NOTE: VistaDB 3.6 has not been released and is being renamed to VistaDB 4 - see the blog announcement for more information
As I was preparing the release notes for the upcoming 3.6 Alpha release I thought it might be a good idea to also just post a general update to everyone on the blog.
VistaDB 3.6 Alpha
We are planning an Alpha release of 3.6 hopefully this week. We have a few minor issues before we can let it loose, but we are very close now. As with all of our prerelease versions this will only be available to existing VistaDB subscribers.
This release was designed as an overall update to the product line from user requests and feedback we have received. Some of these items were added to the 4.0 line and are being ported, others were built just for this release.
Assembly Version change
We are going to start setting our Assembly version Major.Minor.0.0 like Microsoft. A change will only occur when a breaking change is introduced. We will start using the Assembly File Version as the build information for users to know what build they are running. This will allow us to not need Policy files or binding redirects until a breaking change is introduced.
Installer change
The plan is to move to a newer installer that will let us build multiple versions easier on the backend through our build scripts. Currently each build takes us about 1/2 a day to complete and we would very much like to automate that process. We are moving to Tarma as the desktop installer and I can't wait for everyone to see the new install process.
Enum functions cache
The internal enum functions that pull information from a database for things like Indexes, stored procs, etc are all very paranoid about reading from Disk. There are many cases where this enumeration is quite expensive, and caching it at the database level should improve performance for a lot of meta data operations (especially things that need to get a list of procs like EXEC, and the DataBuilder).
Transaction Mode
Adding a new flag to let you tell the engine you don't ever want to use transactions, even if the SQL code calls for them. This is useful in situations where your ORM or other library is generating SQL code that is using transactions for every call. This will be a connection string flag to allow you to turn them on / off / or ignore them entirely. This will allow finer grain control from the user perspective at connection time for transaction support (which can be quite expensive).
Namespace cleanup
We are hiding some methods that are not intended for end users, and cleaning up some others to more closely match SQL Server.
Exceptions Inheritance
VistaDBException now inherits off of System.Data.Common.DbException instead of straight off of System.Exception. This allows for generics user of the Provider Factories to trap DB errors and retrieve the provider error code without having to cast into the VistaDB namespace.
Data Builder UI Changes
We have some more UI changes we would like to make to the Data Builder. I don't want to say too much at this point, but it is to make your life easier writing SQL in Data Builder.
SQL Syntax Changes
RAISERROR Support
SQL Syntax support for RAISERROR within TSQL Procs. This feature has been on our list for a while now and I am quite pleased with the initial implementation. There are also some new guidelines around using TSQL commands like this in the help file.
PRINT Syntax
This has been requested a lot. The ability to print from within SQL and receive it as a part of the log in the DataBuilder, or subscribe to those messages from within your own application. New documentation has also been added for this function with some guidelines as well.
DATE Syntax
DATE was the older VistaDB 2.x syntax for the SQL Server function GETDATE(). It has been marked as deprecated for a little while, and has always been flagged as not being compatible with SQL Server. It has caused more than it’s fair share of confusion so we are removing it in this release.
Quick Roadmap Updated
Just in case you were not aware we do keep a roadmap page on the website. And don’t forget to look at the sitemap for other pages that maybe you didn’t know existed.
VistaDB Continues Moving Forward
VistaDB continues to move forward along our design goals for the 4.x branch as well. We are trying very hard though to not let the 3.x product line fall behind while we work on that branch. I hope the 3.6 release will solidify in your mind that we continue to think of our customers at each step of the journey.
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