WhatsNewin

AdvantageDatabaseServer10

WHITEPAPE R

www.sybase.com/advantage

Contents:
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................1
DataHandling...................................................................................................................................................1
UnicodeSupport........................................................................................................................................................... 1
NestedTransactions..................................................................................................................................................... 1
TransactionFreeTables............................................................................................................................................... 1
TableDataCaching....................................................................................................................................................... 2
TemporaryTableCaching ............................................................................................................................................ 2
EventIDs ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2
SQLEnhancements ..........................................................................................................................................2
StoredProceduresintheFROMClause...................................................................................................................... 2
BooleanSQLExpressions ............................................................................................................................................. 2
LimitingQueryResults ................................................................................................................................................. 2
ROWNUMSupport ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
SQLBitwiseOperators ................................................................................................................................................. 3
SQLTimeoutProperty .................................................................................................................................................. 3
QueryExecutionPlanImprovements ......................................................................................................................... 3
NewExpressionEngineFunctions............................................................................................................................... 3
NewISOWeekScalarandExpressionEngineFunction ............................................................................................. 3
HexScalarandExpressionEngineFunctions.............................................................................................................. 4
DelphiEnhancements......................................................................................................................................4
AdvancedDelphiPropertyEditors .............................................................................................................................. 4
NewDelphiMethods ................................................................................................................................................... 4
NewDelphiComponentforNotifications .................................................................................................................. 4
Indexing ............................................................................................................................................................5
BinaryIndexes .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
sp_ReindexProcedure ................................................................................................................................................. 5
PerformanceImprovements...........................................................................................................................5
ExpressQueueSupport................................................................................................................................................ 5
TransactionProcessingSystem ................................................................................................................................... 5
AdvantageOptimizedFilters(AOFs) ........................................................................................................................... 5
RecordCountOperations ............................................................................................................................................ 6
EfficientTableCreation................................................................................................................................................ 6
Indexing......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
ReferentialIntegrityCascadeOperations................................................................................................................... 6
AppendingandDeletingRecords................................................................................................................................ 6
TemporaryFileHandling.............................................................................................................................................. 6
MemoHeaderCaching ................................................................................................................................................ 6
TableOpenPerformance............................................................................................................................................. 7
CachedFilePool ........................................................................................................................................................... 7
RecordLocks ................................................................................................................................................................. 7
AdvantageExtendedProcedures(AEPs) .................................................................................................................... 7
WorkerThreads............................................................................................................................................................ 7
RightsCheckingBehavior............................................................................................................................................. 7
MemoryManagement ................................................................................................................................................. 7

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

AdvantageDataArchitectEnhancements .....................................................................................................7
Reporting..........................................................................................................................................................8
CrystalReportsSettings ............................................................................................................................................... 8
R&RReportWorksSupport .......................................................................................................................................... 8
NewClientsandPlatformSupport .................................................................................................................8
More64bitClients....................................................................................................................................................... 8
64BitAdvantageADO.NETImprovements................................................................................................................ 8
SupportfortheLatestDevelopmentEnvironments.................................................................................................. 9
UpdatedPlatformSupport .......................................................................................................................................... 9
SupportforVulcan.NET................................................................................................................................................ 9
NoDelphi3,Delphi4,C++Builder3,orC++Builder4Components ......................................................................... 9
InstallationandConfiguration ........................................................................................................................9
AutomaticallyConfiguredWorkerThreadCount ...................................................................................................... 9
SideBySideServerInstallations ................................................................................................................................. 9
NewHelpFileFormat................................................................................................................................................... 9
ServerDiscovery ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Miscellaneous ................................................................................................................................................10
NewSystemVariables................................................................................................................................................ 10
SupportCaptureUtility .............................................................................................................................................. 10
Advantage10.1 ..............................................................................................................................................11
SupportforLatestDevelopmentEnvironments ...................................................................................................... 11
UnicodeFullTextSearchSupport ............................................................................................................................. 11
AdvantageDataArchitectCopy/PasteSupportforRows ....................................................................................... 11
StrongEncryptionandFIPSCompliance................................................................................................................... 11

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

ii

Introduction
Overthepast15years,AdvantageDatabaseServerhasbecometheheartofmanydatabaseapplications
withmillionsofdeploymentsworldwide.Weinviteyoutotakealookatthenextgenerationreleaseof
Advantage,version10.Advantage10bringsdevelopersnewfeaturesandusabilityenhancementssuchas
supportforUnicodeandVisualStudio2010,64bitclientsandlocalserver,eventswithuserdefineddata
andmore.Checkitout,wethinkyou'llbeimpressedwiththeperformanceenhancementstoo.
Thisnewreleaseofferssomeattractivereasonsforupgradingincluding:

Increasedapplicationperformanceespeciallyincreasedperformancethatdoesnt
requireclientsidechanges.

Supportforcurrenttechnologiesallowingyoutostayaheadinthemarket.

Increaseddeveloperproductivitywithpopularproductivityandfeature
enhancementstotheAdvantagetechnologyyouhavegrowntolove.

Whilethiswhitepaperisorganizedasalaundrylist,itdoesnotimplythatitem5inthelistismore
importantthanitem8anditem1isthemostimportantofall.Howimportanteachitemistoyouwill
dependontherelevancetoyourcurrentprojectandcouldquiteeasilychangewiththenext.
Enjoy.

DataHandling

UnicodeSupport
ProcessingofUnicodecharactertextissupportedbytheAdvantageWindowsandLinuxserversandall
Advantageclients.Unicodecharacterdatacanbestoredinthreenewfieldtypes,NCHAR,NVARCHARand
NMEMO.ThesenewfieldtypesareavailableinalltabletypessupportedbyAdvantage.Advantage10
includesnewAPIswithintheAdvantageClientEngine.WithUTF16encoding,theseAPIsreadandwrite
Unicodetextdirectly.UnicodecharacterscanalsobesupplieddirectlyinSQLstatementsandfilter
expressions.Unicodecolumnsmaybesortedorindexedusingvariouscollationlocales.SeeUnicode
SupportintheHelpFilefordetails.

NestedTransactions
Transactionscannowbenestedwithinothertransactions.Normally,thistransactionnestingoccursas
storedproceduresortriggersthatcontainbegin/commitpairscalleachother.SeeNestingTransactionsin
theHelpFilefordetails.

TransactionFreeTables
Therearesomecaseswhereitmaybedesirabletoupdateatablewithinatransaction,yethavethose
updatesremainoutsideofthetransaction(audittables,debuglogtables,keygenerationtables,etc).While
thisispossibleusingasecondaryconnectionforsuchupdates,thisisnotalwaysfeasible(forexample,when
thetableismodifiedinastoredprocedureortrigger).Advantagenowprovidesamechanismtospecifya
tableasatransactionfreetable.SeeTransactionFreeTablesintheHelpFilefordetails.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

TableDataCaching
TableDataCachingisafeaturethatenablesthecachingoftabledataintheAdvantagecachingsystem.This
featureisintendedforusewithtablesthatcontainstaticdatathatisusedoftenandsharedamongmultiple
users.Thisfeaturecanbeusedwithtablesthatarebackeduponaregularbasis,ortablesthatcontainstatic
orreadonlydatasuchaszipcodelookuptables,insurancecodelookuptables,etc.SeeTableDataCaching
intheHelpFilefordetails.

TemporaryTableCaching
Advantagenowfullycachestemporarytablesinmemorywhenpossible.OnlywhenAdvantagecannotfit
temporarytabledatainitscache(orwhenitisconfiguredtonotcacheanydata)willitcreateaphysicalfile
orwritetabledatatodisk.SeeTemporaryTablesintheHelpFilefordetails.

EventIDs
Eventscannowbesignaledwithauserdefineddatastringthatwillbereturnedwhenthesignalisreceived.
Thetypicaluseofthisstringdataistoprovideamethodoflocatingtherecordortableforwhichasignalis
sent,howeveranystringdatacanbeused,providingaflexiblemechanismtodeliverpereventcontextto
threadsreceivingthesignals.SeeEvents(Notifications)intheHelpFilefordetails.

SQLEnhancements

StoredProceduresintheFROMClause
TheAdvantagequeryenginenowsupportsusingstoredprocedureresultsinplaceofatableorview
referenceintheFROMclause.Forexample:
SELECT * FROM (EXECUTE PROCEDURE sp_mgGetConnectedUsers()) connectedUsers

BooleanSQLExpressions
TheSQLenginenowsupportsBooleanvalueexpressions.Forexample,thefollowingstatementisnowvalid:
"SELECT ( flag = FALSE ), (val = 1) FROM table1 WHERE fld1 OR fld2"

LimitingQueryResults
TheAdvantagequeryenginenowsupportstheSTARTATclausewhenusingaSELECTTOPstatement.START
ATcanbeusedtoprovidepagingfunctionality.Thefollowingquerywillreturnthefirst10employees:
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM employees

Toreturnthenext10employeesinthetable,thefollowingsyntaxisnowsupported:
SELECT TOP 10 START AT 11 * FROM employees

SeeLimitingQueryResultsintheHelpFilefordetails.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

ROWNUMSupport
TheROWNUMscalarfunctionisnowsupported.ROWNUMcanbeusedtogenerateintegernumbers
startingat1foreachrowintheresultofaquery.TheROWNUMfunctionisprimarilyintendedforuseinthe
selectlistandcanbeusedtoprovideanumberingofrowsintheresultset.Thenumberassociatedwitha
rowisdeterminedwhentherowisselectedforinclusionintheresultset.SeeROWNUMintheHelpFilefor
details.

SQLBitwiseOperators
TheAdvantagequeryenginenowsupportssixbitwiseoperators:&(AND),|(OR),^(XOR),~(NOT),
>>(SHIFTRIGHT),<<(SHIFTLEFT).SeeOperatorsinSQLintheHelpFilefordetails.

SQLTimeoutProperty
AddedsupportforanoptionalSQLtimeoutvalueforagivenconnectionorstatementhandle.Thetimeout
settingwillindependentlyapplytotheinitialqueryexecution,andtoanyoperationthatsupports
Advantagecallbackfunctionality.ThisnewfunctionalityisexposedviaanewACEAPIAdsSetSQLTimeout
andthenewDelphipropertiesTAdsConnection.SQLTimeoutandTAdsQuery.SQLTimeout.SeeCallback
FunctionalityintheHelpFilefordetails.

QueryExecutionPlanImprovements
TheSQLexecutionplanhasbeenimprovedtoincludemoredetailedinformationabouttheindexesthatare
usedtooptimizedeachspecificsegmentoftheWHEREclause.Theinformationincludestheorderinwhich
thesegmentsareevaluated,theestimatedkeycountthattheserverusestoselecttheindexforthe
optimizationifapplicable,andtheactualnumberofkeysthatarereturnedforthespecificsegmentifitis
evaluated.

NewExpressionEngineFunctions
ThefollowingnewexpressionenginefunctionsaresupportedbyAdvantage.Thesenewfunctionscanbe
usedtocreateindexesthatAdvantagewillusetooptimizeSQLqueriesthatreferencetheircorresponding
scalarfunctions.SeeIndexeswithExpressionsandIndexesandSQLPerformanceintheHelpFilefordetails.

WEEK

QUARTER

DAYOFYEAR

DAYOFWEEK

HOUR

MINUTE

SECOND

DAYNAME

MONTHNAME

NewISOWeekScalarandExpressionEngineFunction
AnewISOWEEKexpressionengineandscalarenginefunctionhasbeencreatedthatreturnstheISO8601
weeknumberofagivendatevalue.SeeISOWEEKfordetailsontheexpressionenginefunction(whichcan

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

beusedtocreateanindexforfilterandqueryoptimization).SeesupportedDATE/TIMEscalarfunctionsin
theHelpFilefordetails.

HexScalarandExpressionEngineFunctions
CHAR2HEXandHEX2CHARhavebeenaddedtofacilitatehexadecimalconversions.ThefunctionCHAR2HEX
canbeusedtoconvertcharacterdatacontaininghexadecimalcharacterstoabinaryvalue.Two
hexadecimalcharacterswillbeconvertedtoonebyte.ThefunctionHEX2CHARconvertsabinaryvaluetoa
charactervalue.Eachbyteofthebinaryvalueisrepresentedastwohexadecimalcharacters.SeeFunctions
toConvertHexadecimalValuesintheHelpFilefordetails.

DelphiEnhancements

AdvancedDelphiPropertyEditors
TheSQLUtilityavailableintheAdvantageDataArchitectisnowusedastheTAdsQuery.SQLpropertyeditor
inDelphiandC++Builder.Thiseditorprovidesmanyadditionalfeaturesincludingsyntaxhighlighting,code
templates,find/replacefunctionality,abilitytorunandpreviewqueryresults,abilitytoverifyquerysyntax,
abilitytodebugSQLscripts,etc.Inaddition,youcannowcreatenewtablesfrominsidetheDelphiIDEby
rightclickingonaTAdsTableorTAdsQueryinstanceandselecting"CreateNewTable".SeeAdvanced
PropertyEditorsintheHelpFilefordetails.

NewDelphiMethods
Theexistingsp_SetApplicationIDandsp_GetApplicationIDcannedprocedureshavebeenexposedinthe
AdvantageTDataSetDescendantviathenewTAdsConnection.ApplicationIDpropertyand
TAdsConnection.GetApplicationIDmethod.SeeApplicationIDintheHelpFilefordetails.
TheTAdsConnectioncomponenthasanewconstructorcalledCreateFromHandlewhichcanbeusedto
cloneaconnectionusinganexistingAdvantageClientEngine(ACE)handle.SeeCreateFromHandleinthe
HelpFilefordetails.

NewDelphiComponentforNotifications
AnewDelphi/C++BuildercomponentcalledTAdsEventcanbeusedtolistenforandhandlenotifications.
ThiscomponentautomaticallyhandlesthecreationofabackgroundthreadandanAdvantageconnection,
allowingthedevelopertohandleasynchronouseventswithease.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010


Indexing

BinaryIndexes
Advantagenowsupportsbinaryindexesforlogicalexpressions.Theseareespeciallyusefulforbuilding
indexesofdeletedrecordsforfasterfilteringandtraversalofrecordsontableswithlargenumbersof
deletedrecords.WhenabinaryindexwiththeDELETED()expressionexists,Advantagecanuseitfor
optimizingthefilteringofdeletedrecordswhentraversingrecorddatainnaturalrecordorderandwhen
creatingAdvantageOptimizedFilters(AOFs).ThisoptimizationhelpswithbothDBFtables(whenfiltering
deletedrecords)andwithADTtables.SeeBinaryIndexesintheHelpFilefordetails.

sp_ReindexProcedure
Addedanewsystemprocedurecalledsp_ReindextoprovidereindexingfunctionalityinSQL.

PerformanceImprovements

ExpressQueueSupport
AdvantageDatabaseServernowsupportsadynamicqueuingofclientrequestsbasedonthehistoricalcost
ofaconnection'srequests.Connectionsthatarepredictedtobeunderadynamicallycomputedthreshold
maybegivenpreferenceintherequestqueuewhenthesystemisbusy.Thiscanmakeinteractive
applicationsthataremakinginexpensiverequestsmoreresponsivewhenusedinabusysystem.The
developercanalsochangeaconnection'srequestprioritywiththenewsystemprocedure
sp_SetRequestPriority.Itisnotnecessaryforthedevelopertomakeanyapplicationchangesinorderto
takeadvantageofthisfunctionality.SeeExpressQueueintheHelpFilefordetails.

TransactionProcessingSystem
AnumberofimprovementshavebeenmadetotheAdvantageTransactionProcessingSystemresultingin
significantperformanceimprovements.Manyinternaloptimizationstolocklistsandvisibilitylistshave
increasedtheperformanceoftransactionswithalargenumberofoperations.Inaddition,theperformance
ofshorterrepeatedtransactionshasalsobeenimprovedviaanewtemporaryfilehandlepoolthatisnow
usedinsteadofdynamicallycreatinganddeletingTPSlogfileswitheverytransaction.

AdvantageOptimizedFilters(AOFs)
ImprovedtheAdvantageOptimizedFilter(AOF)multisegmentindexalgorithmtoconsidermoreindextags
whenoptimizinganAOF,notjustthefirstindexfound.Thismodificationincreasesthepossibilityoffully
optimizingamultisegmentedAOF.Inaddition,itmayreducethenumberofindexscansrequiredtoresolve
thefilter.
EnhancedAdvantageOptimizedFilter(AOF)costestimationsforimprovedorderingoffiltersegments
combinedwithANDoperators.Thisenhancementcanimproveperformanceforbothnavigational
operationsthatsetAOFsdirectlyandforSQLstatements,whichautomaticallyuseAOFsforoptimization.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

Advantageisnowabletomoreaccuratelyestimatethecostofevaluatingeachsegmentandcanorderthem
appropriatelyandcanmakebetterdecisionsonwhentoshortcircuittheindexscans.
ImprovedAdvantageOptimizedFilter(AOF)optimizationandrecordtraversalwhenabinaryDELETED()
indexexists.Thisenhancementprovidesafixforanissuewherelargenumbersofdeletedrecordsatthe
beginningofatablehadtobetraversedattheserverinordertoreadthefirstrecordinthetable.See
BinaryIndexesintheHelpFilefordetails.

RecordCountOperations
ImprovedrecordcountoperationsonDBFtableswhenabinaryDELETED()indexexists.SeeBinaryIndexes
intheHelpFilefordetails.

EfficientTableCreation
Improvedtablecreationefficiency.Theparsingoffielddefinitionsisfasterandnowusesfewermemory
allocations.Thisaffectstemporarytablecreation,triggerexecution,storedprocedureparameterpassing,
andvariousotheroperationsthateitherexplicitlyorimplicitlyinvolvestablecreation.

Indexing
PerformanceimprovementshavebeenmadetoAdvantage'slowlevelindexingcode.Theseimprovements
increasethespeedofmostindexoperationsincludingupdates,inserts,deletes,andseeks.

ReferentialIntegrityCascadeOperations
Improvedtheperformanceofreferentialintegritycascadeoperations.

AppendingandDeletingRecords
Improvedtheperformanceofappendingrecordsanddeletingrecords.Modificationswheremadeto
optimizetableheaderwritesrequiredwitheachupdate.

TemporaryFileHandling
Improvedcacheusagewithintermediatefiles(temporaryfilesusedbytheSQLengine).Inpreviousversions
ofAdvantage,itwaspossibleforthecachetobeoverrunwithintermediatefiles.Thelazycleanupof
intermediatefileswasreplacedbyactivedeletion,whichcanprovidemuchbetterthroughputespeciallyon
abusysystem.
Improvedtheperformanceoftemporarytablesbystoringtheirdatainmemorywhenpossible.
Addedfunctionalitytoreusetemporaryfiles.WhenAdvantagedoesnothaveenoughcachememorytohold
aresultfilefromastaticcursor,atemporarytable,orintermediatequeryfiles,itusesaphysicaltemporary
fileondisktostoretheinformation.Inversion10,thesefilesarestoredforashorttimeinatemporaryfile
poolforreuse.Avoidingphysicalfilecreationanddeletioncanimproveperformanceinabusysystem.

MemoHeaderCaching
ImprovedcachingofADMandFPTmemoheaders.Advantagenolongerwritesthephysicalheadertodisk
oneveryupdate.Pagerecycleinformationismaintainedinthecachedheaderwithasafeversionofthe

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

headerresidingondiskincaseofapoweroutage.Nowonlythefirst4bytesoftherootarewrittenandonly
ifthefilelengthchanges(whennewblocksarewrittentothefile).

TableOpenPerformance
Removedaretryloopforserversidetableopens.Thismodificationmakesattemptstoopenatablethat
doesnotexistmuchfaster.

CachedFilePool
Improvedsearchingofthecachedfilepool.Inaverybusysystem,thenumberofclosedintermediatefiles
couldbesomewhatlargeanditisaglobalpool.Reducingthesearchtimerelaxesapotentialglobal
bottleneck.

RecordLocks
Improvedthestoragealgorithmusedforrecordlocks,increasingperformancewhenAdvantageismanaging
alargenumberofrecordlocks(forexample,duringalongtransaction).

AdvantageExtendedProcedures(AEPs)
ImprovedperformanceofstoredproceduresandAdvantageExtendedProcedures(AEPs)byusingin
memorytablesforthevirtual__inputand__outputtables.

WorkerThreads
Improvedtheefficiencyofsignalingworkerthreadswhenclientrequestsareready.Aninefficientpattern
wasidentifiedthatpotentiallyrequiredworkerthreadstoimmediatelystopandwaitforasyncobjectafter
beingsignaledtorun.Thismodificationcanimproveabusysystemthatishandlingalargenumberofsmall
requests.

RightsCheckingBehavior
Thedefaultbehaviorforrightscheckinghasbeenchanged.Thenewdefaultbehavioristoignoretherights
checkingsettingfortableopensandcreationsandalwaysignoretheclientrightscheck.Freetableopensin
mostclientswouldpreviouslydefaulttodorightschecking;theclientwoulddoanexistencecheckfora
tablebeforeattemptingtoopenit.Formostapplications,thisunnecessaryandpotentiallyexpensivecheck
couldresultinlongtimeoutsontheclient.SeeEffectsofUpgradingtoVersion10intheHelpFilefordetails.

MemoryManagement
OptimizedACEobjectstoavoidallocatingalargenumberofrelativelysmallportionsoftheheap.This
modificationavoidsheapfragmentationandincreasesperformance.

AdvantageDataArchitectEnhancements
AddedsupportforUnicodefilesintheSQLUtility.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

AddedanewCollationpropertytoconnectionsinordertofacilitatespecifyingaUnicodecollation.
AddedanARCsettingtocontrolthefontsizeindatagrids.
ARCnowhighlightsDBFdeletedrecordsindatagridswhenusingtheSHOWDELETEDsetting.
AddedaprotocoltypesettingtotheremotemanagementutilitywhichallowsuserstotestbothUDPand
TCPsettings.

Reporting

CrystalReportsSettings
AddedperaliasCrystalReportssettingsinsteadofonlyprovidingglobalsettings(foroptionslikeCollation,
LockingMode,ShowDeleted,etc).

R&RReportWorksSupport
ManyAdvantageusershavearepositoryofreportsthatwherebuiltwiththeR&RReportWorksXBase
editionfromLivewarePublishing.Traditionallythesereportsuseddirectfileaccessandcouldnotutilizethe
securityandperformancefeaturesoftheAdvantageDatabaseServer.StartingwithAdvantageversion10,
R&RReportWorksfilesusingDBF/CDXtablescannowbeaccessedviatheAdvantageClientEngine.See
AdvantagewithR&RReportWorksintheHelpFilefordetails.

NewClientsandPlatformSupport

More64bitClients
64bitversionsofthefollowingclientshavebeenaddedinAdvantageversion10:

ODBC

OLEDB

LinuxPHPDriver

adsbackuputilityforWindowsandLinux

AdvantageLocalServer

tocomplimenttheseexistingAdvantage964bitclients:

AdvantageClientEngine(ACE)forWindowsandLinux

AdvantageADO.NETProvider

64BitAdvantageADO.NETImprovements
TheAdvantageADO.NETprovidercannowdetecttheplatformtypeatruntimeandcorrectlyloadeither
ACE32.DLLorACE64.DLLasappropriate.Thismeans.NETapplicationsusingtheAdvantageADO.NET
providernolongerneedtospecifyaplatformtargetofx86inordertoworkon64bitoperatingsystems.
Theplatformtargetcannowremainatitsdefaultsetting(AnyCPU).

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

SupportfortheLatestDevelopmentEnvironments

RADStudio/Delphi2009

RADStudio/Delphi2010

VisualStudio2008,.NET3.5,Entity.NETFrameworkandLINQtoEntities

VisualStudio2010,.NET4.0,Entity.NETFrameworkandLINQtoEntities

UpdatedPlatformSupport

Windows7

WindowsServer2008SP2

WindowsServer2008R2

SupportforVulcan.NET
OfficialreleaseoftheAdvantagedriverforVulcan.NET.Vulcan.NETisthenextgenerationofthexBase
familyoflanguages.

NoDelphi3,Delphi4,C++Builder3,orC++Builder4Components
SupportwasdroppedforthesedevelopmentenvironmentsinAdvantageversion9,butwecontinuedto
shipthecomponentsasacourtesy.Theynolongerbuildwithsomeproductimprovementswehavemade,
andthereforewillnotbeprovidedinAdvantageversion10.

InstallationandConfiguration

AutomaticallyConfiguredWorkerThreadCount
Theserverwillnowautomaticallyconfigurethenumberofworkerthreadswhenitstartsup.Ifthe
configuredworkerthreadcountisnotspecifiedoriszero,AdvantageDatabaseServerwillcalculatethe
numberofworkerthreadsbasedonthenumberofprocessorsonthesystem.Seetheworkerthread
configurationsettingintheHelpFilefordetails.

SideBySideServerInstallations
Insomecases,itisusefultoinstallmultipleversionsofAdvantageonasinglephysicalserver.Typically,this
isdonewhenmultipleAdvantageenabledapplicationsareusingthesamephysicalserver,butareshipped
usingdifferentversionsofAdvantage.StartingwithAdvantageversion10,additionalinstancesofAdvantage
cannowbeinstalledonthesamephysicalserver.SeeInstallingMultipleInstancesintheHelpFilefor
detailedinstallationinstructionsandadditionaldetails.

NewHelpFileFormat
AllAdvantagehelpfileshavebeencombinedintoasingleHTMLHelp1.0(CHM)helpfile.Inaddition,many
oftheAdvantageTechTipsfromtheDeveloper'sZonehavebeenincludedinthehelpfileandwillnowshow
upinhelpfilesearchresults.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

ServerDiscovery
AnewAPIAdsFindServershasbeenimplemented.ItcanbeusedtoretrievealistofinstancesofAdvantage
DatabaseServeronanetwork.ThisAPIcanbeusedincombinationwithaserversidealiastoeliminatethe
needforenduserstochooseadatabaseserverandconnectionpath.

Miscellaneous

NewSystemVariables
AlltriggermetadatainformationisnowavailableinSQLscripttriggersvianewsystemvariables,seeSystem
VariablesintheHelpFilefordetails.

SupportCaptureUtility
TheAdvantageSupportCaptureUtilityisnowinstalledwiththeserver,andcanbeusedtoeasilybundle
relevantfileswhenworkingonissueswiththeAdvantageTechnicalServicesteam.

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

10


Advantage10.1
SupportforLatestDevelopmentEnvironments
TheAdvantageDelphiComponentsnowincludesupportforDelphiXE.
AdvantagenowsupportsLazarus0.9.28.2orgreater(crossplatformclasslibrariesforFreePascalthat
emulateDelphi).TheWindowsinstallermuststillbeusedtogettheLazaruspackagesandsourcecode,
whichcanthenbeusedontheWindowsplatform,orcopiedtoaLinuximage(Macintoshisnotsupported,
asourcomponentsstillusetheAdvantageClientEngine,whichonlysupportsWindowsandLinux).For
details,seeGettingStartedwithLazarusinthehelpfile.

UnicodeFullTextSearchSupport
TheAdvantageDatabaseServernowsupportsFullTextSearch(FTS)onUnicodedata.

TheContains()scalarfunctioncannowbeusedwithUnicodedataasinputinthefilterexpressions,
AdvantageOptimizedFilter(AOF)expressionsandSQLengineexpressions.

TheScore()andScoreDistinct()scalarfunctionsinSQLenginenowsupportsUnicodedataasinput.

FTSindexesmaybebuiltonNChar,NVarChar,andNMemoFieldtypetospeedupthesearches
usingtheContains()scalarinAOF.Theindexeswillalsoimproveperformanceofevaluatingthe
Contains(),Score()andScoreDistinct()expressionsintheSQLengine.

FTSwithUnicodedataisalwayscaseanddiacriticalinsensitive.

AdvantageDataArchitectCopy/PasteSupportforRows
AdvantageDataArchitectnowsupportsCopyandPastingrecordsintoandoutoftheTableBrowserandthe
SQLUtility.TheserecordscanbepastedtoanothergridorSQLUtility,intoMicrosoftWord,Excel,or
directlyintoHTMLemail.
SupportforBLOBfieldsisincluded,copyandpastingfromtableswithdifferentfieldscanalsobe
accomplishedviatheFieldMappingUtility.Toaccessthecopyandpastingfunctionalityanewcontext
menubuttonhasbeenadded.SeeFieldMappingUtilityandTableBrowserinthehelpfileformore
information.

StrongEncryptionandFIPSCompliance
AdvantageDatabaseServernowsupportsstrongcryptographicfunctionalitythatcanbeusedinFederal
InformationProcessingStandard(FIPS)1402compliantproducts.Thecryptographicfunctionalityin
versionspriorto10.1isbasedonRC4,whichisnotaFIPScompliantencryptionalgorithm.Beginningwith
v10.1,newencryptionandcommunicationssupportareavailablethroughlibrariesfromTheOpenSSL
project.
ThenewcryptographicfunctionalityisnotavailablebydefaultinAdvantageproducts.Itmustbepurchased
separatelywiththeFIPSEncryptionSecurityOptionAddon.PleasecontactyourAdvantagesales
representativeorvisit

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

11

http://www.sybase.com/products/databasemanagement/advantagedatabaseserver/encryptionfor
additionallicensinginformation.

NotethatenablingandusingFIPScompliantcryptographyinAdvantageDatabaseServerdoesnotmakean
applicationconformtoFIPS1402;allpartsoftheapplicationmustbeexaminedandpossiblyupdatedfor
FIPScompliance.
Thefollowingsummarizesthenewcryptographicfunctionality:

AddedsupportforTransportLayerSecurity(TLS)v1.0communications.TLSoperatesoverTCP/IP
andusesRSAforthekeyexchange,AdvancedEncryptionStandard(AES),128bitor256bit,for
encryptionandSHA1(SecureHashAlgorithm)formessageauthentication.Theseciphersuitesare
referredtoasAES128SHAandAES256SHA.

Inaddition,theciphersuiteRC4MD5,whichusesRSAforthekeyexchange,RC4forencryption
andMD5formessageauthentication,isalsoavailable.ThisciphersuiteisnotFIPScompliant.

Addedsupportfordata(table)encryptionusing128bitand256bitAES.

Enhanceddataencryptionusing64bitmessagenumbersforeachpieceofencrypteddata(e.g.,
record,memo,indexpage,etc.)toensureuniqueinitializationvectors(and,therefore,unique
cipherstreams)acrossadatabase.Eachtimearecordisupdated,anewmessagenumberis
generatedforit.

Improvedkeystrengthbysaltingandhashingkeys.Thismakesattacksviapassworddictionaries
(rainbowtables)infeasibleandmakesbruteforceattacksmuchmoreexpensive.

Addedthecapabilitytoencryptthedatadictionaryfiles(.add,.am,.ai)withanexternallyprovided
password.

AddedthecapabilitytorunAdvantageDatabaseServerandtheAdvantageclientinFIPSmode.This
ensuresthatitisnotpossibletouseanycryptographicfunctionalitythatisnotFIPSapproved.For
example,ifAdvantageDatabaseServerisrunninginFIPSmode,itisnotpossibletoopendata
dictionariesthatsupportRC4ortablesencryptedwithRC4.

Addedsystemproceduressp_DecryptTableandsp_EncryptTablethatcanbeusedtochangetable
structurestosupportAESencryption.

Addedsystemproceduresp_ChangeDDEncryptionTypetoconvertdatadictionariestosupportAES
encryption.

Addedsystemproceduresp_GetTableEncryptionTypetoretrievethetypeofencryptionusedona
table.

Addedsystemproceduresp_GetSecurityInfotoretrieveinformationsuchasaconnection'sdefault
encryptiontype,thecommunicationtype,thecommunicationencryptiontype,anddictionary
encryptionstate.

SYBASE,INC.
WORLDWIDEHEADQUARTERS
ONESYBASEDRIVE
DUBLIN,CA945687902USA
Tel:18002357576

www.sybase.com/advantage

Copyright2010Sybase,anSAPCompany.Allrightsreserved.Unpublishedrights
reservedunderU.S.copyrightlaws.Sybase,theSybaselogo,andAdvantage
DatabaseServeraretrademarksofSybase,Inc.oritssubsidiaries.indicates
registrationintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.SAPandtheSAPlogoarethe
trademarksorregisteredtrademarksofSAPAGinGermanyandinseveralother
countries.Allothertrademarksarethepropertyoftheirrespectiveowners.12/10

WhatsNewinAdvantageDatabaseServer10
December2010

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