fixed a bug that caused ADT VarCharFox and VarBinaryFox fields larger than 255 characters to be truncated.

9.10.0.9 - Advantage Visual Objects Driver

Fixed an issue where the VO RDD would return an error when reading invalid date values. The RDD will now return empty values for date fields that are invalid.

April Advantage Newsletter

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:10:42 GMT

The April Advantage Newsletter has been posted.

LAFox Developer's Group Meeting: Real World Advantage

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:36:03 GMT

On April 21st Jay Hudson will be presenting on his experiences converting a Visual FoxPro application to use the Advantage Database Server.

Topics will include:
- How to convert a Visual FoxPro Database container
- Creating a new DBC using the Advantage ODBC driver
- Running with both Free Tables and an Advantage Database
- Using both Advantage Local Server (ALS) and the Advantage Database Server (ADS)

http://www.lafox.org/home.page.fox

Advantage Unicode Preview

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:33:37 GMT

In a few weeks we will be providing the first preview of our support for Unicode field types. If you have an application you would like to start modifying to use these new field types, and would like to provide feedback on our early phases of development, please send an e-mail to Advantage@iAnywhere.com and include "Attn:JD" in the subject. In addition, please also specify your development environment (Delphi, ADO.NET, etc).

New Advantage Database Server Book

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:18:48 GMT

A new Advantage Database Server Book in German has just been completed by Advantage Presales Engineer Joachim Duerr. This book is available in German only. More details can be found below.

In addition, to Joachim's new book, he will also be speaking at the upcoming Delphi Live 2009 conference in May where he will be teaching a class on database notifications.

Das Advantage Database Server 9 Programmierhandbuch
Author: Joachim Dürr
Price: 35€
380 Pages, Paperback
http://www.jd-engineering.de/adsbuch
For a preview or to Order click here

German text:
Ich möchte auf diesem Wege die Verfügbarkeit meines neuen ADS Buches
bekanntgeben. Es ist das erste deutschsprachige Buch zu ADS überhaupt.

Das Advantage Database Server 9 Programmierhandbuch
Autor: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Joachim Dürr
Preis: 35€
380 Seiten, Paperback

weitere Informationen über meine Homepage
http://www.jd-engineering.de/adsbuch

March Advantage Newsletter

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:32:52 GMT

The March Advantage Newsletter has been posted

64 bit Windows Server Update Available (9.10.0.3)

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:56:23 GMT

9.10.0.3 - Advantage Database Server

This Service Update of the Windows 64 bit Advantage Database Server addresses the following issues:

Fixed an issue in the server build that caused 64 bit versions of Advantage Database Server to run about 25% slower than the 32-bit version of Advantage Database Server on an x64 version of Windows.

Fixed an issue in the server that made it possible for a 9095 error to be logged when the Advantage Database Server service was shutdown.

The update can be found on the Developer's Zone.