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===================================================================== ======================== README FILE InterBase 4.0 For The Local InterBase Server ======================== This file contains important information not in the printed InterBase documents and includes restrictions and known problems. This README file covers the following topics: --1-- General Issues --2-- Server Manager --3-- Windows/ISQL --4-- International --5-- InterBase Document Updates --6-- Redistribution --1-- General Issues ====================== * InterBase Location The Local InterBase Server installation determines where InterBase is installed using the entry in the WIN.INI file. If you previously had the InterBase Windows Client installed, make sure that the installation removes the "SET INTERBASE=<path>" line from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. * Registration Local InterBase Server included with your Borland desktop product, provides you with a useful platform for prototyping and developing client/server applications. There are strict limitations in redistributing components of Local InterBase Server. See #6 Redistribution below. If you use the Local InterBase Server extensively, you will be interested in information on samples and future product enhancements. To receive information, you must register you Borland desktop product by referring to the "Three Good Reasons" card. * InterBase Print or Online Document Set The online document set for Local InterBase Server includes: * The Local InterBase Server User's Guide - introduces single-user InterBase and explains the use of the fundamental elements of database access. * The InterBase Workgroup Server Data Definition Guide - explains how to create, alter, and delete database objects with ISQL. * The InterBase Workgroup Server Language Reference - Describes SQL syntax and usage. Not all of the features described in the Data Definition Guide and the Language Reference are implemented in local InterBase Server. Refer to the list below for a list of those features that are not supported. * Remote Configuration NetBEUI ------- You may experience problems with NetBEUI connections from a Windows for Workgroups 3.11 client to a Windows NT 3.5 server running the NWLink/NWBLink protocol. If you see the following error while connecting to an InterBase server, you may need a Microsoft patch to Windows for Workgroups: Unable to complete network request to host "ibserver". -Error reading data from the connection. -The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. Microsoft has updated versions of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 files which correct these problems. These files are available directly from Microsoft and they are also distributed in the \CLIENTS\WFW\UPDATE directory of the Windows NT Server version 3.5 CD. The following information is from a Microsoft TechNet article. -------------------------- Update Network Files for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 [winnt] ID: Q122389 CREATED" 02-NOV-1994 MODIFIED: 10-NOV-1994 3.50 WINDOWS PUBLIC | kbnetwork ----------------- The information in this article applies to: - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5 - Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5 - Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11 ----------------- The Windows NT Server version 3.5 CD contains updated modules for Windows for Workgroups version 3.11. The files are located in the \CLIENTS\WFW\UPDATE directory. These update modules address specific problems related to the NWLink/NWBLink protocol and provide the following: - Support for named pipes over direct host IPX - Performance enhancements to direct host IPX - A fix to prevent browsers from synchronizing and announcing all at once - Changes to all allow Windows NT to remotely administrate Windows for Workgroups computers - Changes to allow browsing of Windows NT workgroups beyond a single subnet - Changes to allow Windows NT Server to screen out older Windows for Workgroups clients trying to connect through direct host IPX The following lists files in the \CLIENTS\WFW\UPDATE directory on the Windows NT server version 3.5 CD: Name Size Date ------------------------------------------ NDIS.386 27,846 Bytes 9/4/94 NET.EXE 450,262 Bytes 9/4/94 NETAPI.DLL 109,120 Bytes 9/4/94 NWNBLINK.386 37,964 Bytes 9/4/94 VNETSUP.386 14,647 Bytes 9/4/94 VREDIR.386 85,746 Bytes 9/4/94 To apply these updated modules, use the following procedure: 1. Use the RENAME command from Command Prompt or the Rename option from the File menu in File Manager to rename all the files that will be replaced. 2. Copy the NET.EXE file to the root Windows for Workgroups directory (usually WINDOWS). The remaining files should be copied to the SYSTEM sub-directory. 3. Restart the workstation. Additional reference words: prodnt 3.50 3.11 wfwg KBCategory: kbnetwork KBSubcategory: ntinterop ntdistrib ntprotocol CONNECTING VIA FTP PC/TCP The connection to InterBase via FTP PC/TCP is sensitive to the amount of conventional memory available to DOS before Windows is started. You need at least 440 KB to use this connection protocol. For further information about remote configuration of your Local InterBase Server, refer to the Server Manager online Help. * Unsupported Features Local InterBase Server does not support the following: - User Defined Functions - BLOB Filters - event alerters - Write Ahead Log (WAL) - Array Datatype - database shutdown or restart - database shadowing * On-Disk Structure The Local InterBase Server and InterBase for NT share the same database on-disk structure. Databases on either of those platforms can be copied from one environment to another (when no one is accessing the database). Compatibility with NetWare 4.0 is planned for a future release. * Security Local InterBase Server requires a user name and password. User name and password will be validated against the security database and access to the database will fail if they are not found. Every Local InterBase Server has a SYSDBA user, with password "masterkey". Initially, SYSDBA is the only authorized user on the server. SYSDBA must authorize all other users on the server. It is strongly recommended to change the password for SYSDBA as soon as possible. Otherwise, the SYSDBA account will not be secure and unauthorized users can access databases on the server. * Query Control The Local InterBase Server uses a single-user model. Each query gets exclusive control of the engine until that query is finished. Be careful with long-running queries. * Sweeping the Database InterBase uses a technique of sweeping the database to remove old copies of records from the database. By default, at the end of 20,000 transactions in a database a sweep will be done for you. The cursor indicating a sweep is in progress is an hourglass labeled "SWEEP". To alter the sweep interval, use Server Manager's Database Maintenance option. During a sweep, your computer will be busy. To preserve integrity, the database will be inaccessible until the sweep is completed. * Access to Mapped Drives on Remote Machines Local InterBase Server is designed to provide a local database application development environment for a single user. Some users might want to store large databases on mapped (remote) drives. Access to mapped remote drives is possible, but not supported. When the Local InterBase Server opens a database on a mapped drive, it opens that database with an exclusive lock, preventing access by others on the network. Instead of attaching to the remote database directly from Local InterBase Server, attach to the remote database through the remote InterBase server (e.g. InterBase for Windows NT). Make sure to specify the remote InterBase server name in the path (i.e., <server>:<path>). Specifying the server name will cause the remote InterBase server to treat the Local InterBase Server user just like a normal networked user in the multi-user environment, with the standard multi-user access, capabilities and privileges. * Remote Events Events from a remote InterBase server can cause exhaustion of global selectors when the application is repeatedly waiting on events and the application is long-running. * Dropping Tables Before attempting to DROP a table, first issue an explicit COMMIT; statement. Some operations, such as a SELECT, will set an 'in use' flag that will not be cleared until a COMMIT is done. If you try to drop a table and get an 'object <table_name> is in use' error message, issue an explicit COMMIT; and try the drop again. * Decimal Representations Internally, InterBase represents decimal numbers as data type SHORT with a scale factor, or as a type LONG with a scale factor, if the specified precision is small enough to fit in these datatypes. Embedded SQL applications need to adjust decimal numbers of 9 digits or less by taking the scale factor into account (that is, divide the number by 10 to the exponent of scale factor). For example, for the three following decimal representations: a(4,2) b(9,3) c(15,2) short/100 long/1000 double/100 select a, b, c into :a, :b, :c from tablex print (a/10**2, b/10**3, c/10**2) * Local Variables In DSQL, CHAR and VARCHAR columns fetched from a table are not NULL terminated. In C and C++ applications, be sure that local variables are declared with an extra byte of storage for a NULL terminator, and that the application also inserts a NULL ('\0') in the final byte. * Character Columns In DSQL, CHAR columns are interpreted by PREPARE and DESCRIBE as SQL_TEXT + 1. * Text Representations In DSQL, when casting non-text data into a text representation, use the SQL cast operator in the DSQL statements rather than setting SQL type in the SQLDA. For example, rather than using: SELECT date . . . instead use: SELECT cast (date as character(20)) . . . . * File Name Conventions Local InterBase Server cannot access databases with names that do not conform to the 8.3 file naming convention. If a file has in its pathname a name longer than 8 characters (and a 3-character extension) the attachment will fail. * Maxiumum Size of Key in a Sort clause For queries that include a sorting clause (sort by, distinct, order by, group by) the maximum size of the Local InterBase Server sort key is 64 Kbytes. The size of the key equals the sum of the sizes of the columns included in the sorting clause. For example, sorting on two char fields that are each 17K wide will not work properly. * Database Access When attempting to access a database using ODBC through IDAPI, make sure to include a non-null user name and password. * Restoring Databases User Defined Functions (UDFs) are not supported by Local InterBase Server. When you restore a Version 3.x database that uses UDFs, make sure that the UDF library is not present. * Sample C Programs The Sample C application programs are not included in Local InterBase Server. --2-- Server Manager ====================== * Starting Server Manager When it starts, Server Manager checks for a local database server. If a local database server is present, the "Local Server" radio button will be enabled in the "Connect to Database" dialog box. The user can then connect to the local database server by specifying the user name and password. If Server Manager does not detect a local database server, the "Local Server" radio button will be disabled. Any database connection will be remote, requiring a username and password. * Environment Variables The environment variables ISC_USER and ISC_PASSWORD will, if they are set, be used as the default user name and password by Server Manager. If you use these variables, make sure that the user define them by them actually exists in the local security database, ISC4.GDB. Add them to ISC4.GDB using Server Manager. If they are not in ISC4.GDB, you might get an error message that your user name and password are undefined. Use of these variables is not recommended because an unauthorized user can find out the definitions and possibly use that information to circumvent database security features. To remove the environment variables, exit Windows, reset both variables to zero, then restart Windows. * Unsupported Features The following features are not supported by Local InterBase Server and will appear grayed-out on the server manager menus: Tasks/Lock Manager Statistics Tasks/Database statistics Maintenance/Disable WAL Maintenance/Database Shutdown Maintenance/Database Restart Maintenance/Database Properties: The Enable Forced Writes check box in the Properties dialog box will be grayed-out. * Verbose Output Messages For backup/restore, the output text window is limited to 32K. If you choose the verbose option on a large database, you may see a dialog box stating the buffer space was exceeded and prompting you to save the results to a file. If you choose 'yes', all future results will be saved to the specified file and the text in the window will scroll off the top. If you choose 'no', the backup will still complete, but the verbose output will stop. * Slash Character When issuing a connect, backup, or restore to a database on a Unix server, be sure to always start the pathname with the slash character (/). * Backup File Default Location The Server Manager backup utility places the backup file in a specific default directory. On an NT server, the default directory for the backup file is WINNT\SYSTEM32. On a NetWare server the default directory for the backup file is the SYS volume's root directory. If you want the backup file to be written in a different directory, specify the complete pathname when the Server Manager prompts for the Backup File or Device. --3-- Windows/ISQL ==================== * Windows/ISQL, through the Local InterBase Server, allows access to remote and local servers. * Starting WISQL When it starts, WISQL checks for a local database server. If a local database server is present, the "Local Server" radio button will be enabled in the "Connect to Database" dialog box. The user can then connect to a local database by specifying the user name and password. If WISQL does not detect a local database server, the "Local Server" radio button will be disabled. Any database connection will be remote, requiring a username and password. * The SQL Output area is limited to 32 KBytes of output. Output that exceeds this amount will be appended to the end of the buffer, and the initial lines in the buffer will scroll off. For queries which return a large amount of data, the cursor will become an hourglass, and when the query completes, the last 32K of output will be displayed in the Output Area. To see results that exceed 32K, click on "Save to File" and view the file. * Maximum row size (size of each field, plus 1 byte per field) is limited to 64K bytes. On a Windows Client, ISQL requests that have NULL indicator fields require a smaller maximum row size, because each NULL indicator field adds an additional 2 bytes to retrieval requirements. --4-- International ===================== * The Local InterBase Server international feature set is significantly different from that used in previous InterBase implementations. A Version 3.3 database which used international subtypes must be backed up using that version's GBAK utility and restored using the GBAK from Local InterBase Server. * If a database is created using CHARACTER SET and COLLATE clauses with the NOT NULL attribute, and the schema is then extracted using ISQL -a, the extracted schema will contain a syntax error. This must be corrected before the schema file can be run using ISQL -i to recreate the database. * An international version of the example employee database has been added to the example/v4 directory. This example database, named 'intlemp.gdb', uses the international character set ISO8859_1 to define some character and blob fields. The database also has stored procedures which sort data. There are no associated example programs. * When setting up an alias for the intlemp.gdb database using the BDE (SQL Links), set the "Language Driver" on the Alias screen to BLLT1FR0. This informs both the client and InterBase to expect data in the Latin 1 character set. The driver uses French collation, but any Latin 1 driver can be used. * When viewing international data from the Windows SQL tool or from your Borland desktop product, an international language driver should be used. If data display problems occur, check the language driver to be sure that the character set for the driver matches the character set of the database data. In Windows SQL the use of the language driver is controlled by the Advanced features pull-down menu and the Character Set On selection list. This feature executes a SET NAMES command. You must re-connect to the database after using this feature. * SQL II character count semantics for column sizes are not enforced for double-byte characters. Defining a field as CHAR(3) CHARACTER SET EUCJ_0208 (double-byte) should allow only 3 characters to be stored (in 6 bytes of internal storage). Currently, if the data inserted is single-byte, up to 6 single byte characters are accepted into the field before an error is produced. (6180) * The OCTETS character set is not a valid parameter to SET NAMES in ESQL and it is not available as a character set choice in Windows ISQL's Session/Advanced Settings menu. --5-- InterBase Document Updates ================================== InterBase Language Reference ---------------------------- The reserved word 'DISPLAY' is not included in the list of keywords in Appendix A of the InterBase Language Reference. Local InterBase Server User's Guide ----------------------------------- The dialog box that controls connecting to a database differs from the explanation present in the User's Guide. The User's Guide does not show the Local and Remote server buttons (Page 40). If those buttons are present, refer to the on-line help for information. Similarly, the discussion of creating a database should mention that a database can be created on a remote server as well as the local server (Page 40 and also Page 73). User Name and password are required for connection to a remote database server. Refer to the on-line help for information on connecting to remote databases. The Database Maintenance Window accessed through the Tasks Menu has been eliminated. The database maintenance features are now accessed through the Maintenance Menu. The screen shots in the documentation do not reflect these changes. The discussion on the Server/Database Tree should mention both local and remote databases. When Server Manager is used with Local InterBase Server, only local branches of the tree are accessible (Page 139). After a connection is made to a remote server, the databases on the remote server are shown in Server Manager windows. In Appendix C of the Local InterBase User's Guide (Page 189), the first sentence of the second paragraph states, "The database (EMPLOYEE.GDB) is created with the data definition file, CREATEDB.SQL". That statement is no longer correct. The EMPLOYEE.GDB database is already built and included with Local InterBase Server. The user does not have to build it. -- 6 -- Redistribution For application redeployment, Delphi Client/Server allows redistribution of the Local InterBase Server files. For information about redistibuting Local InterBase Server files with your Delphi application, refer to DEPLOY.TXT in Delphi. For redeployment of applications created with other Borland desktop products that use the Local InterBase Server, you will need a deployment kit purchased separately from Borland. Contact Borland for information about Local InterBase Server redeployment.