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History

Releases

   2013-08-11 QueryPony 0.3.1 Alpha
   - Settings saving fixed
   - Edit menu issues partially fixed
   - Miscellaneous minor bugs fixed

   2013-07-26 QueryPony 0.3.0 Alpha Release
   - Outlined database types shall all be accessible
   - Missing treeview nodes labeling supplemented
   - Divan for CouchDB integrated (not much utilized yet)
   - Various bugs fixed

   2013-07-10 QueryPony 0.2.0 Crashtest Version
   This are the differences as compared with Query ExPlus 2.0.3.1:
   Feature changes (from the user's point of view)
   - It requires .NET 3.5, no more .NET 2
   - Added implementations for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, CouchDB (not all
      applicable yet)
   - The Connect Dialog is on a permanent Tab, no more in a modal dialog
   - The Connection Forms are 'forms-on-tabs', no more MDI-Windows
      (Multiple Document Interface)
   - Only one centralized treeview anymore, no separate treeviews per connection
   - Revamped the About Form
   - Added menu item 'View Documentation in Browser'
   - Added two demo SQLite demo databases
   - The executable is no more 200 KB size but 2.3 MB
   Code changes (from the developer's point of view)
   - Solution file downgraded from VS-2010 to VS-2008
   - Solution file for SharpDevelop 4.1 added
   - Split the one project in two: GUI and Lib (engine)
   - Simplified ConnectionSettings properties
   - Third party libraries integrated (for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
   - Some file and folder renamings
   - Some new files and folders
   - Additional helper project 'IOBus'
   - Shake up code formatting (sorry for this)
   - License changed from Public Domain to GNU AGPL v3

How it Started

QueryPony is a derivative of Query ExPlus 2.0.3.1 .

The story started when I was researching for something like a 'database ignorant database access API'. I hit Query ExPlus, inspected it's code and -- bingo! That were exactly the database abstraction structures I imagined.

Only I wanted a bit more than what it offered, so I wrote a patch to implement SQLite. Still wanting more, I continued working, changed basic layouts, interfered with the core design, added features. Finally, it was no more patch, but a different product. This was not planned, it just happened.

Below you read the differences from Query ExPlus 2.0.3.1 to the QueryPony initial version 0.2.0.

Feature Changes (the user's point of view)

If you are already using Query ExPlus, you will face this differences:

• It requires .NET 3.5, no more .NET 2
• Added implementations for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, CouchDB (not all applicable yet)
• Connect Dialog is on a permanent Tab, no more inside a modal dialog
• Connection Forms are now forms-on-tabs, no more MDI-Windows (Multiple Document Interface)
• There is only one centralized treeview, no more separate treeviews for each connection
• Revamped the About Form
• Added menu item 'View Documentation in Browser' (this page)
• Added two demo SQLite demo databases.
• The executable is no more 200 KB size but 2.3 MB

Code Changes (the developer's point of view)

If you (developer) are familiar with the code of Query ExPlus, here a quick overview what is different in QueryPony:

• The solution file is downgraded from VS-2010 to VS-2008.
• A solution file for SharpDevelop 4.1 is added.
• The former one project is split in two: GUI and Engine. This was done in successive steps:
  • Split project folders physically. (Now everything was disrupted.)
  • Restore the QueryOptions. (This was trivial in the first attempt, because they are not really implemented at all. But they are the tricky thing, when it comes to re-activate them, because they are the ones who call from engine to GUI, the calling direction which has to be eliminated. They are not fully activated yet.)
  • Restore the ConnectionSettings. (This was not so trivial. It entailed to duplicate the ConnectionSettings class, one for the GUI and one for the Engine, the both with distinct but overlapping purposes. And it entailed to clean up details of the .NET Settings utilization, and completely refactoring the Settings overall read/write mechanism.)
  • Divide the namespace in two. (This was easy, after the previous steps were finished.)
• Simplifications
  • Started to reduce the ConnectionSettings properties to make it easier to add further database implementations.
  • Other simplification possibilities were analyzed but not yet realized:
    • The database type implementations *DbClient, *DbBrowser, *QueryOptions, which have to be duplicated for each newly added database type, show redundancies which can be refactored away.
    • In the ConnectForm exists one separate tab for each database type now. This is not necessary. It is possible, to have one and the same ConnectionSettings control set for all databases in common. Means the tabs, and with them the multiplication of controls, are a superfluous.
• Introduced a centralized treeview instead dedicated treeviews per Query Form. To achieve this, serious adjustions in the inner calling pathes between the objects had to be made, and a new inter-objects communication infrastructure was set up.
• Some third party libraries are integrated or amenable.
• File and folder renamings . . .
• New files and folders . . .
• Additional helper project 'IOBus' for communication between GUI and library and with utility methods.
• Shake up code formatting (sorry for this).
• License changed from Public Domain License to GNU AGPL v3.

Why split engine off from GUI?

(1)   The general reasoning is the cleaner design. With the subfolders 'Gui' and 'DatabaseApi', the preceding authors had already started to separate GUI and engine to some degree. But separating the projects physically, makes an absolute cut now. To make the cut rational, the references then must go only in one direction. Only the GUI may reference the library, not vice versa. This condition forcefully pushes through a one-way calling structure. As it turned out, there existed indeed calls the other direction, from DatabaseApi to GUI classes, which I had to eliminate.

(2)   But the hard fact reason, why I split engine from GUI that stricly, was that I wanted a pure library to provide a 'database-ignorant database access API' for any program. So now it is not anymore only QueryPony.exe as a standalone tool, but beside it exists QueryPonyLib.dll, an independend library, one can utilize from any .NET application.

The Changelog

Below pane is faded in from file changelog.txt.

   2013-07-26 QueryPony 0.3.0 Alpha Release
   - Outlined database types shall all be accessible
   - Missing treeview nodes labeling supplemented
   - Divan for CouchDB integrated (not much utilized yet)
   - Various bugs fixed


   2013-07-10 QueryPony 0.2.0 Crashtest Version
   This are the differences as compared with Query ExPlus 2.0.3.1:
   Feature changes (from the user's point of view)
   - It requires .NET 3.5, no more .NET 2
   - Added implementations for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, CouchDB (not all applicable yet)
   - The Connect Dialog is on a permanent Tab, no more in a modal dialog
   - The Connection Forms are 'forms-on-tabs', no more MDI-Windows (Multiple Document Interface)
   - Only one centralized treeview anymore, no separate treeviews per connection
   - Revamped the About Form
   - Added menu item 'View Documentation in Browser'
   - Added two demo SQLite demo databases
   - The executable is no more 200 KB size but 2.3 MB
   Code changes (from the developer's point of view)
   - Solution file downgraded from VS-2010 to VS-2008
   - Solution file for SharpDevelop 4.1 added
   - Split the one project in two: GUI and Lib (engine)
   - Simplified ConnectionSettings properties
   - Third party libraries integrated (for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
   - Some file and folder renamings
   - Some new files and folders
   - Additional helper project 'IOBus'
   - Shake up code formatting (sorry for this)
   - License changed from Public Domain to GNU AGPL v3


   2013-06-04 Spawn project QueryPony from Query ExPlus 2.0.3.1 (r75)
   The history entries from QueryExPlus-ReadMe.txt:
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   2010-10-04  k3b         Created this Readme; Upgrade from vs2005 to vs2010. Compiled for dotnet2.0
   2008-01-12  guessmann   Version 2.0.2.8
   2008-11-27  k3b         Added OleDB-Browsing support
   2006-10-14  guessmann   Version 2.0
   2006-09-14  guessmann   Version 1.01 Created fork from www.albahari.com/queryexpress.html
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~