Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:45 pm

I've just finished documenting fully the CONNECTION and QUERY tags in the new version of zApp. This new version uses a completely new database library called ZeosLib ( www.zeoslib.net ) which is based upon JDBC.

This change in zApp is a huge step forwards. It allows zApp to provide *native* support for many popular databases WITHOUT the use of ADO. ADO is still supported for compatibility, providing the best of both worlds.

Normally, when you are writing Windows Scripts using VBScript or JScript, you are stuck with calling system COM Object components to perform database operations. Typically, this has always meant creating ADO objects and using ADO to access your data.

With zApp you can now access almost ANY database natively without ADO. This native support is much faster and more powerful than the support provided by Microsoft ADO, and since ADO is not required, all of the system problems caused by bad ADO installations are eliminated.

In terms of database power, this change now puts zApp right up there with scripting languages such as PHP with it's built-in support for MySQL. However, the difference is that in zApp, each database is handled in the same way. There isn't a separate library for each database. You can write generic code that is database-independant without having to worry about the details.

This is exactly the support needed by the eMobius email client in order to allow you to store your email in any type of mail store.

Even though the database support is handled generically, you still have access to specific database features if you need them. Full Transactions are supported (for databases that allow it), along with database-specific properties.

There is also great support for updating read-only or complex queries. The InsertSQL, DeleteSQL, and ModifySQL properties allow you to define SQL statements to be used to insert, delete, or modify records for complex queries.

There is also full support for query parameters and stored procedures.

I'm really excited by this new database support in zApp. In my testing I have found many fewer problems using ZeosLib rather than ADO. In fact, it works so well and so much faster that once eMobius has been written I'll need to go put this into zMUD and zMapper and get rid of all of my ADO dependancies.

Oh yes, ZeosLib works on Linux as well as Windows, so if I ever think about porting zApp to Linux, I'll have one less Windows dependance to worry about.

Yeah, I know this is a tease since you can't actually download the new version of zApp yet. But stay tuned. I'll be working on some automatted "build" scripts within a week or so that will allow me to put weekly builds of zApp onto the web site. That will allow people who are interested to stay up to date with the latest and greatest version.