InterClient 2.50 Final Build
Last modified: Nov 19, 2001

Contents:
     I.    Updates in 2.50 release
     II.   Updates in 2.01 release
     III.  Updates in 1.6 release
     IV.   Updates in 1.51 release
     V.    Updates in 1.50 release
     VI.   Issues

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Updates in 2.50 release

Current version: InterClient 2.50

* This release communicates with InterBase 6.5 using JRE 1.3.
  You can download JRE 1.3 from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/

* New public classes, methods and fields:
  Added Quoted Identifier support for InterBase 6 and dialect 3 onwards...
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetaData.supportsMixedCaseQuotedIdentifiers()
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetaData.storesMixedCaseQuotedIdentifiers()
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetaData.getIdentifierQuoteString()
  Added support for getBigDecimal() without the 'scale' parameter
     interbase.interclient.ResultSet.getBigDecimal(int)
     interbase.interclient.ResultSet.getBigDecimal(String)
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Updates in 2.01 release

* This release communicates with InterBase 6.0.1 using JRE 1.3.
  You can download JRE 1.3 from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/jre/

* Licensing is now reinstated in InterClient 2.01
* New public classes, methods and fields:
     interbase.interclient.Connection.setReadOnly()
     interbase.interclient.ConnectionProperties
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetadata
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetadata.isReadOnly()
     interbase.interclient.DatabaseMetadata.getDatabaseSQLDialect()
     interbase.interclient.ResultSet (DATE, TIME and TIMESTAMP support)
     interbase.interclient.ResultSet (DECIMAL and NUMERIC INT64 support)
* New error codes
  interbase.interclient.ErrorCodes
     InvalidOperationException__database_is_readOnly_ 
     SQLDialectAdjustmentWarning 

* DATE columns in ODS 9 will now be reported as having the Interbase
  Type Name of 'TIMESTAMP'
* The operation Statement.setMaxRows(int numRows) is correctly
  interpreted by InterClient. A result set will contain the specified
  number of rows.

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Updates in 1.6 release

* This driver (1.6) does not need a license file.

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Updates in 1.51 release

* Java 2 compatibility and bug fixes.

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Updates in 1.50 release

* This release communicates with InterBase 5.x under the JRE 1.1
* Big performance improvements.  We may now be the fastest driver
   on the market.
* Interclient is now completely localized, with easily translatable
   resource bundles for all error messages and hard-wired text
   used by the driver. Customizable public resource bundles for
   both InterClient and CommDiag are provided to accomodate
   international applications.
   See API reference for interbase.interclient.Resources and
   interbase.interclient.utils.Resources.
* Direct international support for user-specified character sets.
   InterClient supports 20 of the 22 InterBase character set
   encodings, including Unicode FSS.  Data is transliterated
   directly using native encodings, this provides much better
   performance than drivers that use only a single universal
   encoding on the wire.
   See the API reference for interbase.interclient.CharacterEncodings
   for a list of supported encodings.  All SQL, CHAR, VARCHAR,
   and blob character result/parameter data are encoded and decoded
   using the encoding specified with the charSet connection property.
* Improved documentation accessible through the JBuilder help viewer.
   The InterClient Programmer's Guide has been renamed InterClient
   Introduction, and the Reference and Help documentation has been extended.
   The API Reference now has links to JavaSoft's core API documentation.
   See docs/index.html in the InterClient distribution.
* Various capability and robustness enhancements to the API in general,
   especially in the area of input parameter and result column type
   conversions.  For example, prepared statement parameter conversions
   now distinguish between character blobs and binary blobs, disallowing
   certain operations such as setString() on a binary blob and allowing
   operations such as setBytes() on a character field according to the
   JDBC conversion tables.
* Full support for SQL DESCRIBE and SQL DESCRIBE INPUT functionality.
   PreparedStatement.getMetaData() provides a way to access
   result set meta data before a prepared statement is executed.
   ParameterMetaData off a PreparedStatement provides a way to get
   metadata describing the input parameters to a prepared statement.
   This functionality is an extension to the base JDBC API.
* Configurable local row cache size.  See API reference for
   interbase.interclient.Statement.setFetchSize().
* SQL State codes associated with driver generated exceptions
   are now published.  See the Help documentation.
* Improved error messages.
* New public classes, methods and fields:
     interbase.interclient.BlobIOException
     interbase.interclient.CharacterEncodings
     interbase.interclient.CharacterEncodingException
     interbase.interclient.ErrorCodes
     interbase.interclient.Resources
     interbase.interclient.UnsupportedCharacterSetException
     interbase.interclient.ConnectionProperties.setCharacterEncoding()
     interbase.interclient.PreparedStatement.getMetaData()
     interbase.interclient.Statement.setFetchSize()
     interbase.interclient.Driver.getCompatibleJREVersions()
     interbase.interclient.Driver.getCompatibleIBVersions()
     interbase.interclient.Driver.getBuildCertificationLevel()
     interbase.interclient.Driver.testBuild
     interbase.interclient.Driver.betaBuild
     interbase.interclient.Driver.finalBuild
* Discarded packages, interfaces, classes and methods:
     interbase.interclient.netscape_utils
     Driver.asString()
     BadInstallation() constructor
     ComponentException
     Monitor and monitoring facility
     DatabaseNotCapableException is now subsumed by DriverNotCapableException
     All exception class member methods
* All driver methods are tagged in the API Reference
   according to origination: JDBC 1, JDBC 2, or Extensions.
   Method deprecations are also noted in Reference.
* Class inheritance changes to exception classes.
* Renamed classes and methods:
     LoginTimeoutException is now SocketTimeoutException
* VARCHAR fields are no longer right trimmed by the result set
   Adaptor.RIGHT_TRIM_STRINGS directive.
* Non-zero error codes are now generated for driver generated exceptions.
* More fully qualified version strings for InterClient and InterServer,
   including build numbers and certfication levels.
* Classes are no longer distributed in a single interclient.jar file,
   rather the following Java archives are distributed:
     interclient-core.jar
        The JDBC driver with only the default American English text
        resources.  No utilities are included in the core jar file.
     interclient-res.jar
        Locale specific resource bundles.
     interclient-utils.jar
        Utilities, this jar file consists of the communications diagnostics
        utility.
     interclient.jar
        JDBC driver, all resources, and utilities.
* DatabaseMetaData system table queries now return VARCHAR (vs. CHAR) data
   for InterBase metadata such as table, column and procedure names.
   So metadata is no longer right padded with blanks as CHAR data is.
* CommDiag improvements.
* Examples directory added to distribution with sample Java programs
   which use InterClient.
* Configurable TCP/IP port numbers for InterServer.
   By default, InterServer listens on port 3060, but this port
   may be modified manually if necessary.
   If a port other than 3060 is used, it must be specified in the
   database or server URL syntax.  See Help documentation.
* Open Source.
   The source for InterClient/InterServer is available at www.interbase.com.
   The terms of the license are in the files InterBase_Public_license.*
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Issues

   Please be aware of the following issues affecting this release of
   InterClient:

   * InterBase table names and other metadata must have an ASCII
     representation.

   * DatabaseMetadata.getProcedureColumns returns 0 for precision values
     for NUMERIC and DECIMAL columns rather than the correct precision.

   * DatabaseMetadata.getColumns does not return the proper default value
     of a column in an InterBase table.
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Copyright (c) 2001 Borland Software Corporation
All rights reserved.