What Was New in PSQL v13 SP1
An Overview of New and Changed Features
The General Release of PSQL v13 SP1, version 13.10, includes new features and changes covered in the following topics:
This document may be updated after the release. Download the latest version at the
Actian website.
Support for New Platforms
PSQL v13 SP1 runs on the following new platforms:
•Windows 10 IoT Core for small devices on x86 and ARM32 – Pervasive PSQL Server only
•Windows Nano Server on x86-64 – Pervasive PSQL Server, Client, Client Reporting Engine
•Linux on ARM64 – Pervasive PSQL Server, Vx Server, Client (32-bit Client Access not supported)
•Raspbian on ARM32 – PSQL Server
•Linux on x86-64
•OS X 10.10 and 10.11
In this release, support for these platforms has the following limitations:
•Installation on Windows IoT Core and Nano Server uses a .zip archive and a script.
•Installation on Raspbian is a .tar file and a script. Installation steps are the same as for Pervasive PSQL on Linux.
•On Windows Nano Server and IoT Core, Pervasive PSQL supports only CLI utilities, and local access methods are Btrieve, ODBC by direct link (without driver manager), and DTI.
•On Raspbian, Pervasive PSQL does not support PCC or DDF Builder.
PSQL v13 SP1 installation has been tested successfully with Docker for Windows.
We recommend updating all operating systems to their latest service packs.
Domain Security with Active Directory
PSQL v13 SP1 users can use Microsoft Active Directory (AD) authentication to validate access to a secure Pervasive PSQL database. The new AD-based feature in Pervasive PSQL is called Windows domain authentication, while the original Pervasive PSQL database security feature has been renamed local database authentication.
To use domain authentication, a network administrator creates AD rights groups with names matching those of groups created in Pervasive PSQL for the secure database. The network administrator then assigns group members who need access to the Pervasive PSQL database. Permissions are configured within Pervasive PSQL at the group level. When Pervasive PSQL uses domain authentication, it queries AD to approve logins based on network user name and password and matches the user’s AD group to a Pervasive PSQL group to determine access rights.
When you enable domain authentication for a particular database, any Pervasive PSQL users previously created for that database are disabled and the Users folder is hidden because user-level permission settings are no longer active. The use of domain authentication is specific to each database, but AD rights groups can be used by more than one database.
Classic Btrieve-level security is not affected by the new domain security capability.
Distributed Tuning Guide (DTI) Support for Domain Authentication
Use of the new Active Directory security feature is supported in the Pervasive PSQL Distributed Tuning Interface (DTI) by the new function PvSecureDatabase2() and an updated function PvIsDatabaseSecured().
Note that you must be connecting to a Windows server. Calls to Linux, and OS X servers return a general failure (status code 7004), since Active Directory is Windows only.
LIKE Operator in Btrieve Extended Operations
PSQL v13 SP1 adds the ability for Btrieve queries to use the LIKE operator in extended operations to pattern-match data. The new feature operates on character-based data. The following Btrieve operations now support LIKE:
•Get Next Extended (36)
•Get Previous Extended (37)
•Step Next Extended (38)
•Step Previous Extended (39)
Use of the LIKE operator in Pervasive PSQL SQL scripts is unchanged.
Table Schema Export and Import in PCC
PSQL v13 SP1 extends schema management capabilities by adding table-level exporting of all metadata to a SQL script. Importing this script into a new database allows you to do several useful things:
•Recreate one or more tables.
•Identify and troubleshoot metadata issues in the original tables.
ISR and ICU in SQL COLLATE Clauses
PSQL v13 SP1 supports the use of International Sort Rules (ISR) in SQL COLLATE clauses, including International Components for Unicode (ICU) collations. Previously, only Alternate Collating Sequence (ACS) collations were supported in SQL COLLATE clauses.
JDBC 4
PSQL v13 SP1 adds support for JDBC 4. Applications that use JDBC 2 drivers remain compatible. The names of .jar files remain unchanged.
ADO.NET SDK
PSQL v13 SP1 updates the Pervasive PSQL ADO.NET SDK with support for Visual Studio 2017 in ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider 4.3.
Note PSQL v13 SP1 ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider 4.2.0.6 supports Microsoft Entity Framework 6.0, 6.0.1, and 6.0.2. PSQL v13 SP1 ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider 4.3.0.6 supports Microsoft Entity Framework versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.1, 6.1.1, and 6.1.2
Managing the Page Cache for Files
To improve performance, the butil utility allows you to manage page caching for a file using cache and purge commands. When butil -cache and -purge commands are executed from a client cache or reporting engine, their actions apply only to the file in the local cache. Previously, these operations were passed through to the engine that owned the file.
In order for a file to remain in the client cache, one of two things must be true:
•No other machines must try to write to the file while it is closed.
•At least one application must keep the file open on the client machine.
When the client cache engine is installed as an application, it shuts down and empties the cache shortly after the client closes all files. This is not an issue for the client cache engine installed as a service or for the reporting engine.
Deprecated Features
PSQL v13 SP1 does not support upgrading of systems with previous versions of Backup Agent, AuditMaster, or DataExchange. These products must be uninstalled before upgrading to PSQL v13. We recommend that you back up your data and save configuration settings from these three products before removing them.