We are finally ready to unveil some of the things we have been hard at work on since the release of VistaDB 4.0.  One of the largest announcements is that we are going to support two way sync through the Microsoft Sync Framework ( Version 2 ).  Sync has been a huge source of time wasted for us in the past through Sync 1, but it finally appears Microsoft has stabilized the API in Version 2 and is shipping it with Visual Studio 2010.

Two Tier Sync using Sync Framework V2

Two tier is the name Sync Services uses to describe when the machine performing the sync has direct connectivity to the server endpoint of the sync operation.   This server has to either be exposed on the Internet, or you have to provide a way for users to VPN and perform their sync.  Of course this always works great within an office where you have direct connection to a SQL Server also.

There are several other models for Sync (including an N Tier model through proxies), but we are not committing to those other models for the initial release.  By far the largest number of users said they needed two way sync with SQL Server, so that is our primary user story for this release.  We would like to be able to sync to other services (like SQL Azure), but that will all happen after this initial release cycle.

Two way sync with SQL Server

Two way sync with SQL Server is our primary goal for Sync 4.1.  SQL Server schema is close to ours, and queries will be more portable between the two engines.  We have not nailed down if SQL Server 2005 will be supported, it will come down to the Sync provisioning system and if SQL Server 2005 will work correctly or not.

Two way sync with VistaDB 4 databases

And of course we also plan to support sync between VistaDB 4 databases.  This does not appear as useful to most people at first, but there are many customers who do not have a local SQL Server.  They are simply using VistaDB on a shared drive and want some way to take that data offline.  We will support the ability to put a database locally on the desktop and have it sync to that shared drive database.

Traveling Salesman Scenario

Let’s use a common scenario discussed with Sync; the traveling salesman.  Your company has a salesman named Bob who is in the office occasionally, but his typical work week involves flying to potential customer locations and trying to input orders.  Now Bob usually has internet access from his hotel, but not while on a plane or at the client site.  He still needs to be able to input his data while offline, and then have it sync the next time he is connected.  Many companies build solutions around Microsoft Outlook just because this model is the default behavior for that type of application syncing to Exchange and Sharepoint.

In this scenario your application is always talking to the local VDB4 database for Bob to do his work.  Maybe Bob has a way to VPN to the office (for accessing the Intranet), or he has to wait until he physically is present on the office network.  While he is connected to the office network he can then have his app Sync with the home database server.  Bob’s changes are pushed up to the server, and any changes from the server are brought to his laptop as well. 

We will post follow up blog entries about Sync and the usage scenarios as we get closer to rolling out the beta.

VistaDB 4.1 Beta

As we always do here at VistaDB, current subscribers will be given early access to the next release as a beta.  You don’t have to participate, but it is a great benefit of having a subscription.  We often get great feedback from customers during these beta periods of scenarios they need, or little extra features we hadn’t thought of to support the main items on the release.

In the blog post on how we release I covered our release philosophy in depth, VistaDB 4.1 is a major release for us.  This means there are lots of new APIs, changes in some existing ones, and major new features added.  It is expected that all existing apps will continue to function fine, with possibly some minor API updates. 

Our current plan is to start the beta... [snip] (see UPDATE at bottom of this post).  There are no Personal or Lite builds during beta periods, and many of the features listed below will not be available in those SKUs.  We may offer them as add-ons to the base SKUs after release.  As we continue to add major new functionality these new feature systems will be outside the scope of the base Personal product.  Many developers have asked us to keep the Personal as the basic level of support because that is all they need, and they are very price sensitive.  We are trying to keep those SKUs as low as possible in our pricing matrix.

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I get questions all the time from users who are confused about our release cycle and product versioning.  I think I may finally have come up with a good analogy thanks to some conversations with users.

Single Version?

The Single Version moniker on the VistaDB Personal and Lite editions can be confusing.  These are both single releases of the platform.  You get all the builds within that major.minor, but when a new release of the platform comes out they are not included.  The “dot release” is not simply a rollup of the previous builds with a new name.  They are a new feature set and release point for functionality.

Maybe they should be called a single release edition since a release to us is a major.minor.  But I think that term would be even more confusing to most users.

A Release is a promise of functions and features

Our goal is to ensure all major.minor builds are compatible with each other in both API, and functionality.  We strive very, very hard to never break an API until the next bump in the version.  Otherwise you could end up with two builds of the same major.minor that behave differently, or are not runtime compatible.

Each time we need to change an API we bump the product minor to ensure that everyone knows they are going to need to compile their app, not just replace the DLL.  Normally for builds within a single release you can just drop in the new DLL and continue to run (with whatever fixes, updates were included of course).

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BETA Level Release

This initial release has some warts and problems that we wanted to address before releasing a DMW for 4, but I am putting this out there so people can convert basic databases to VistaDB 4 in the meantime.  We plan to make several changes to the tool before it is declared complete.

This is a port of the 3.x DMW with almost no changes just to get something up quick.  It does not know anything about UAC (you had better run it as Admin), it does not know anything about the Windows 7 Libraries of VistaDB 4, etc.  Basic port to get new users up and running.

Data Migration Wizard 4

This is a beta level release.  It is posted on the public downloads area of our account manager website.  You can’t install or use it unless you have a valid VistaDB license on your machine.

Start Menu Shortcut

Launch the tool from the VistaDB 4 Data Migration Wizard folder in your start menu and you will see the familiar starting screen.

Yes, there is a typo where it still says VistaDB 3 on the initial dialog.  It does not work with 3.x at all.

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The first VistaDB 4 trial is now available.  You have to provide a valid email address in order to receive the trial.  

Request Trial Email

Signup for the trial online

Professional Limits on all Trials

All trials are of the VistaDB Professional license.  Once you download the trial you enter the same email address you used for the trial signup in order to get your temporary license.  If your email bounces or is from a temp email service the trial will be blocked.

Also keep in mind that the limits of the Professional are not the same as all other licenses.  See the online comparison page for pagesize limits for more information.  If you plan on using VistaDB Lite, don’t use the Visual Studio tools or build with pagesizes larger than 1kb.

Unlimited Installs for single trial email

You may install the trial on as many machines as you need from a single email address.  Keep in mind this is not how it works with a full license, each developer machine must be licensed to compile applications that use VistaDB.

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