dbQwikEdit 3.4.0.0 Adds Office 2007

Today we release dbQwikEdit 3.4.0.0. In this release, we add a few new features that some users have been looking for as well as the regular set of bug fixes to known issues.
The two highlights of this release is a reworked connection wizard and Office 2007 support.
Building ADO connection strings easier than ever using the new connection wizard. That said, sometimes easy just doesn’t go far enough. Our power users have been demanding more control over their connection strings. The new connection wizard opens the door to entering connection strings manually.

The other major update is the addition of Office 2007 support. What does “office 2007 support” mean? It means that dbQwikEdit can now work comfortably with MS Office new “x” file formats. When using MS Access you work with accdb office 2007 formats in addition to the classic mbd files. MS Excel xsl and xslx file types are both supported in this release of dbQwikEdit.

If you are not a MS Office user yet, there are still a slew of bug fixes that make upgrading worthwhile. We clean up some exceptions and fixed some irritating bugs. Some of these bugs include: inability to modify primary keys in some cases, adding fields sometimes missed the “not null” option, specifying lengths of MS Access text fields at times was missing and a few minor tweaks to the data grid.

Existing version 3 users can get the latest release by running live update from the help menu, new users or users of older version can get more information about available upgrades at www.dbQwikEdit.com

dbQwikSite 5.2.1.7 –Paves the way to a New Edition

This week we released dbQwikSite 5.2.1.7 this is a maintenance release with a few bug fixes and minor enhancements. Hardly worth writing about, except for the reason behind the release which is far more exciting news. We released this edition because it contains fixes that we wanted to get to the user community, before dbQwikSite undergoes a major change to the code generation engine. This change will introduce new, powerful of functionality for web designers and web developers.


What’s it all about? You’ll get a hint if you upgrade to version 5.2.1.7. In some of the property dialogs, version 5.2.1.7. In some of the property dialogs, you’ll see a new option tab “Custom Events.” This is the essence to an all new “Developer’s Edition”. The Developer’s Edition adds the ability to incorporate your own custom code into your projects. It will offer both “client-side” and “server-side” script support. This means that you can add your own JavaScript to run the browser or add ASP(.net) or PHP code that will execute on the server. We introduce “events” and “insertion points” in this edition. You can add your own code at any of these points to change or enhance generated pages.


If you are a designer, you likely have seen, or used, JavaScript to do such things as create rollover effects, validate form fields, and highlight errors or other dynamic HTML effects. With Developer Edition, you can use provided JavaScript functions or incorporate your own scripts that you write or download from script sites. Web developers familiar with ASP(.net) and PHP can insert their own code “snippets” to change processing on the server side. For example you could change the security authorization or perform server-side validation or calculations. Having the ability to add your code to dbQwikSite code opens the door to creating even more advanced, highly customized applications. Unlike editing the generated code which is overwritten if you regenerate a page, embedded code is preserved between code generations.


Stay tuned to this blog from more breaking news about dbQwikSite Developer Edition and other news about dbQwik products.

dbQwikMySSH 1.0.0.4 - Painless MyODBC SSH Management

We just introduced dbQwikMySSH only a few short weeks ago and it is doing very well. This week we released a minor update to make it even easier to use. We added a new function to automatically reconfigure your MyODBC connections to pass through the secure SSH tunnel. Restoring them is just as easy. You simple right click the connection to secure, and choose the Secure option in the popup menu. To restore connections to their original settings you right click a secured connection and choose the Restore option.

There are a couple of other tweaks to the interface to make it easier to understand what’s going on. For instance the MySQL server detection is easy to confuse with your connection settings. The Server check is just to see if there is a MySQL server listening; it does not have anything to do with the authentication of your MySQL connection. So we have refined the interface a bit to try to make that a bit clearer. A couple of small bug fixes are included to round out this release. If you are installed and want to get the latest, you can run the live-update. Otherwise just download the latest install from: http://www.thedevshoponline.com/dbqwikssh.html it has the latest updates.

TheDevShop Finalist in the "Red Herring 100 Asia" Awards 2007

Today TheDevShop, makers of dbQwik products, got some some great news. We have are among the 200 Finalists in the "Red Herring 100 Awards". The awards are for "The Most-Promising Private Technology Ventures" in Asia.


Here's an excerpt from their Press Release:
San Francisco, CA, August 7, 2007 – Red Herring Magazine announced today that TheDevShop Ltd. has been short listed forerunners of the Red Herring 100 Asia 2007 awards. The 100 winners will be announced at the Red Herring 100 Asia event in Hong Kong, on August 29-31.

The Red Herring editorial team carefully selected the finalists based on criteria such as (please check the FAQ for the 5 criteria). The 200 finalists are based in 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Vietnam. The names of the 200 companies short-listed as finalists for the "Red Herring 100 Asia 2007" can be found online here

"The 200 finalists we selected from across 16 countries and regions are all excellent contenders," said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring. "They are exceptional companies who thrive on innovation and strongly define the important role of technology in Asia’s economy and throughout the world."

For us, this is pretty exciting. It's great to know that we rank among the top 200 technology companies in Asia. So if you ever wondered "Just what kind of company is TheDevShop?" this may help you put us in context.

dbQwik™MySQL2Access v 1.0 – Moves MySQL to MS Access.

This week we introduce a brand new member to the dbQwik™ family of products. dbQwik™ MySQL2Access is a program that moves MySQL databases into MS Access. It can either connect directly to MySQL or it can read in MySQL dump files. The program can either create new MS Access Databases or import into an existing MS Access Database. You can selectively import tables.

The program is very simple to use. Enter your MySQL login details or browse to a MySQL Dump File. The tables are listed, and you just pick the tables to import and all rest is done for you.

This program is great for creating local copies of local or remote MySQL databases. Local copies can be used as back ups, or “off-line” copies for reporting and anlysis. The advantage of MS Access is that it is highly portable and integrated into MS Office. There is no need to install MySQL in end users PCs. This is a handy little utility that you can use again and again if you have data in MySQL.

dbQwik™MySQL2Access is available for download from our software store: www.TheDevShopOnline.com. There is a free trial version. The trial has an import limit of 25 records per table. You can buy the full version for only $19.95.

dbQwik™MySSH v 1.0 – Debut of Secure MySQL SSH connection.

This week we introduce a brand new member to the dbQwik™ family of products. dbQwik™MySSH is a SSH client, highly specialized for working with your MySQL connections. What is SSH? SSH is a secure encrypted protocol for internet communications. Using dbQwik™ MySSH, ensures that all data exchanged between your PC and your MySQL host remains private and protected from eavesdropping hackers. There is another advantage to using dbQwik™MySSH, that is being able to connect to remote MySQL servers even when these servers block the standard remote connection on port 3306. If your hosting allows SSH connections, you can use dbQwik™ SSH to connect, and dbQwik™MySSH will proxy all your MySQL traffic through its secure connection.

What makes dbQwik™MySSH different than other SSH clients? Most SSH clients are general purpose utilities that require that you learn and understand how to set it up and configure it using cryptic commands. dbQwik™MySSH is highly specialized to work with MySQL and MyODBC. It provides a beautiful graphic interface that allows you to instantly see exactly which connections are using SSH and which ones are not. dbQwik™MySSH takes care many of the settings and configuration set up, so you only have a few fields to enter to establish your SSH connection. There simply is no easier way to connect to MySQL using SSH.

dbQwik™MySSH is available for download from our software store: www.TheDevShopOnline.com. There is a free trial version. The trial has a limited connection time. You can buy the full version for only $19.95.

dbQwikSite v 5.2.1.5 – Introduces Easier Deletes

This week we released dbQwikSite version 5.2.1.5. As usual there are a number of bug fixes, and some new features. The new features include a new delete behavior in generated pages, FTP can now be stated from the tools menu, On-Demand plug-ins are introduced in this release.

The new Delete Page behavior was originally a work around for the delete page not offering a query for a dataset, but it actually is quite cool and in most cases, eliminates the need for your visitors to use the delete page. We call it “in place delete” what that means is you can now set up your delete page so that is deletes the record but never shows the delete page itself. The net effect is that your users can delete records directly from the Data List Page or from the More Page. You can set up a confirmation message, or just delete “in place”. For users that want to show the record before deletion from the Data List Page, you can link your delete button your More Page to show the record using a query, and do a silent delete from the More Page…slick!

We are also working on the plug-ins extensions framework. In this release we introduce “download-on-demand” plug-in support. The plug-in menu shows plug-ins available at time of publishing. When you select a plug-in that is not installed you will be directed to the download page for that plug-in. Right now, there are only two download-on demand plug-ins, but we expect that list to grow. Visit our plug-in page from time to time to see new offering of free and trial plug-ins. At this time you can download: CSS Merger and dbQwik™MySSH. CSS Merger is free and combines identical CSS files generated by dbQwik™Site as well as updating links in your pages to reference the merged CSS. dbQwik™ MySSH is a new trial offering, allowing you to connect to remote MySQL servers using secure SSH connections, great for data security and for those hosting companies that block remote MySQL connections, but permit SSH connections.

Finally, you will see a new menu option “dbQwik Hosting” that gives you direct access to our hosting services, where you can get everything you need for hosting and great prices. You will find, Hosing from $3.99 a month for Windows or Linux, Domain Names now on promotion for only $1.99, SSL certificates, Mass Mailing services, Traffic Tools for your site and other essentials of web hosting. Just a final note, you don’t have to host with us, generated pages will run on all standard hosting accounts. But, if you are in the need of hosting, domain names etc, we appreciate your business. Our hosting is all managed by one of the world’s largest web hosting providers so you can be assured of excellent, dependable service. Low risk, great service, and low prices are yours when you choose dbQwik™ Hosting. (Ok, enough of shameless plugging of our new business! I am sure you get the picture.)

dbQwikEdit 3.3.0.2 Expands Database Support and Fixes

We just released dbQwikEdit 3.3.0.2. In this release many of the functions of the program have been enhanced to cover a wider variety of databases, particularly desktop databases such as Dbase and Paradox but some additional Oracle work is also in this release. We also fixed a bug that caused the program to seemingly hang if you allow it to auto adjust your myODBC settings. Now the auto-optimize of myODBC settings works better. Optimizing your ODBC settings will address the dropping of MySQL connections resulting in “MySQL server has gone away” errors.

We have tweaked the query syntax builder to better size the list boxes on start up and done a lot of work on the batch move. You can now create target table definitions from queries as well as tables. Parameterized queries now process better.

All an all this is a pretty limited release as far as new features, but it adds a ton of stability and is worth the live update.

dbQwik offers Hosting and More

Today we introduce a brand new service from TheDevShop: Web Hosting! We are excited to offer world class hosting and domain name services under the “dbQwik” brand. We have teamed with one of the web hosting industry leaders to provide dbQwik customers the best possible service at amazing prices.

Through our new dbQwik branded partnership we are able to offer a full range of services that round out our software offerings. Services available at www.dbQwikHosting.com include:

• Web hosting: both Windows and Linux
• Domain name registration services
• SSL certificates for secure web sites
• Marketing and web traffic tools

Because of the huge user base of dbQwikSite users, we are able to negotiate some of the best prices in the industry. When we were selecting our partner, we went through a careful screening process. It seems that there are thousands of hosting companies out there and all are not created equal. We wanted to be sure that dbQwikHosting was going to deliver the best possible service to our clients and be able to offer stability, excellent service and competitive pricing.

We evaluated on the basis of:

• Technical compatibility with dbQwik tools
• Customer Support
• Stability of the company
• Quality of data center
• Reputation
• Price point
• Range of offerings

dbQwikHosting is your one-stop-shop for on-line presence. There is no need to wade through thousands of search results to try to find a web hosting service you can trust. With dbQwikHosting, you know you have found a name you can trust when it comes to websites and data bases.

dbQwikSite 5.2.1 Released: Single Language Editions get X-Gen

Today we released dbQwikSite 5.2.1 adds X-Gen technology for easier local testing with single scripting language editions. Single scripting language editions include: Personal Edition (PE), Publisher (Pub), and Express Edition (XE). X-Gen allows users to design and test using one scripting language and then deploy to another scripting language.

We now include a limited X-Gen capability in the single language editions. The special edition generates local scripts that run under the dbQwik Web Server allowing you to test locally without installing support for your purchased language on your PC. Prior to this release, if you bought a PHP generation option, you can only generate PHP. In this case you would have had to install PHP support on your PC before you could test locally. With this release the X-Gen engine has been enhanced to generate code compatible with the included dbQwik Web Server. You can transparently test on your PC no matter which language you have subscribed to for deployment. X-Gen will make testing with single script editions a whole lot easier.

Also in this release you will find a new, single dialog to hide and show pages. Previous editions had separate dialogs, to show and hide pages in the explorer. I for one, welcome this change, a small but helpful tweak the program interface.

Other improvements have been added in this and lesser releases. There is better internal image handling while working on projects; this should result in slightly better performance. We still have more to do on image management, with the objective of improving the program performance while designing. There have been a few minor releases under the 5.2.0.x that address a wide variety of issues in the designer and in code generation. So if you are a multi-scripting language user there are plenty of small fixes for you too.

This is a free upgrade to all version 5 users. It is available via the Live Update menu option found in the Help menu.

dbQwikReport 1.3 Vista Ready

Today we release dbQwikReport version 1.3. It is a both an important release, and a boring release. It is important in that, it is now compatible with windows Vista, and boring in that there no great new features for me to write about.

Anyone already using Windows Vista, or planning a move to Vista, can rest assured that their investment in dbQwik products is a sound one. dbQwikSite, dbQwikReport and dbQwikEdit all will run on your Vista machine. Only one left to migrate: dbQwikSync Pro and you should expect that one shortly.

There is one significant enhancement in dbQwikReport 1.3. It is a bug fix, of sorts. Actually the bug is with Microsoft ADO, it simply will not handle MySQL Timestamp data types. So, our fix is that we catch the error, and we allow you to continue designing, but without any data in your preview. When you deploy to PHP/MySQL all your data will appear. There are a couple important things to note here. It is far better to use DateTime data types in MySQL if you want your tables to be accessible by any tools that are based on MS ADO, technology (like the dbQwik Products and ASP). The resulting data storage is the same. Users of dbQwikSite should note that we have not fixed this issue yet in dbQwikSite… so best to avoid Timestamps in MySQL all together.

dbQwikReport 1.3 is a free upgrade available via live update. You access live update from the help menu of the program.

While we are on the topic of technical “stuff” and version numbers there is an important tidbit I have to share with you. I was using dbQwikEdit on my laptop lately. I could not believe how unstable it was; no matter what I did it seemed to go wrong. After firmly scolding all the developers with harsh words about quality and the likes, I was asked the question:
“What database?”
“MySQL, and we are supposed to support it! Nothing new here folks!” I retorted.
“What version of myODBC are you using?”
“I just updated maybe a couple weeks ago, 3.51.14.0” was my reply as my confidence began to fade.
“Can you try 3.51.15.0?”

I returned to my desk, and about 2 minutes, later I was both humbled and happy. It was like dbQwikEdit had magically transformed from a “clunker” to a “cool tool”. I learned two things: 1) go easy on the staff and 2) make sure that my ODBC drivers are stable. I share this with you in case anyone out there is using myODBC 3.51.14.0. and thinking: hey, the TheDevShop software doesn’t work at all. Please, please upgrade your myODBC to 3.51.15! It will make a major difference and bring serenity to your query building.

dbQwikSite 5.2 New Cheaper Editions

Today we launch dbQwikSite new entry level editions. Now there are editions to suit all budgets. The new members to the dbQwik™ Family are: dbQwikSite Publisher Edition, and dbQwikSite Express. As the name suggests Publisher creates display pages, but no on-line forms, it is perfect for those who only need to publish pages on the web, and do not need on-line data entry. Express, is a single scripting language edition of Pro, designed for those who do not need to generate to multiple target platforms. We also bid farewell to two current license levels, PE+ and Project Licenses which are superseded by the new editions. Pro and Ecom remain essentially the same. PE and Full Trial get some major changes.

What about the price you ask? Cheap, cheap, cheap, is the answer. But before I tell the price I want to warn you, there are new and different limitations so do read the following paragraphs or check the feature comparison page before you rush out to buy. I am sure that no one will be unhappy with their purchase, but I wouldn’t want your purchase to be a surprise either. Prices in USD are: PE and Full Trial are FREE, Publisher $39.95, Express $99.95, Pro remains $149.95 and Ecom remains $179.95.

What you need to know about the new edition restrictions. Where major areas where editions differ is in script language support and generation capacity. The lower cost editions are all single scripting language, you must choose between, PHP, ASP and ASP.net. There are limits to project size as well, actually the projects size itself is not limited but code generation stops once you hit your project page limit.

There are some tweaks to the free versions. PE now does much more,than before, but the code generation speed is throttled, initially fast, but slowing as the installation ages. A special note to PE users is that you now have to “Activate” your preferred scripting language on-line. The activation process requires no personal information although there is a voluntary user registration to gain support privileges. Full Trial plays new tricks, you can generate everything for any platform, for a full 7 days, but the output pages have “scrambled” vowels, making your page read strangely. You may find an “Idit” button on your page rather than an “Edit” button.

Release 5.2 also includes a number of functional updates. We have added support for auto-increment fields in the universal table editor. The deploy wizard has been “Opened up” to offer a greater selection of target platform database combinations in addition to the recommended ones. We now allow generation of PHP with native MySQL connection on windows platforms, in addition to Linux. The shopping cart pages have gone through some QA to address some of the outstanding issues with these pages. We have also updated the activation and license manager, to better manage multi-license sites. This change will require users using live update to re-activate their software, which is a painless task, all your current information is pre-populated, so it is just a click of a button.

Today we rolled out the web site updates. Live updates will take another few days to get live update on-line. Current version 5 users should find the live update on-line by June 5^th 2007.

dbQwikEdit 3.2 – Vista Ready

This week we release dbQwikEdit version 3.2. In this release we have added support for Windows Vista, enhanced the table editor and implemented a number of bug fixes.

We are working on ensuring all our products are Windows Vista compatible, this week, it is dbQwikEdit’s turn. Version 3.2 is now ready to go to work on your Windows Visa machine. We also retrofitted all the improvements of the database table editor from dbQwikSite back into dbQwikEdit. You can now edit database structures more easily with compatibility across a wider range of databases.

We have enhanced importing data from XML and CSV into tables making this function more robust under a wider variety of circumstances.

Registered users of version 3 can get the latest updates using live update found in your help menu of the program. Users of dbQwikEdit 2 can get more information on available upgrades from www.dbQwikEdit.com/upgrade.html

dbQwikSite 5.1: The Cherry on the Top of v5.0.

This week we release dbQwikSite v 5.1. This release collects s few nice features that were on the 5.0 wish list, but did not make the initial cut. In Version 5.1 we have added: dynamic HTML (DHTML) navigation menus, check boxes for Search Pages, automatic Security Pages and a couple of bug fixes.

A little about each new addition:

Dynamic Menus make adding site navigation a breeze. Dynamic Menus are generated using a plug-in. This is an example of the power of the new dbQwikSite V5 plug-in architecture. When you run the Java Script Menu plug-in, it will generate a menu item for each checked group, and a sub-item for pages within the group. It uses your currently selected color theme so it looks pretty slick. You can further edit the generated JS (Java Script) file to reorganize, recolor, or rename menu options.

We have added the concept of “auto menus” if you enable this project setting, dbQwikSite will look for qs_menu.js and insert it into every page. All you need to do to add menus to your site is generate the menu and enable auto-menus. We also added some special HTML tags that you can put in your header to control placement and choice of navigator JS files in each page. So you can have more than 1 navigator. Which is great for sites, that have different “areas” such as public, admin, and members, each with distinct navigation.

Check Boxes are our “late bloomers” introduced in version 5.0. It seems we made a small oversight, thinking “One cannot use a check box as search criteria, because searches need 3 states: check, not checked, and either”. Well it did not take long for our users to let us know that this was not the case, there are some very useful applications of checkboxes on search pages. So, with all haste, we have added check boxes to the search page. You as the designer choose how the page should filter data when the box is checked and unchecked.

Automatic Security Pages are a small productivity addition. When you enable site security, dbQwikSite will now offer to generate a new page group to manage your secured users.

One bug fix is quite important to get. While it only occurs under certain circumstances, it can cause some of your page settings to be lost. We recommend that all users run live update to get the latest fixes.

Version 5.1 is a free upgrade to all 5.0 users. If you have not upgraded to 5.0 now you have even more reasons to upgrade. We sent emails to all our registered users, if you have not gotten your upgrade offer, let us know. This is especially important to version 3 users, who can upgrade at a discount if you do so before the end of April.

Stay tuned to this blog to get news on what’s coming next from your friends at TheDevShop!

dbQwkSite v5.0 is out!

Life at ThedevShop is hectic as the team is busy releasing dbQwikSite version 5.0. Version 5 is now available. Top of the list of technical enhancements is Windows Vista Support and ASP.net code generation. In what’s new category look for, HTML editor integration, a cool new Web Form Import Wizard, our new “Universal” Database Table Editor, and Project Reporting.

Ok, I know you want all the juicy stuff, but indulge me for a moment while I position TheDevShop’s direction for this release. If I had to say what I wanted for this release in one word it would be “unification”, or at least a good start at it. What I mean by Unification is blurring the lines between all the tasks of involved in web development. I wanted our development team to give you, our users, a tool that is not just “another” code generator, but much more. It should be a tool to build and maintain your database web sites, dbQwikSite should be a tool that unifies common tasks. Version 5 is a step in that direction. It is the only non-enterprise “code generator” that I know which allows you to change just about anything, just about whenever you want, without the whole thing flying apart at the seams. We have worked extra hard on this release with the idea that development is not a linear process, and that we cannot be the best tool for all tasks, but we can be the best place to “pull it all together”.

OK so much with the grandiose vision! Let’s get down to the juicy stuff! I can’t talk about everything in details here, but here are the best “bits”.

Windows Vista: dbQwikSite now runs on Windows Vista. We have tested Business and Enterprise editions. We have had some strange security issues, but then again who has not with Vista? You may need to launch as Administrator on the first execution other than that it all seems to work.

ASP.net: You can now generate ASP.net just as easily as you do ASP and PHP. You can even use your old projects and generate ASPx with no modifications. This release is “Beta”, we have tested all core functions, but a few things are lacking, however we did not want to hold the whole thing back over the remaining issues that should be address shortly. Some other have not been fully tested, shopping gateways, require additional testing, they “should” work, but we won’t know until we test them out fully. Anyone with any troubles, please let us know and we will fix these as quickly as possible.

Web Form Import: This is one of favorites: point dbQwikSite to any web form (PC file or URL) and it analyses the form, creates table based on the form fields and creates a set of dbQwikSite pages. Mind you, the new pages don’t look anything like your original form (maybe in v5.1), but this is cool way to build back-ends to web forms. It is also a way to let web masters design database applications in a way that they understand, using web forms. Sometimes starting from designing a table is not as intuitive as designing a form which is more a visual representation of the data. By the way, experience has shown me that end users understand a form much more readily than a table definition.

Universal Database Table Editor: Now you can change your database tables as you work in dbQwikSite. This is part of my grand vision, in case you actually read the second paragraph. It seems perfectly natural, you’re working building a “web app” and you need a new column or you discover the table identifier needs tweaking. The “Universal” Table editor lets you do just that. You got to ask “Why doesn’t every tool work this way?” The answer is because “it isn’t easy”. If changing a table structure in any database is not hard enough, try making sure your pages that use these tables don’t all go sideways. Hats off to our developers, who managed to make changing database tables as simple as changing HTML tables. dbQwikSite continually analyses your database changes and flags items that have been invalidated because of database changes.

HTML Editor Integration: You can now use your own HTML editor anywhere that you can use our integrated HTML editor. Let’s face it; dbQwikSite would be hard pressed to come up with an internal HTML editor that can compare to Dreamweaver, FrontPage or CoffeCup. Besides, who wants to learn yet another HTML editor if you are comfortable with the one you have. Now you can configure dbQwikSite to either use its built-in editor or launch your editor to edit HTML pages or HTML fragments. Keeping with my grand vision, dbQwikSite goes the extra mile, we don’t just start your HTML editor, we constantly monitor edited files, between sessions just in case you happened to edit a file from your HTML editor “stand-alone” or out-of-sequence. dbQwikSite will flag any page that is out of sync and even guide you through a reconciliation process deciding which changes to keep and which to discard.

Project Reports: “Who needs them?” was the question the developer asked. “Our users do!” is what support replied. What are project reports? They are pretty close to what they sound like. These are reports that give you consolidated information to help you manage and troubleshoot your projects. If you have ever hunted through program dialogs to discover a stay setting, you’ll know what I am talking about. Run a report, and you can survey a wealth of information in one format. We have supply about 5 canned reports. The cools part about reports is not only the fact that you can see information buried in the “guts” of dbQwikSite, but you can actually create your own reports. If you’re an XML techie, you may rise to the challenge. dbQwikSite now stores a copy of your project in XML. You can create report definitions in xsl. Add a little XML report description file to the mix, and “voila” dbQwikSite integrated reports. There as section in help on this topic for you brave soles that want to try creating reports. If you do make something useful, or just “cute” be sure to share, send a copy to us to distribute.

Those are the big enhancements. There are a number of smaller things what we would have loved to have out 3 versions ago, these include:

• A missing image graphic, when record images are not found.
• Check Boxes, yes finally, dbQwikSite can do a check box.
• Smarter Auto page items: now we don’t add a whole set of page items when you redefine your dataset.
• File upload on the Add page.
• Enhanced Consistency checking. Warning you if something in your project may not generate correct code.
• MySQL script for the sample project databases.
• Login page default page targets can now be defined.

That’s about it for this release. We hope it will make developing and maintaining your database web sites a much more enjoyable task. And don’t worry, we are already planning version 5.1 and v6, we have a long future ahead of us. Thank you to all our paid users for your support. To all our PE users, I hope that we by offering more that we can earn your business as a paid user. For those of you who are users yet, what are your waiting for? You’re missing some pretty cool stuff, and besides PE is free!

dbQwikSite Updates Released

dbQwikSite 4.2.5.0 has been released. This is a minor update that addresses some timing issues that result in errors being raised unnecessarily. If you have been experiencing error messages lately, an update is recommended.

In other news, we are working hard in version 5 of dbQwikSite. It is shaping up to be an very interesting release. Top on the list of things we are addressing: Vista compatibility, ASP.net code generation, integration to HTML editors, some nifty reports on your project, and XML project file format. Enhanced layouts, giving you more control over you page appearance, as well as supporting layouts on data entry pages. As usual we have more ideas than we have time so, no promises just hints of what you can expect.

dbQwikEdit is also active with lots of tweaks. Some bug fixes and a lot of performance enhancements. We should have a new release out next week.

dbQwikSync is now active with the product design team. This little data moving program is about to grow up. The product design department are moving beyond data, and eying database schemas. Imagine if you will, connecting to two unlike databases, and pressing a button, all the table structures are synchronized, and the data too. …well that’s the idea anyway! This is still in the Imagineering phase. Stay tuned for updates on what happens to our little data mover.

Blizzard hits Bangkok!

2007 holds great promise, but not without a few bumps along the way. Our web site visitors will know that we hit a small hiccup just coming out of the holiday season, our web hosting provider got hit by a blizzard. Actually they are located in Canada, TheDevShop is in Bangkok. Please forgive the sensationalism in our headline, and the retouched image, but in a sense it is true. It is interesting to see how the internet is indeed a global community, sharing not only information, but weather too!

A number of our web sites were hit, these include a all our product sites, our support site and on-line store web site. These were down was down almost 24 hours on Jan 10^th. After digging through the snow drifts, our hosting company was able to reach the servers to get them back on-line. All our web sites are now up and running, our apologies to all who were inconvenienced by this outage. We invite all of you back to our sites to continue your browsing, support and shopping.