Flex2SQL v10.1 Features

Mertech will be releasing the beta of its Flex2SQL v10.1 drivers during the week of  June 24th. Flex2SQL v10.1 is a minor upgrade from the v10.0x drivers released earlier last year. In v10.1, our overarching objective is to make it easier to work with  DataFlex development tools and SQL administration tools. This effort will continue in future releases.

The foundation for tighter integration between the DataFlex and SQL worlds was laid in the initial release of v10 drivers with the elimination of the table definition files. The .TD files were created to make OPEN calls faster when working with SQL but at a price; any change to the table structure on the database server required deleting the .TD files to get the updated structure. This led to unnecessary deployment headaches. We improved the efficiency of our OPEN calls so that we now get updated information from the server when the file is opened without affecting performance.

For a DataFlex program to co-exist amicably with changes made to table structures on the database server, we need to store (and retrieve) as much information on the servers as possible, without breaking DataFlex functionality.

The following are the highlights of the new version:

Store relationship information in the database
Currently, the relationship information between files is stored in the INT file. With V10.1 drivers, users will be able to recreate all DataFlex relationships directly on the server, and you will also be able to read relationship information on the server back into DataFlex.

Mixed-case table and field names
Currently we allow all object names to be either all upper case or lower case and the field names follow the convention selected for the table name. In v10.1, users will be able to define their table names and field anyway they prefer.

Inverse Key data integrity check
We are introducing a new data checker for diagnosing problems with inverse key field values

Convert tables types from recnum to RowID tables
Users will be able to create ROWID tables using VDF Studio as well as convert existing RECNUM tables to ROWID tables using our migration utility.

Save multiple connection strings in login dialog
The current login dialog box only allows users to connect to one server. With this enhancement, users will be able to switch between multiple server back ends and save the login information. This is useful in a development environment where developers have to switch between development or training server to and production server.

New SQL script for database maintenance
In addition to scripts for creating or dropping objects, the new scripts will allow analyzing and adjust database after loader executions, adjusting sequences and handling line feed characters in in text files and also scripts for turning on triggers.

Increase in ESQL performance
We have improved performance of ESQL code in retrieving data, especially when using variables to bind values.

New low-level ESQL API
Our current ESQL engine is implemented through the DataFlex ICODE engine using FMAC commands. We have built a completely new driver level API to allow building object-oriented ESQL classes for working with multiple result sets, simplifying stored procedure and function.

Tablespace control (PostgreSQL only)
Allows PostgreSQL users to select the table space where they want to create tables.