/* * ADSW32E2.TXT * * Service Level 2 notes for Alaska AdsDbe Version 1.0 * for Window NT and Windows 95/98 * * International Edition * * Date: 12/09/1999 * */ ___________ 1. Overview This file contains important information about the installation procedure of this Service Level. ___________________________________ 2. Check your existing installation Please make sure you have the following product completely installed: - Alaska AdsDbe 1.0 Intl. If this is not the case, install the AdsDbe completely new from your CD-ROM. 2.1 Note for Xbase++ 1.20.178 Users This release of the AdsDbe requires Alaska Xbase++ 1.30.212 (ServiceLevel 2) installed. 2.2 Note for Blinker 5.x users If you have copied the ..\LIB\OMF files into the ..\LIB directory, you must copy the files from the directory ..\LIB\COFF back into ..\LIB before you proceed with the Service Level installation. Due to some support issues we do not recommend any more to copy the OMF libraries into the ..\LIB directory when Blinker is used. Instead, we recommend to change the LIB environment variable so that it points to the appropriate directory: SET LIB=..\LIB\OMF 2.3 NOTE FOR limited beta participants This patch cannot be applied to the intermediate ADSDBE beta releases but only to the version 1.0 that is installed from CD ROM. Please see chapter 7 how to contact Alaska Software. ______________________________ 3. Copy the Service Level file Download the appropriate file to your computer: ADSW32E2.EXE - International Now, copy the file ADSW32E2.EXE to the root path of your current AdsDbe installation. [C:\ALASKA\DBEW32]copy \\ADSW32E2.EXE .\ NOTE: If you have received the Service Level on CD-ROM, you must copy the SL file to the harddisk of your computer. SL cannot be applied from CD-ROM! ____________________ 4. Apply the changes The ADSW32E2.EXE is a self-extracting archive with an auto-start feature. It unpacks the necessary files and applies all changes automatically. To install the Service Level, enter on the command line: [C:\ALASKA\DBEW32]ADSW32E2.EXE Pay attention if error messages are displayed during the installation and/or check the SERVICE.LOG file for error messages. The patch works incrementally. If you cancel the process or if an error occurs which you are able to resolve, you can restart the process at any time by entering on the command line: [C:\ALASKA\DBEW32]SERVICE.EXE The resulting AdsDbe version number is 1.3.009. The version number can be verified by activating the 'Help->About' dialog of the online help. __________________ 5. Deleting files If you don't have received the ServiceLevel on a CD-ROM, we recommend to keep a backup copy of the files you have downloaded. To avoid any interference with upcoming service levels please delete the files listed below from your installation directory. Here is the list of the files belonging to this ServiceLevel: ADSW32E2.EXE - The self-extracting archive. ADSW32E2.TXT - This file. ADSW32E2.RTP - Patch data file PATCHW32.DLL - The patch utility. SERVICE.EXE - The patch utility GUI frontend. SERVICE.LOG - This file will be created if the patch stopped due to errors. __________________ 6. Important notes A) Recompile and link everything Before you run an executable with Service level 2 you must recompile all your source code files, otherwise your application will fail! Use "PBuild -a" to rebuild an entire project. B) News The DacSession class has a new class method ::getDefault() due to PDR2908. For further information see the online help. C) PDR related information PDR 2839 - DbSeek with DESCEND in index expression does not match (ADS) When building an index with ADSDBE and the index expression contains DESCEND() a SEEK may not find the appropriate matching record. Since the ADS Windows client has only an ANSI interface to communicate with the ADS server, the DESCEND() function may transform incoming values to a character range which cannot be converted from OEM to ANSI and vice versa. Some characters may change within this conversion. Please refer to PDR 3512 for more details. PDR 3512 - Cannot store graphic characters in OEM mode All data exchanged between the Advantage Database Server and an Xbase++ program go through the Advantage Client Engine (ACE): ADSDBE <-> Advantage Client Engine <-> Advantage Database Server The Advantage Client Engine handles character strings only according to the ANSI specification because it is developed to support Windows 32bit GUI applications. Such applications always use the ANSI character set for character strings. Therefore, the 32bit-ACE does not provide the same funtionality as the 16-bit client for DOS (used by Clipper) which handles only OEM encoded strings. This means that the Alaska ADSDBE has to convert all data to ANSI before passing it to the ACE. The ANSI codepage contains more national characters while the OEM codepage contains also graphic characters. However, both codepages are limited to hold 256 characters. The ANSI<->OEM conversion table contains "best match" characters for those which are unknown within the other table. Converting a "best matched" character back to the original codepage may result in a completely different character. The following example program demonstrates this implicit conversion problem. It displays all characters whose ANSI<->OEM conversion is not reversible: PROC Main() LOCAL x FOR x := 1 TO 255 IF convToOemCP( convToAnsiCP( CHR( x))) != CHR( x) ? x, " " ?? CHR( x), " " ?? convToAnsiCP( CHR( x)), " " ?? convToOemCP( convToAnsiCP( CHR( x))), " " ?? ASC( convToOemCP( convToAnsiCP( CHR( x)))), " " ENDIF NEXT RETURN This results in 34 characters which cannot be converted from OEM -> ANSI -> OEM without change (or loss) of information. This technical issue has an immediate impact for database applications which use the Descend() function for creating descending indexes. Descend() may return a string containig characters that can only be ANSI<->OEM converted by a "best match". _________________________________ 7. How to contact Alaska Software Please report every information regarding this ADSDBE version only to the Alaska Software support support@de.alaska-software.com or support@us.alaska-software.com To allow proper handling of your information, please include the product name including the version number you are talking about on the top of your message in a format like "ADSDBE 1.3.009". You can also use the following news group to send your feedback about this release to us: news://news.alaska-software.com/alaska-software.news.dataAccess _________________________________ 8. List of closed PDR's PDR 2652 After :rollbackTransaction(), old values are not visible ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2715 ordCreate does not work on a NT-Server sometimes ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2721 ordCreate fails if table is in shared mode ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2735 filter expression on date field does not work ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2786 ADSDBE can't open table a second time ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2787 Clipper opens table in proprietary mode ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2789 NetErr() is not set when ADSDBE opens table in EXCL mode ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2790 SEEK runs into "internal data structures corrupted" ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2825 numeric field without decimals cannot store big numbers ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2847 ADSDBE does implicit ANSI-conversion on non field-vars ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2848 DbUnlock() is not operational ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2908 ADSDBE needs function to get session instance ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2973 ADSCDX with changed Ind_Ext can't open exist index file ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 2984 DbAppend() without any further DB-Action doesn't work ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3055 ADSDBE can't create index with ADDITIVE option ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3169 ADSDBE changes RValue when assigning value to field ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3226 Wrong error message when assigning a too big num. val. ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3241 ADSDBE can't delete index file ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3243 ADSDBE does not close second index ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3317 ADSDBE does not work right with dbRlock(NIL) ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3503 Open a CDX on a NT-Server in exclusive mode is very slow ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) PDR 3358 ADSDBE changes large numbers upon read ( Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0 ) Closed: 22