SQLExplorer v3.5.0 Release Candidate 5 Now Available

The team is pleased to announce that we have today released Release Candidate 5 of SQLExplorer; there is a lot of work which has gone into finalising the code to get us to this point and we hope that this will be the final release candidate.

Since RC1, there have been no major feature additions - the focus has been on polishing the user experience and fixing bugs or annoyances.

Please report any bugs to the Beta Testing forum, or submit on the Bugs Tracker; new feature requests should go into the Feature Requests Tracker. For really, really minor tweaks (i.e. feature requests) please go ahead and post in the Beta Testing forum but we reserve the right to ask you to repost them in the Feature Request Tracker if the request too complex to just slip in.

The main changes since v3.0.0 are:

* The separate SqlResultsView has been removed and the query results are now part of the editor that executed them (they appear as tabs in the bottom part of the editor view)

* Multiple result sets are now supported, including cursors in output parameters

* Messages from the database server are now checked for and retrieved after each query, and then added to a Messages tab (attached to the editor next to the result tabs). The line/column that caused the error is recorded and clicking on a row in the Messages tab takes you to the line/character that caused the error. Currently only supported on Oracle.

* You no longer need to use special separator characters to break up your SQL code (currently this is only supported on Oracle but other databases can be relatively easily added).

* Structured Comments are a new feature which allow you to embed instructions to SQLExplorer in your SQL scripts. This can be used for:
+. Conditional compilation and for macro expansion (you'll recognise this straight away if you've previously used C/C++)
+. Input and output parameters
+. Future versions will support asking the user questions, data type overriding, importing, exporting, and client-side scripting with JavaScript.
+. Because the commands are disguised in comments this facility will NOT make your script incompatable with other tools.

* New preferences for:
+. Clear result tabs on execute
+. Use long captions on result tabs
+. Stop processing queries when an error is found
+. prompt to save modified editors when closing

* Added support for opening files from Eclipse, I.E. via a Project

* The Connections View now breaks down into Connection Profile (ie Alias) -> User -> Connection, and connections are pooled. If you disable auto-commit, then an editor will grab a connection at the begining and only release it when the connection is closed, but if auto-commit is enabled the ConnectionsView will maintain a pool of up to 3 spare connections.

* Prompt to save files before closing (optional - see preferences); files now integrated with Project Explorer

* Basic online help - this is based on the website plus documentation of new features

* Various bug fixes and minor tweaks/additions

Regards,
The SQLExplorer Developer Community