InterBase Version History

InterBase is a powerful, zero-administration, small-footprint database engine that can power your server and even run on your mobile devices as an embedded database. The InterBase 2020 release adds a number of new features, including tablespaces support for InterBase, allowing for better performance on servers with multiple data storage options. On top of this, InterBase 2020 Update 1 adds Linux support for Server and Developer Editions, Tablespace support for the OnlineDump technology, and updates to IBConsole

The focus is on SQL features in this new release. InterBase 2017 comes with a faster core engine, server-wide performance monitoring.

SQL Derived Table & Common Table Expression Support

SQL derived tables will enhance the ability of existing applications to use InterBase as a backend RDMBS.

A derived table allows developers the expressive flexibility to use a View-like structure without defining a database schema view. It also lets users obtain the same benefit in an ad hoc query without requiring database administration to create a view definition. Derived tables are temporary sets of records that can be used inside other queries. These tables can shorten long queries, or break complex processes into logical steps.

The query expression can be embedded directly in the SQL statement together with a correlation name used to identify the derived table. This is informally known as "common table expressions”.

RECONNECT

New ISQL Scripting Command

New RECONNECT command for use in isql and SQL scripts to reconnect to the latest successfully connected database

-names

New ISQL Command Line Option

isql supports a new command line option, -names . You can use this option to specify the character set to use for the current database connection

Exclusive Isolation Level

Allows transactions to acquire an exclusive lock on a target table, and be the only ones able to execute SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE on a table.

Exclusive isolation level can be used by a tool performing online reorganization of tables that may need temporary exclusive table access to perform its functions. Transactions use exclusive table access to acquire an exclusive lock on a target table, and they are the only ones able to execute SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE on a table. When a transaction acquires an exclusive lock, other transactions with lock requests must wait until the lock is released or downgraded to a compatible level. Transactions that maintain exclusive table access can modify data on a table without interference from other transactions. This isolation level is different from TABLE STABILITY and PROTECTED access because it does not allow other transactions to select from the table

Truncate Table

Command which allows the users and applications to empty the contents of a database table.

Truncate Table is useful for tables where rows require frequent deletion. The Truncate Table command performs faster and requires less I/O. It also journals and archives much less information than an equivalent DELETE FROM table command. ETL applications or other applications can benefit from the combination of TRUNCATE TABLE with the NO RESERVE SPACE table allocation option when they stage large amounts of data that are deleted after use or moved to a more permanent location such as a history table

Transaction Wait Time

Specifies a period transactions wait for acquiring lockable resources.

InterBase transaction lock can wait indefinitely, wait a specified period, or not wait and return an error immediately to acquire lockable resources. When a transaction holds a lock on a resource at a level incompatible with the requested lock level, this resource is inaccessible to other transactions. Lockable resources can be tables, rows, or transaction entities

Single Line Comment

Comment syntax allows programmers to add comments to procedure and trigger code or SQL scripts.

There are two different types of comments that you can use:

• The SIMPLE comment: A comment that starts with a special symbol and ends with a new line. The simple comment syntax is only available starting with database engine version InterBase 2017.
• The BRACKETED comment: A comment that starts and ends with a special symbol. It may be multi-line.

Regardless of the type of comment you use, you may start a comment anywhere in a line. However, with a simple comment, you need to keep in mind that the comment area stops after a new line. To use the simple comment syntax for a multi-line comment, you need to start each line with the special symbol.

ODS version 17

Databases created with InterBase 2017 use ODS 17.

Features of ODS 17 include:

• InterBase 2017 creates databases with ODS version 17 by default.
• Server-side Performance Monitoring is only available starting with ODS version 17. See "Monitor all online databases" for more detail.
• Change View Subscriptions now reflect ALTER TABLE changes starting with ODS version 17.
• Change View retrieval performance is enhanced under ODS version 17.

 

Full details of What’s New in InterBase 2017

Tracking and managing data changes to multiple destinations has never been easier; just subscribe and query with SQL! InterBase's lightweight, secure and powerful embeddable kernel providing developers easy to integrate features including user security, synchronisation and disaster recovery into their applications today making data as easy as Embed, Deploy, Relax!

Change Views

Change Views from InterBase introduce a new paradigm to the common question software architects have; How to manage changes between databases and devices? Today's software (data) landscape is commonly dominated from the need to have the business data, or subsets of, on multiple servers and devices – and this is where Change Views brand new approach makes drastic simplifications across the product development lifecycle. Change Views answers the objections and worries a data architect has around identifying and tracking changes. Rather than using timestamp fields or triggers, InterBase's patented subscription approach based on top of its multigenerational architecture delivers

• Field level change tracking
• Scalable tracking with near zero performance impact, regardless of the number of users
• Full visibility of changes that have happened concurrently
• Inbuilt avoidance of notification of your own changes

In summary – Change Views allows you to easily

• View and query via SQL what has changed
• Keep in control of data cost by moving only the data you need to move
• Keep you caches up to date in the fastest time possible by moving the smallest dataset possible
• Avoid complicated system configuration with redundant fields

When using Change views, new faster support for backup is provided via Incremental Data Dumps.

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New - Linux 64bit & RHEL 7 and Ubuntu Support

InterBase XE7 Server Edition now includes support for Linux 32-bit and 64-bit including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, RHEL 7 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, and now featuring Ubuntu 14. This new platform is available as a choice when purchasing InterBase XE7 Server and is also included in the latest Developer Edition and InterBase Server Trial.

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64 Bit transaction ID's

Run for longer! - One key benefit of InterBase is its ability to just leave it running without the need for expensive db admin time, even if the database is restarted unexpectedly; a big part of how this is achieved is to do with InterBase's transactional approach. While transaction management has a huge amount of benefits, there was one barrier on very high load databases that caused the database to have to backup and restore, the Transaction ID. Previously on a database running around 1,000 transactions a minute, you would have about 21 days between backup and restore. With the new 64bit Transaction ID's running 10,000 transactions a minute you would still be running 150 years later! Helping you, no matter the size of the throughput to embed, deploy and relax.

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Fast Backup Format - Incremental Data Dumps

InterBase has the ability to create a live read only backup database referred to as a data dump. These are great for creating read only databases for reporting and load balancing certain usage requirements. New with XE7 is a much faster processing of the data dumps that dramatically reduces the CPU load and time it takes to dump out the changes. As data dumps can be switched from readonly to live using GBAK, the new Incremental data dumps are a much faster way to revert to a backup of the database if ever needed, providing even quick disaster recovery in certain situations.

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What was new in InterBase XE?

• Improved Security
  Stronger password protection with cryptographic hash function. InterBase XE also supports passwords up to 32 characters in length to comply with the most stringent security requirements.
• Improved Scalability
  InterBase now has the ability to manage more data and larger databases
• Features for Easier Development
  Support for Dynamic SQL in Stored Procedures.
• Improved handling for large objects
  Optimized performance for large objects with Stream methods