New Features and Bug Fixes in Version 6.02 of ODBCExpress
=========================================================


New Features
------------

New features introduced since the previous version:

1.  You can now use externally obtained connection handles with ODBCExpress.
    Setting the THdbc.Handle property to the external handle will automatically
    set the Active and Connected properties of the THdbc to True.  The THdbc
    will also not disconnect or destroy the external handle (that is left up to
    the external API).  Finally, to force the THdbc to create its own handle
    again, you have to call the THdbc.Terminate method.
2.  Added an event OnExecAsync to the THstmt and TOEDataSet/TOEQuery components.
    If assigned, it will override the default behaviour of calling
    Application.ProcessMessages to make it more thread-friendly.


Bug Fixes
---------

Bug fixes included since the previous version:

1.  A problem in the TOESchema component where a table name that contained the
    reserved word "as" is not enclosed in double-quotes when loading the tables
    at the database.
2.  Modified the TOESchema and TOEBulkCopy components to not call
    Application.ProcessMessages when the OnProgress event is set to make it more
    thread-friendly.
3.  A problem where an "invalid pointer operation" occurred in the
    TOEDataSet/TOEQuery when the StringTrimming property was set to a value
    other then stTrimNone.  This was actually part of a wider problem where
    field buffers were copied even if field values were null.  The fix should
    also improve performance when you have rows with many null fields.
4.  A problem where error messages longer than 255 characters were truncated.
    The full error message will now be retrieved.
5.  An access violation in the TOEDataSet/TOEQuery on closing the application
    after an automatic connection attempt failed.
6.  A problem where changing the SQL statement of a TOEDataSet/TOEQuery keeps
    the parameter values, even when the data types are different.  Parameter
    values are now only kept if both the parameter names and data types match.
    This is different to the TQuery implementation which keeps parameter values
    even if the data types are different, but we believe this is not the correct
    behaviour.
7.  A problem where the buffer for boolean parameters were created of size
    "byte" instead of size "word".  This caused a problem with correctly
    returning boolean parameter values from stored procedures.
8.  A problem where a row is not updated in the TOEDataSet/TOEQuery if a blob
    field is the only field cleared, either by calling the field's "Clear"
    method, or by directly clearing the field's value.


General Comments
----------------

Some important comments on the new version:

1.  Please report any problems experienced with this new version to
    support@odbcexpress.com so that it can be addressed as soon as possible.


Acknowledgements
----------------

Thanks to everybody for all the suggestions and feedback which were instrumental
in the development of this new version of ODBCExpress.