There was a problem with the Data Builder 4.1 included in the setup of the Build 16 for 4.1 – it wasn’t the correct binary…  This is what happens when things get rushed.  Normally a full change of a build number takes about 12 hours of testing to recertify.  But because people had grabbed the 15 test setup we had to bump the version and didn’t get a chance to fully retest it – just no time.

Data Builder Only

So those with binaries for 4.1 can download the 4.1 Data Builder Build 17.  It is just a ZIP file with the correct Data Builder, and to avoid confusion I bumped it’s number to Build 17.  It was the one that was supposed to be included.  I am not going to redo an entire setup for that one file.  It would require days of testing, or the possibility of introducing yet another subtle error.  So just unzip the exe into your install directory and overwrite the 4.1 Build 16 included.

Ok, hopefully this blog post will explain the most common upgrade paths for all existing VistaDB 3.x and 4.0 customers.  There are a lot of edge cases around people who bought something from a reseller and then upgraded to another thing, only to downgrade later, etc.  I am sure there are a few that I missed.  It is not a conspiracy or a plot against you, just an edge case.

How to purchase upgrades

Login to your account

Click the Upgrades link to see available upgrades and discounts.

Upgrades SKUs

There are a few SKUs around the upgrade path.  There is only one new SKU for purchase. 

New Purchases

The VistaDB 4.1 Binary/Source/Addons version, and yes the price is $1,499. 

The SKU includes the binary version of 4.1, 4.1 engine source code, ASP.Net membership pak, Data Migration Wizard Pak, and the DBA Sample Tool Pak.  That is an $8,500 value.

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Ok, VistaDB 4.1 has been released as Build 16.  We had posted a Build 15 last night for testing, but it was never intended to go live.  So we had to bump the build number today to the final build number of 16.

There are a number of changes to this release, this post is about release notes.  Upgrade paths will be in a separate post (in general login to your account and look at the Upgrades panel to see what your options are).

Release Notes

License system has been removed from the current codebase.  There is no need for licenses.licx files.  But the assembly has been bumped to 4.1 as a result of the change in the interfaces, you must rebind your application in most cases to use 4.1.

The .Net Provider name now reads "VistaDB 4 ADO.NET Provider for .Net".  This is to cover all VistaDB 4.x versions.  The binding is now 4.1.0.0, so make sure you update any provider factory versions in your applications.

Provider Name Change

The VistaDB Provider was named VistaDB.NET20 to indicate it was the .Net 2 version of the provider (back when we had a .Net 1.1 version).  But to better match the framework we have now changed it to System.Data.VistaDB. 

If you have strongly typed datasets you need to edit the xml using a text editor (the wizards do not allow this) to change the name in the Connections section from VistaDB.NET20 to System.Data.VistaDB.

Visual Studio 2010

Entire product is now built in Visual Studio 2010.  We still produce .Net 2 assemblies, but we are using VS 2010 as our main development IDE.

Obfuscation Change

We are no longer using the Obfuscation engine.  There were problems using the assembly under Mono, and with sporadic bugs in the product we could not get addressed by the vendor.  The obfuscation is no longer enabled by default.  We may use another one at some point in the future to compact the assembly, but for now it is full size.   This means slightly larger DLL and more RAM usage due to the namespaces.

Data Builder Changes

Data Builder is built against .Net 3.5 SP1 now because we have added LINQ query ability to the main form.  We have also removed the pulling of the RSS feed onto the main window (trying to remove all external dependencies in the code).

The load screen has changed to a list of the most recently used databases (double click to choose one).  You can change the number of recent item from the Tools | Options dialog.

LINQ Queries

There is a new item in the database tree view named LINQ.  These are for writing dynamic EF queries against your database.  Once you click the LINQ item you will see a new panel that shows a query partially constructed for you.  You must hit the Generate Model to build an EF model out of the current database.  Then you can write LINQ queries against it and run them in Data Builder. 

The idea here is to allow for rapid writing of LINQ queries against a database for quick tests.  You can write them in Visual Studio (to get intellisense) and then paste them in here as long as you name your data context object "context".

There is no intellisense support, but the resulting code can pretty much be copied and pasted into your C# code (there is no VB support, sorry).  The queries must be written against the temporary data context object named context.  If you use some other naming in your code then you must obviously update the name once you paste it into your code.

SQL Script Export

A lightweight SQL Script Export has been added to Data Builder to output schema to a SQL file.  It does not handle data, or stored procs, or anything else.  Just schema for the entire database.  It is not for use as an API, it is only for use internal to Data Builder.

Customer Experience Removed

The CEIP program has been removed.  It may be added back at a future date, but I wanted to make sure everything that talks externally is out of this version just in case.

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There is a new pane in the Data Builder for VistaDB 4.1.  The LINQ query pane is a very handy way to build and test LINQ queries against a simple Entity Framework model.  First understand that this pane is a work in progress.  It was designed to be an easy way to write LINQ queries (similar to LINQPad) for your VistaDB database.  The feature is of limited usefulness since the model cannot be customized at generation, or loaded from your own assembly.  But this is where we were with the feature when we had to ship, so here it is.  We have been using it a lot to help write LINQ queries, we hope you find it useful too.

The current implementation only supports C# (sorry VB guys, it was on the list).  You can right click on the Entity Model tree and Script the main query window with all your basic CRUD operations.

By default the dialog is grayed out until you generate a model.  The code shown will still be present once the model is generated.

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Yes, VistaDB 4.1 is nearing release.  VistaDB 4.1 will be released before the end of the month.  For the most part this is a drop in replacement of 4.0 for everyone, but the License system has been totally removed. 

There are enhancements in the release though, take a look at the Dynamic Entity Framework model generation capability for Data Builder.  It is a really cool feature for writing LINQ queries within Data Builder.

Source or Binary

Yes, there will be a source release for 4.1 (free to those who have recently purchased the 4.0 Source), and a binary version as an upgrade to current users of 4.0. 

The upgrade price will be 60% off the list, as a minor upgrade fee.  Those who have 3.x can upgrade as well, but the discount is less since they are not running the most recent version.

This license is effectively a $5,000 site license for every user.  Since I seriously doubt anyone will be coming back to buy more licenses after they have an unlocked version. 

License System

The entire licenses.licx system has been removed, and the installer is being modified to not require the Activation Server in order to run.  This is an unlocked dll runtime. 

Subscribers

There are very few subscribers.  If you have a current subscription, then yes this is included for free (honestly, when have I not done that?).

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