pgExpress Free Driver
A PostgreSQL dbExpress Driver
 

 

The pgExpress Free Driver and all it's components are Copyright © 2001 Vita Voom.

This is the "readme" file for the pgExpress Free Driver.

Table of Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Features and Capabilities
  3. Installation
  4. License
  5. Notes
  6. Credits
  7. Known issues
  8. About pgExpress Suite
  9. Contact, Support, Bugs

Introduction

The Vita Voom © pgExpress © PostgreSQL dbXPress Driver Free Version is a Borland Kylix/Delphi 6+ Driver that directly access PostgreSQL 7.1+ databases.
This the the first dbExpress driver in the world to access a third-party/SQL server, and as far as we know, the first developed using Borland Delphi.
This version of the driver has support for all the most commonly used PostgreSQL field types (notably: int2, in4, int8, serial, char, varchar, text, date, datetime, time, BLOB, float, real, numeric and others).
This driver is the basis for a future pgExpress Suite of components, which is in late development, and should be released as soon as the driver reaches version 1.0.
You can see the ChangeLog for dbExpress Driver here.


Features and Capabilities

The pgExpress PostgreSQL dbXPress Driver Free version can access PostgreSQL 7.1+ databases, use almost all field types, and is complient to the Borland specifications of dbExpress drivers. It might access earlier versions of the server, but this was not tested. The only thing that is still not implemented is stored procedures support, mainly because PostgreSQL does not support them. But since they support functions, I'll probably support them in the next release.
Asynchronous connections can't be supported by current Borland's dbExpress implementation; array and ADT (custom fields) support will be suported only by the full pgExpress Suite.
The only differences between the Free and "full" versions of the driver are support of Arrays, ADTs, and use of OIDs for making updates. This is not exactly a proposital restriction, but because the proper support of such features requires special classes which are only available on the full version.
Another difference from the "full" and "Free" driver version is that the full version can be localized, since the full source is available for custumers.
The main features of the driver are:


Installation

The pgExpress PostgreSQL dbXPress Driver installation procedure is much like any other dbExpress driver's installation.
The next version will contain a utility for helping installing the driver. The steps for manual installation, while this utility is not ready, are:

  1. Copy the driver 'dbexppge.dll' to a folder in your path. If you prefer using the packages version of the driver, use the 'dbexppge_pkg.dll' file, and rename it back to 'dbexppge.dll'. The usual folder is $Delphi\bin (where $Delphi is the Delphi 6's installed folder), but as long as it's on your path, you can choose any other folder.
  2. Copy the 'libpq.dll' file to a dir on your PATH. This library is custom version of the PostgreSQL access library and is needed in order to connect to the database server.
  3. Setup the entries on the dbxdrivers.ini and dbxconnections.ini dbExpress configuration files. These files are usually at the "$ProgramFiles\Common Files\Borland Shared\DBExpress" folder. The changes to be applied are the following:


  4. The following are valid 'Database' parameters:

  5. That's it. The driver should be working now.

License

The pgExpress PostgreSQL dbXPress Driver Free Version (the one included in this package) is free of charge for non-commercial programs. If you plan to use it on commercial programs, however, we urge you to buy the commercial version of the driver, or the full pgExpress Suite of Components.
You cannot specially distribute components that in a way or other extend the pgExpress Free Driver, in particular, with features avaialble on the full pgExpress suite. You can obviously develop them for your own use, but use of third-party developed software that implements pgExpress suite features, or extend it in any way, using and needing this driver, is forbidden.

The entire contents of this this package is protected by Brazilian and International Copyright Laws. Unauthorized reproduction, reverse-engineering, "hacking" and redistribution of all or any portion of the code contained in this file is strictly prohibited and may result in severe civil and criminal penalties and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law.
This package can be redistributed only under it's original form; no changes may be applied to it or it's contents.

Althought we are we know it works fine, and Vita Voom puts the maximum of its efforts to develop and enhance it, the Software provided under this License Agreement, including but not limited to libraries, source code, Redistributables and other files are provided "as is," without warranty of any kind.

The pgExpress PostgreSQL dbExpress Driver Free and all it's related files are Copyright © 2001 Vita Voom Software.


Notes


Credits

This driver is 100% coded by Vita Voom Software. We would like, however, to express our gratitude to the following people:


Known issues


About the pgExpress Suite

The pgExpress Suite is a set of components to develop client-server applications using Borland Kylix/Delphi 6+ and the PostgreSQL Database Server.
Along with an improved driver version, the following components will be available:


Contact, Support, Bugs

You can find more info about Vita Voom and it's products on our Web site: http://www.vitavoom.com.
If you want to become a beta tester, please email to betatest@vitavoom.com
If want to contact us, have questions, report bugs, introduce comments, etc. - please use the following email:
support@vitavoom.com
For comments about the website, please email to webmaster@vitavoom.com
Support for the Free version is not official; you might write us, but there is no warranty that all questions are answered. We are also going to provide a newsgroups forum and mailing lists.
Our friends at dbExperts will do distribution, marketing and help with support. There will be an official announce at the web site.


Steve Howe
howe@vitavoom.com