Version 2.0 available

Release notes for version 2.0.0 on April 2, 2011

Lots of improvements and new features were integrated into FlowHeater for version 2 . New feature highlights include: a new Adapter for OleDB data sources, a new and powerful Heater for importing/exporting collections of external files , a new RAW data type. The latter permits almost all previously unrecognized SQL data types to be processed. See below for further details and a complete list of all the new features.
There are no problems in executing Definition files from version 1.x with the latest FlowHeater and there are attractively priced upgrade options for holders of version 1.x licenses.

Changes

New Adapter for OleDB data sources

The OleDB Adapter enables the connection of FlowHeater with any OleDB data stream.

New Files Heater

With the help of the File Heater, external files (pictures, graphics, Word/PDF documents, binary data, etc.) may be imported/exported and updated.

New RAW data type

The RAW data type enables you to import/export and update (almost) any kind of data in your data stream: e.g. pictures, graphics, timestamps, Word/Excel/PDF documents, binary data (BLOBs), etc.

Batch Module supports wildcards

The FHBatch.exe parameter /ReadFileName now enables you to specify wildcard file specifications. The previous method using the “forfiles” command is no longer necessary.

e.g.
fhbatch.exe /ReadFileName C:Temp*.csv import-csv.fhd

Will import all CSV files found in the Temp directory.

IF-THEN-ELSE Heater

• As of version 2.0 the IF-THEN-ELSE Heater also supports InString comparison conditions. In addition, two new operators have been introduced.
     ”**” tests the character sequence exists anywhere in the input string
     ”!*” tests the character sequence does not exist anywhere in the input string
• For strings, you can now specify whether the comparison is case sensitive or not (ignore or respect upper/lower case differences).

Excel Adapter

• Excel Adapter supports Mass Data mode.
• Allows appending to data in an existing Excel file/worksheet.
• Excel 97-2003 (.xls) documents can now also be generated under an Excel 2007/2010 installation.

String Append Heater

The String Append Heater can now concatenate strings with a defined character as separator.

Sort Heater

The Sort Heater can now cope with sort criteria from the manipulated output of other Heaters. Previously the Sort Heater only functioned when fields from the READ Adapter were directly connected to the Sort Heater.

Now Heater

In the Now Heater you can now select the instant that is to be returned. Two alternatives are available: “Once only when starting the Definition” (default) or “For each new row.”

General

• The Designer window now displays the execution time while running a Definition.
• The default execution mode is now Mass Data. As you specify settings in the Designer, they are simultaneously saved in the Definition file. The Batch Module also reads these settings. However, settings are overridden by options given as command line parameters to the Batch Module. In the normal case a command such as
      fhbatch.exe import.fhd
  without any further specification of optional parameters suffices.
• Renaming of data type INT to INTEGER. The value range is expanded to 8 bytes (64 bits). This fully enables signed values up to 18 decimal digits. The actual limit is a range between -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 and +9,223,372,036,854,775,807.
• Renaming of data type DOUBLE to DECIMAL.
• Renaming of data type BOOL to BOOLEAN.