|
|
This section describes changes made in Ingres 2006 to existing features.
|
|
Unicode is a standard method of storing character data for multinational situations. Many applications require the ability to store and retrieve Unicode data. Ingres 2006 supports the second phase of a phased implementation of full Unicode support and extends support to the UTF-16 encoding scheme.
For details on this feature, see the SQL Reference Guide, the OpenSQL Reference Guide, and the Command Reference Guide.
|
|
Ingres coerces between Unicode data types and non-Unicode data types, including nchar/nvarchar and char/varchar types. Unicode coercion includes the following features:
|
|
Ingres performs wildcard searches involving Unicode strings by making use of a case insensitive collation table.
|
|
The Ingres query optimizer has been enhanced to handle queries that reference large numbers of tables and indexes with shorter response time. For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide.
|
|
The limit for the number of table references in a query has increased from 30 to 126.
This limit refers to the sum of explicit table references (even if the same table appears several times in a query), explicit view references, and tables and views included by the expansion of a view definition. It also refers to the sum of such references in all subselects and unioned selects of a query.
For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide.
|
|
In previous releases of Ingres, the JDBC driver required a user ID and password that was valid in the context of the DBMS platform, even for local connections where the local user ID is sufficient. The JDBC driver also failed to use virtual node (vnode) login information when making remote connections, and was not able to access private vnode definitions.
In Ingres 2006, the JDBC driver no longer requires a user ID and password when the Data Access Server is running on the same platform as the Java client. Instead, for local connections, the local user ID is sufficient to establish the DBMS Server connection.
When the Data Access Server and DBMS Server are on separate platforms, a vnode is required in the target database specification that defines how the connection between the Data Access Server and DBMS Server is to be established. The vnode provides the connection information while the JDBC user ID and password are used to access the remote DBMS Server.
A new driver connection property/URL attribute allows the JDBC application to control the context (Data Access Server (local) or DBMS Server (remote)) in which the user ID is used.
When used in the Data Access Server context, the user ID and password allow access to the private vnode information for the user ID provided, and both the login and connection information from the vnode is used to access the remote DBMS Server.
When used in the DBMS Server context, global vnode definitions are used for (nonsensitive) connection information and the provided user ID and password are used to access the remote DBMS Server.
For more information, see the Connectivity Guide.
|
|
The limit on the number of columns per table has increased from 300 to 1024. This feature is upwardly compatible; however, programs written to take advantage of the new limit cannot be used with earlier Ingres releases that included the 300-column limit. For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide.
|
|
The following VDBA enhancements have been implemented for Ingres 2006. These enhancements are available only on Windows, Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX platforms.
|
|
Two VDBA utilities, SQL/Test and Performance Monitor, have been split from the VDBA architecture and are now called Visual SQL and Visual Performance Monitor. By isolating these components as smaller, stand-alone executables, users benefit from increased response time because they no longer need to launch the whole VDBA executable.
When launched in VDBA, these new components also help avoid VDBA locking itself. This can happen, for example, when there is an uncommitted query on a table in an SQL Test window, and an operation is performed on the same table in a DOM window opened in the same VDBA instance.
The SQL Assistant has also been split into a stand-alone DOM component. The SQL Assistant can now be accessed from the Ingres Export Assistant, in addition to Ingres Network Utility and VDBA, to help build SQL queries.
Visual SQL and Visual Performance Monitor are accessible from the Start menu, Ingres Visual Manager, Network Utility, VDBA, and the command line.
|
|
The new stand-alone executable (vdbasql) for Visual SQL displays the following window.
This window allows all the functionality of the previous SQL/Test window in VDBA, but has the following additional toolbar controls:
In addition, the status bar now provides the autocommit state of the transaction.
|
|
The new stand-alone executable (vdbamon) for Visual Performance Monitor displays the following window.
This window allows all the functionality of the previous Performance Monitor window in VDBA, but has the following additional toolbar controls:
|
|
The Properties dialog is accessible from the new Visual SQL and Visual Performance Monitor executables, as well as from VDBA. (This was previously called the Preferences dialog.)
The SQL/Test Priorities dialog now includes a session timeout parameter that was previously global to all VDBA sessions.
The Performance Monitor Properties dialog includes the following additional parameters:
In addition, Visual SQL and Visual Performance Monitor provide a new menu option, Save Preferences As Default. If this option is selected, which is the installation default, the properties are permanently stored and used every time the utility is executed. If this option is unselected, the selected properties are only used for the utility's current instance.
|
|
Notification of changes to Ingres metadata includes the following features in VDBA:
For more information, see the online help for VDBA.
|
|
The Ingres Visual Manager contains the following enhancements:
Note: These enhancements are only available on Windows, Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX platforms.
|
|
Ingres Visual Manager provides direct access to all Ingres visual tools. The only exception is the Ingres Service Manager; its full functionality is already provided by Ingres Visual Manager. You can access these tools in the following ways:
The Ingres 2006 documentation is accessible from the menu.
Only the most frequently used tools are accessible from this toolbar. Use the above menu to access all other tools.
|
|
When an Alert message is written to the Ingres errlog.log file, IVM indicates the alert through a special icon change in the tray toolbar and in the IVM window tree. IVM also lets you set additional preferences for alert notification using the Preferences dialog. These additional preferences include:
A new preference has been added to the Preferences dialog:
In addition, if the operating system supports it (as with Windows), the message category (class) and number is stored as information belonging to the event. External applications that are monitoring error messages for the Ingres installation are given the error category and number without having to parse the text of the message.
If the OS Event option is selected, you can also set preferences for generating the following specific operating system events:
|
|
To help you respond to Ingres messages, IVM now displays an explanation for any message in the errlog.log file.
Select the desired message on any page or window in IVM that allows message selections and view its explanation by clicking the Message Explanation toolbar button.
|
|
The Configuration Rules File System has been modified to handle negative values and decimal values.
|
|
When setting, unsetting, or changing environment variables, a backup of the symbol.tbl file (symbol.bak) is maintained. If the original symbol.tbl file becomes corrupted, you can use the backup symbol table file to restore it. A history of updates to the symbol.tbl file is maintained in the symbol.log file. The symbol.bak and symbol.log files are located in the same location as the original symbol.tbl file. For more information, see the System Administrator Guide.
|
|
In addition to inner, left, right, and full joins, users can request cross joins (effectively inner joins without an clause) and natural joins. Also, the ON clause can be replaced by a USING clause that contains a list of columns, each of which appears in both tables being joined. Instead of the explicitly coded join qualification of the ON clause, the USING clause applies one equijoin predicate for each column pair in the list of columns. For example, "… a left join b using c1, c2 …" is identical to coding "… a left join b on a.c1 = b.c1 and a.c2 = b.c2 …." For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide.
|
|
Ingres configuration defaults have been updated to reflect the current hardware environments.
|
|
Ingres 2006 introduces an additional Ingres Management Architecture (IMA) component, IMP.
IMA provides the framework for accessing system data for monitoring and managing installations through SQL without affecting the underlying operation of the product. For more information, see the System Administrator Guide.
|
|
Ingres 2006 adds a flag to CREATEDB, which allows the specification of a non-default page size for catalogs. For more information, see the Command Reference Guide.
|
|
Ingres 2006 adds three new flags to the ALTERDB utility, which allow for the deletion of invalid checkpoints, the deletion of a specific checkpoint, and a non-Unicode enabled database to be Unicode enabled. For more information, see the Command Reference Guide and the Database Administrator Guide.
|
|
Ingres 2006 adds support for the –p flag to the terminal monitor (that allows a password to be specified) and support for the –r flag (that allows a role name and optional role password to be added).
Also, command completion and command history recall are supported for the Linux operating system.
For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide and the Command Reference Guide.
|
|
Ingres 2006 allows the user to dictate behavior when a log full situation occurs. The options provided are COMMIT, ABORT, or CONTINUE. For more information, see the SQL Reference Guide.
|
|
Ingres 2006 extends the 440-byte limit on the maximum width of a Btree key.
|
|
Ingres on Windows environments is delivered in Microsoft Windows Installer format. Microsoft Windows Installer version 2.0 is required on the machine on which you are installing Ingres components.
The installer on Windows presents a setup wizard to guide you through the installation process. The setup wizard lets you select a Complete or Custom install. The Custom installation lets you choose individual components for installation.
|
|
With Ingres 2006, the product can be installed as a user other than ingres. Ingres security is retained. When installing Ingres, you can specify a user ID (and its associated group ID) that owns the Ingres installation. During installation, this system administrator ID is automatically created and given the required permissions. If they are not previously defined, the user ID and group ID are added to your UNIX or Windows systems.
|
|
Product enhancements that improve the supportability of Ingres include dumping queries to the error log file upon certain error conditions (for example, an optimizer time-out or an exhaustion of resources), and modifying the ingstart process so that the exact version and patch information is written to the error log file on startup.
|
|
Each Ingres visual tool now has its own Help system that is independent of other visual tools. This separation of Help systems makes it easier and quicker for users to navigate through the list of Help system topics. In addition, search results now display only those topics that are applicable to the visual tool in use. Standalone Help systems are now provided for the following visual tools: