All News
Aug 2012
We
were informed about 32 CPU
severs. Starting with the Aug
Release, there will be no more
limitation in the number of CPUs
in the server.
Dec 2011
Special announcement -
Beginning Jan 1st 2012, ASP-db source code
will be available to
users with active maintenance!
Contact
sales or support@aspdb.com
for details. There is only one
minor improvement in 2011. This
implies that ASPdb is very
stable. We are now offering
source code to our users (non
commercial use only). When you
purchase the source code, there
is no need to pay for
maintenance any more.
Jan 2010
The 2010 release is a major
upgrade. Highlight of new
features is the PDF and XML
support. Took a while to pin
down a good HTML to PDF
converter. XML query is getting
more and more popular and we
implemented the XML data as a
tree. This database inside a
database concept of string data
certainly draws a lot of heated
discussion. But in the
perspective of a DB middleware
developer, this is the coolest
thing we haven't seen for a
while. A lot of clean up
including the entire class of
GetData being moved to the main
class, examples, manual and
CG.exe. We have moved the old
Ted's code masking function to
CG. You must try that. Enjoy
this new release.
Aug 2009
Implement Ajax into Dynamic
List to simulate Remote
Scripting. Add Ajax and Image
verification to MyINputFlds.
Both classic ASP-db and Tornado
are tested for VISTA, WS2008 and
also in 64 bit environment. Also
implement many of the support
issues. Check release history
and API for more details.
Jan 2009
DB2 support is incorporated
into 2009 GOLD version. Ajax is
cleaned up and now supports
embedded and stand alone modes.
See new property dbDisplay =
"CODE". DB2 support is also
incorporated into the code
generator now named as CG.exe.
This release requires all the
datasource, SQL, MYSQL, DB2,
ORACLE be loaded into the
development station. Contact
support for special versions. A
new dynalist tab is added to the
CG.exe. Note that CG.exe is a
tool used primary in on the spot
code generation and not meant to
generate the final code.
Jan 2008
A lot updates in the 2008
release. Ajax, MYSQL native
support, New Ted, and we
implemented about 90% of user
requests.
Check the release history for
this major release. Details will
be described in the subscription
user's email.
Jul 2007
AJAX added to both classic
and DotNet versions of ASP-db.
MAXLENGTH in TEXTAREA,
Access2007 and Excel 2007
support
A reminder that we'll send
the DLL of this release to all
users to remind them that the
developers are taking over
ASP-db again. MMS is released of
the commission to sell ASP-db
beginning Feb 1st, 2007.
AJAX has been added to both
classic ASP-db and Tornado.
Entire Grid output is place
within an AJAX name tag block to
suppress the screen refresh.
Since most of the ASP-db are
using similar technologies 10
years ago to implement calendar,
validation, RS etc.. Only
selective AJAX components will
be added in the future. Note
that your browser must have Js
enabled in order to have AJAX
working.
Another JS implementation for
MAXLENGTH in TEXTAREA.
We are getting into Vista and
we'll share our development with
the users in the coming months.
Tornado now supports the 2007
office files.
Apr 2007
Office 2007
MMS is no longer our sales
agent, please forward all
inquires to
order@aspdb.com or
sales@aspdb.com. Access and Excel 2007 new
OLEDB provider is implemented.
More examples to cover some very
unique applications.
Mar 2007
Application Examples
A few more examples in Oracle
and stock data support. A new
Aspx-db is under development.
This development is to support
injecting DB and other Tornado
features into a new or an
existing web page. Existing
Tornado users will get it for
free.
Jan 2007
Application Examples
The new year resolution of
ASP-db is to provide more real
life applications. Several new
features are under consideration
but they are primary cosmetic
and of very little value and
actually create
incompatibilities. From the
contracting jobs we did from
time to time, seems like the 40
lines average is rarely
exceeded. There are quite a few
number of tools that is
available and there are quite a
few tool disappear also. Seems
like newer tools, O/S, framework
does not really make a better
web application. It just add
more alternatives and confusion
and incompatibilities.
Oct 2006
Add new Stock Ticker feature
Received suggestions to
implement the Yahoo stock/option
ticker retrieval. This Yahoo
source is becoming the de facto
standard in retrieving the non
real time stock tickers. One
method and two properties are
provided to perform the tasks -
ASPdbGetStockTicker,
dbStockTicker and
dbStockTickerTemplate. There are
70 different ticker values
arranged in a very simple index
table. For example, 68 = Symbol;
70 = Volume etc.. As usual,
beside the default formats,
a user template is provided to
allow user controlled flexible
formatting. Many examples are
given including one that shows
how to embed this function in
your web page. Go to the API
page to examine the new
functions.
Sep 2006
More Application Examples
More examples taken from
everyday support added to the
on-line manual like real time
device to retrieve data (see
Data Export of Special Topics);
Custom error control.
Jun 2006
More Application Examples
A good work out in dbDownload
to support SP and Aggregate.
Now, you can control the html
tags stripping as well as
download MagicCell. The manual
is updated to reflect these
changes. MySQL 5 version of the
DLL is also included since May.
Apr 2006
More Application Examples
More interesting application
challenges from various users in
embedding ASP-db grids in VS
controls, Download in StoredProc
and time stamping GridUpdate
grid.
Feb 2006
ASP 2.0 Support
The Feb release includes the
ASP 2.0 DLL. Turns out some 2.0
beta code does not work in the
actual release. VS2005 has some
new convenient features as well
as the usual re-arrangements
that needs getting used to. See
Using Tornado with VS.Net 2005.
Remember to obtain your id6 file
from sales/support.
Dec 2005
2005 Final Release
This final 2005 release is
posted. A few more minor bug
fixes. The DLL is getting pretty
stable and covers a much wider
area then last year. In 2006,
the first initiative will be the
DotNet 2.0 Compatibility. As for
new features, we still need to
wait for more mature releases
from MS.
Oct 2005
DotNet 2.0, VS2005 and
Classic ASP
All previous 'Patch releases'
included in this release.
Several major chart types are
now streamlined. Continue to
assist users to migrate to
DotNet versions. A new designer
is in beta and should be much
better than the old one. The
editor is deleted and MS-SP is
improved to include parameter
support. The one thing we
discovered is that some suers
are not cleared about single and
code-behind web form
programming. Many pubic
articles are confusing and
incorrect. We do some write up
to clarify this important issue.
VS should be used to
program Asp-db (classic or
DotNet).
Aug 2005
DotNet 2.0, VS2005 and
Classic ASP
Last month we presented the
latest Tornado API and Code
Gallery which cleaned up the
code in preparation to go into
DoNet 2.0. The DotNet 2.0 DLL is
ready and is running in the test
Beta2 site offered by the ISP.
Contact
frank@aspdb.com for access.
The Code and appearance is
identical to the existing
version. So, Tornado users can
go into VS2005 and DotNet 2.0
with no Tornado code changes.
We are phasing out the Free
Classic Application support
which our sales team is
supplying to our Classic ASP-db
customers. This free application
support has always been a good
will gesture from our very
knowledge sales team. That does
not mean Classic ASP-db is
obsolete. Classic ASP-db is
still supported and if there is
a bug, we'll fix it. All Classic
customers are encouraged to go
up to ASP-db.Net. So, Classic
ASP-db customers will need a
service contract in order to get
application support. Contact
frank@aspdb.com for details.
Jul 2005
New API manual
A new MSDN style API
manual is available (http://www.aspdb.com/tornadomanual/index.html).
The old fashioned classic manual
will be retired after a while.
The new MSDN style manual comes
also in a stand alone
Tornado.chm file (http://www.aspdb.com/tornadomanual/tornado.chm)
that is identical to the Web
version except that it cannot
execute the code live. Only the
code is listed. All the example
codes are checked out and all of
them worked with the latest C#
DotNet1.1 Dll. Check out the
release history for new
features. You can now easily
inject the Tornado Code into the
code-behind web controls. Sort
has been overhaul to support
both ordinals and fieldnames.
Grid edit is fixed up to support
JS(), startup etc. Al these are
from users input.
Jun 2005
Blobs and Calendar
New release for May is out.
Please go get it. Some work done
in BLOB applications. The Auto
option will now auto detect gif,
jpg, png and pdf. Tested on
Acrobat 5 and 6 and works fine.
The year old event calendar
problem in Ws2003 is solved. The
problem turns out to be the Java
security of WS2003. See manual
write-ups.
Mar 2005
RFID! RFID!
New release for March is out.
Please go get it. Only C#
versions are released as it is
getting stable enough and we do
not need the old leaky VB
version anymore. If you have a
problem in running your existing
code using the VB DLLs, let me
know as it’ll be my first
priority to fix that.
The effort to apply Tornado
in RFID application is heating
up. The reason of mention RFID
applications is that I am
actually doing a project using
Tornado and I am in the shoe of
the user instead of the
developer. The RFID project has
two parts, several WinForm
modules to control the readers
and some ASPX modules to
generate reports. The hard work
is done in the WinForm modules
talking to the RFID readers in
collecting and filtering data at
a very high throughput rate.
There are numerous TCP/IP client
and server modules in emulating,
simulating and filtering the tag
data. All these WinForm modules
are very difficult and kind of
“no glory” work as it is
invisible. All data are saved to
the DB and after that, it is all
Tornado doing the fancy work
generating all kinds of text and
graphics reports. As usual, all
of these reports are only a few
lines of code and I got the
feeling that the audiences in
the show do not believe that and
think I must be “canning” that
for the show. I guess only true
Tornado users know what is going
on. One of the activities is to
product a real time chart using
the Hyperlinked charts to
indicate the number of tags
passing through each reader of
each station. Please note that
all charts are hyperlinked in
Tornado. This one really knocks
the shocks off most audiences.
The 3-D bar chart updates itself
every one second and it shows
the running accumulative count
of the tags. If I can find a way
to configure an example, I’ll
post that.
During the development of
this project, I was looking for
a few nice looking buttons and
panels to dress up the WinForm
modules and I was downloading
trail versions of various
ASP.Net “components”. I
discovered most of them come
with the web modules also like
grids, dropboxes reports, charts
etc. I took some time to look at
these competitions and see how
Tornado is stacking up against
them. After all they are selling
at a fraction of Tornado’s
price. After some time I find
out that I am still struggling
with many of these very
fragmented components. I
realized that these are really
small components and you have to
spend a lot of time to integrate
them. So, at the minimum, the
efficiency of ASP-db is way
ahead.
Jan 2005
Year 2005 Resolution
What have we learned from
2004? We learned that a good
portion of the new users are
buying the Classic ASP. This one
is really a big surprise all
along. I guess the new positive
features of DotNet cannot offset
the negatives ones (Slow JIT
compile, Missing ADO,
incompatible JVM (2003), leaking
session variables in VB.Net....
etc.). Our advise is that
if you already have functional
stable ASP applications or
you have small applications,
it does not pay to upgrade to ASP.Net. What about the coming
ASP.Net 2.0 and VS2005? , we'll
upgrade when the release is mature
and widely accepted. As mentioned in the 2004
summary, in 2005, we'll make the ASP-db
users more productive by
presenting more application
examples in 2005. Stick to the
set of C# DLL test files (VB &
C#) as we'll build on that to
make it a rich resource for you.
So, send in your request if you
want to know the best way to use a certain feature.
For example (already covered) -
how to do a Divide-By-Zero
magiccell? How to do an
EditMagicCell? How to plot a
chart with all negative
values?.....
Dec 2004
2004 summary
2004 has been a relative busy
year with majority of the work
done in implementing user's
input. As usual, when users send
in their wish list in detail,
they are usually great ideas.
ASP-db is pretty much a tool
rather than a component. While a
component is a 50% helper, a
tool is at the 80% mark. That is
why you can make a 3 lines
application with ASP-db. The
major focus in 2005 is still to
get users to use a higher
percentages of ASP-db. I would
say 75% of users are now using <
50% and 50% users are using <
30% of ASP-db. Documentation is
a big part of it as there is no
way to document applications in
a generic manner. Many time, the
features under implementation
are approaching application
rather then component. If you
have any showcase applications
that can be used as a full scale
demo, please contact us. We can
use that as an case study opened
to all users.
Aug 2004
New C#
version
The new C# version of Tornado
is available. This version is
very clean and 25% lighter in
weight. You'll need a C# id file
in order to use it. Contact
support to obtain one. The new
DLL will not affect any VB apsx
code. The only requirement is
that dbUnit must be defined. As
for C# aspx code, you need to
change the properties to lower
case. Grid edit properties are
now separated from the normal
edit as they should be. CSS skin
has been re-designed to make it
look better. The old CSS is
still available. New features
in Text and Memo field popup. No
need to program them any more.
User can now control the Edit
SQLs such that ';' is a valid
character in the fields.
May 2004
 |
 |
 |
 ASP-db is adopted by Airgatetech as the core
middleware engine for reader and backend databases. |
RFID
Tornado is licensed by
Airgate Technologies to develop
their RFID middleware. This RFID
version is separated from the
convention version and will
include many RFID functions like
date reader interface and
customized RF tag queries.
Contact Airgate Technologies for
details. Several bug fixes in
the May release. The next
release will be the C# version.
It is very light weight and run
faster then the VB version.
Mar 2004
Enhancement, Enhancement!
The March release is getting
to become April release. It take
extra time because a lot of
enhancements and fixes. Sincere
thanks to many users for their
'very patient' debugging to make
Tornado more perfect. A couple
more CSS cool styles. We are
making some country CSS styles
just for fun and they look
pretty good. Try the USA style!
The C# version of Tornado can
not make it this round and
hopefully will be available in
the next release. C# does not
have the session memory leak
problem of VB and is very clean.
While porting from VB to C# is
relative easy. Porting from C#
to Java is difficult. We'll fill
in the details when we get
closer to the JSP-db.
Feb 2004
Free Tornado Version! More
Examples and More Enhancements.
MyASP-db?
The Tornado FREE version
download is picking up a fast
pace. If you experience a slow
server response, please be
patient and try again. The major
goal this year is to get user up
to speed before we produce more
advanced features. Our approach
now is to produce detail
tutorial in how to use many of
the advanced Tornado functions. We
acknowledge that many times, it
looks simple and familiar to the
developers but it is not so
clear to the users. We have
several items on the table and
one of them is the user control MyASP-db
library as mentioned last month.
This implementation is done and
is in testing. This feature will
also provide Tornado users a DLL
shell to house their own
business functions.
Jan 2004
Free Tornado Version! New
exciting features!
The Tornado Office version is
discontinued and re-packaged as
a FREE version. This
FREE version works on ACCESS
only and has most of the goodies
except the advanced Java Applet
components. There is no
restriction of any kind and
there is no nag screen either.
The purpose of this Free
version is to promote the DotNet
framework in which we have found
to be very stable compare to the
classic ASP framework.
Most of the active patch
features are implemented in the
first 2004 release. Make sure
you upgrade to Tornado.id4.
Check the
Release History for details.
Selectbox mode is enhanced. Now
you can specify the initial
selected via item number or item
value. The ASPdbDS property is
enhanced to support LookUp
values sort. This is not a
trivial task and I bet you
cannot do it with the VS Web
Controls (easily!). Custom
DBType now enables you to define
your Datasource format. Lookup
datasource is enhanced to
include user, global.asax and
system common. These three
datasource format actually
applies to all ascii
datasources.
A new feature called MyASPdb
is in development. This is one
of the more exciting features of
the Tornado development. It
enables user to mask and
validate in their own terms.
Check out the MyASPdb write-up
in the manual for more details.
In 2004, the prime focus will
be in holding user's hand to use
ASP-db more effectively instead
of pumping out more advanced
features. There will be a
'Solution Corner' to address the
most common and not so common
tasks. Send in your comments and
suggestions!
Sep 2003
New Site, New Release, New features, New Discount offer, New Search, New Demo
DotNet 1.1 version for your
Windows Server 2003 is now
available for download. Just put
in your registered name or email
address in the front page's 'Get
Updates' input box.
As you noticed that we have a new site layout. Less crowded and more up to the point. We have a lot of new
enhancements and you can even see
them in action in the front page.
Look at the "get quotes",
"extend subscription" and "get
updates". These tiny
applications are done with very
few lines of code. Check Release History for more details. A new "quick and by no means dirty" "Full Text Search" is available in the splash page. This "Search" is implemented by a new feature of Tornado and I counted 18 lines of code. No Index server, no queries, no maintenance, no nothing. I setup search for Tornado and Classic ASP in about 5 minutes after the ASPdbSearchFiles method and property are documented. See the examples in the Demo.
Whether you are new to ASP-db
or you a guru of Tornado, you
must go through the Newly made
Demo. I took time to explain
more and I'll add to this
demo example pool from time to
time. It replaces the old
example gallery in which you can
get lost real quick as I am
trying to cover too much in too
little space. I will be doing
more progressive type examples
to give the new or potential
users a better chance to absorb
the new stuff.
We are offering a 2 for 1
discount again. Call our sales
folks to place your order.

Jul 2003
New modules - Normal and
event calendar, Tab menu and
upload. The 'Upload' modules
exists in Classic ASP-db and is
now official 'ported' to
ASPdb.Net. Of course, instead of
an offline module, it is now
integrated and is more simple to
use. An auto email option is
added and it make sense. You can
always use the normal email
module to implement a more
complex email function using DB
data and custom templates. But
for a simple report with full
uploaded files info, one is
built-in for you. The tab menu
is unique cause it has a
multiple row option and at time
of this write-up, there is no
such options elsewhere. In
addition to the tab menu, the
display frame is integrated in
ONE file such that you do not
have to program them separately.
IFRAME is used so that we can
perform the entire tab function
in ONE file instead of the 3
files normal frame. The draw
back is that NS4.75 cannot use
it cause it does not support
IFRAME.

May 2003
TED3 (Tornado Editor and
Designer) is finally released
after a lot of directions
changing. We decided to combine
the Designer and the Editor to
create a more integrated
environment. The Designer is
being used to test all the code
in support cases and up to this
point, it is very 'functional'.
Why release a piece that is only
'functional' rather then
perfect? The Designer is never
going to be perfect as it
changes with the core product as
well as examples that made the
rank are going in. That means
eventually, all the examples in
the Example Gallery and
QuickStart will be going in the
Editor and will be available at
fingertip. This piece helped me
a lot as I am sure it'll help
user of all levels. Every time a
good question is asked, the
solution will go into the
TedCode3.ini file. Download this
file and you'll have instant
access to it. The problem of
putting it on the web site or a
hardcopy manual is that you
would not be able to find it.
W2003 version will be available
upon special request. All the
code has to be re-compiled and
for the TED3, some controls have
to be replaced by those in
W2003. So I suppose if you are
using VS to develop your code,
you have to re-compile and also
verify all your code. I do not
find any good reason yet to
perform this O/S upgrade as we
discovered a few things are not
working right once in a while.
According to the information in
the user group meeting, MS
indicated that their next major
release of DotNet and VS will be
so efficient that they heard
that it can save up to 50% of
the code! I am sure that'll be
another re-write.
DotNet is Dead?
That is what the W2K News say
in their May issue. Actually,
the name is kill, not the
product. The article indicates
that different interviews with
The two top dogs of Microsoft at
different time yielded different
answers to the same question -
What is DotNet? If these two
guys doesn't know, so, do you
and I need to know? But you must
know one thing about DotNet that
we reported all along but you
never heard Microsoft advertise
it - the stability of the DotNet
server is the most stable one
Microsoft ever produced. We
derived the idea from this
experience that we should
concentrate our effort in
developing the DotNet version of
ASP-db. That turns out to be not
a wise decision as most user is
still interested in the ASP
version. Many questioned about
how to justify installing 21MB
of DotNet Framework plus a new
programming mode to do the same
work. I think they'll come
around when they are sick and
tire of rebooting their ASP
servers. We know that when they
make the upgrade move, ASP-db
will be there for them and they
do not have to re-write their
code.
What is Cooking?
A lot of enhancement in the
May 2003 release. Some of my
favorites are - TED3, Doc file
report template, negative
stackchart plot (this one breaks
most existing charting
packages), improved
documentation, Menu, new Tree,
Event calendar. Many of these
new features/component is a
result of suggestions from the
users. These new features are
quite a bit to catch up for the
users cause they are very deep
with special effects not
available anywhere else. I am
very thankful to several users
whom beat us up pretty bad in
the editing and validation in
grid and normal mode. The next
big feature will be the PDF
printing. I checked out a few of
the PDF engines on the market
and I am not impressed at all.
You need to be a programmer and
use code to draw or position the
entities which is not acceptable
by ASP-db standard. We are
striving for a simplified way to
do that.

Jan 2003
Tornado shipped and growing
Tornado was launched the same day MS announced DotNet. The rest of the story is depending on who you talk to and what angle they are from. Many inquiries came in to us about what does DotNet runs on and what is DotNet about? The one thing MS did not advertise is that DotNet provides a very stable platform to host Web applications. DotNet technical newsletters are flooded with datagrid programming and you would not too many examples with a basic MagicCell aspect. It still takes 200-300 lines of DotNet code to implement an advanced grid column sort application which only does half of the one done with 20 lines of Tornado code. Our Tornado (ASPdb.Net) server was up Since Feb 2002 and has not gone down once for applications reasons and we have 100+ examples in the site demonstrating all kinds of business applications. DotNet is a more powerful tool but at this stage but is much more difficult to program. Just the break down of the ADO and the change in the language dealing with multiple thread programming will be enough to cause major problems for conventional ASP programmers. We have gone through a lot of work to shield users from all these difficulties so they can focus on they business logic instead of a new set of programming syntax. Since Tornado is re-written from ground up, we have a chance to make major improvements. The syntax now is much more friendly then before. With the Ted (Tornado Editor), all the latest syntax is available plus they are many system as well as user templates to enable the user to get their WEB DB application done in a very small amount of time. We also put on a new skin and is now definitely the most colorful tool available. There are many imitations, but none came close. Spend some times in the sites (some user spend 2-3 hours) to better understand the tool. Download the evaluation and prove it to yourself that you can improve your productivity by 10x with this tool.

Old News
ASP-db wins again!
 |
For the second year in a row, ASP-db has won the prestigious Best Database Product award from the editors at ASPconvention.com. An Excellence Award plaque was presented to Frank Kwong at this year's ASP Connections convention in Phoenix May 1st.
|

ASP-db at the DevConnections Conference
|