CopyCat version 2.00.0!

[admin]

After a long delay, Microtec is pleased to announce the release of the long-awaited CopyCat version 2.0!

Version 2 introduces a number of major improvements, featuring most notably:

• Multi-database replication, enabling to replicate not only multiple database types, but even between a heterogenous set of databases of different types. For example, it is possible to replicate between MS SQL and Interbase, or Interbase 6.0 and Firebird 2.0, etc. Currently, only Microsoft SQL Server, CodeGear Interbase, and FirebirdSQL are supported, but support for many more is intended.
• Transport-abstraction: interoperability with existing remoting protocols and frameworks in order to enable replication over secure or compressed channels, as well as helping CopyCat to fit in with middleware systems that are already in place. No more need to open the database port directly to Internet, you are free to use the transport layer of your choice. Currently, only XML-RPC has been implemented (using the open-source D-XMLRPC implementation, which has been bundled with CopyCat).
• Conditional replication filtering. It is now possible to set per-table conditions on the replication of its records. These conditions may depend on the replicating node, or they may depend on data from the table. This allows to setup for instance, replication systems where only part of a table should be replicated, or where a different part should be replicated to each node.
• New per-table options, allowing to specify which operations (Insert / Update / Delete) should be logged, thus enabling a more granular control over how replication takes place. More control over replication process due to a new option allowing to specify which operations should be replicated.
• Added a TCcReplicator.SyncronizeRows method for manually provoking replication of a specified set of records. This feature greatly extends the sphere of usefulness of CopyCat, as it makes it possible to use the synchronization facilities of CopyCat without necessarily making use of the automated replication aspect (triggers logging all changes, etc). The latter approach is perfect if you need to have two or more identical databases or tables, but it's trickier to implement if you want to merge only part of the data of each table. Thus, this new feature of CopyCat can save you a lot of time in projects where full-blown replication is not desirable, or if you want to punctually pump the data in one direction or the other.
• No more special replication users! Although in some ways this could seem a fairly minor change, yet I think it is a major advance for CopyCat, since confusion over replication users used to be one of the main sources of difficulty in setting up replication with CopyCat, especially for new users. What this means in practice, is that the node names (corresponding to nodes in the RPL$USERS tables) no longer have any relation to the actual login used for connecting to the database. Thus, there is no more need to create special database users, nor therefore to remember to grant them rights to all the tables. Rather, you can replicate using whatever user account you like (SYSDBA or anything) -- just set the right node names in TCcReplicator.LocalNode.Name and TCcReplicator.RemoteNode.Name, and that's it!
• Redesigned website, with the addition of this new forum (as you can see! )
• Many other minor changes and bugfixes!

We hope this version was worth the wait for you, and that you will be satisfied with our products and service. We are eager to improve CopyCat to meet your needs, if you're missing anything in terms of functionality, and of course, we urge you to let us know if you have any questions of problems. We are generally quite responsive in terms of support, so don't hesitate to let us know if anything is wrong or not how you expected it.

Best regards,
Jonathan Neve,
Microtec Informatique.