BFC Release History

BFC 1.0

The first version of BFC was released in June 1998. It began as a Visual C++ framework for developing Windows database applications that can be targeted at multiple versions of SQL Server, Oracle, MS Access, and Sybase SQL Anywhere without changing source code. BFC’s Internet Server Library further enables transparent access to those databases across the Internet - for creating distributed “rich client” and grid computing applications. That is, a client server application built with BFC's Database Library not only can change the underlying type of database, but can also have its database located on a local network or across the Internet without changing source code.

This release also includes the Number Class (clsNumDbFld), which is designed for database applications that include very large numbers and requires high precision arithmetic.

BFC 1.1

BFC 1.1 was released in September 1998. It improves performance of record addition and modification by supporting Prepared (precompiled) and batched execution of database INSERT and UPDATE operations. Other features:

* The Data Dictionary has an improved interface and adds a Database Session screen showing logged on users and what they are running.

* Added Oracle DirectAPI interface to the Database Library, based on Oracle’s C interface, OCI (Oracle Call Interface), as a more efficient alternative to using the ODBC interface. The same application source code can run with or without the ODBC DLLs.

BFC 1.4

BFC 1.4 was released in March 1999. It improves and simplifies SQL query handling - with parameter markers ‘?’ and “implied parameters” instead of hardcoded values, and with new, simplified functions: GetNextRec, GetPrevRec, GetFirstRec and GetLastRec.

* BFC 1.4 adds support for IBM DB2 (NT, AS400, OS/390), Oracle 7.3 and 8,0, MS SQL Server 6.5, Access 97, and Sybase SQL Anywhere 5.5

BFC 2.0

BFC 2.0 was released in September 1999. It adds COM support, so that Visual Basic (VB) and Active Server Pages(ASP) programmers can use BFC's database components, including ActiveX grid (table), combo, and edit controls. Other highlights:

* Better messages produced when Duplicate Data and Foreign Key errors occurs (supplies the database column and table names that violate the constraint).

* Support for database stored procedures (for Oracle, MS SQL Server and SQL Anywhere).

* Sybase Adaptive Server 11.5.1 and MS SQL Server 7 support added.

BFC 5.6

BFC 5.6 was released in August 2000. It supports custom COM objects that can be called from ASP, Visual Basic, ColdFusion, etc. There are samples showing how out-of-proc and in-proc COM objects can be used to coordinate database and file usage. Other highlights:

* “Lite Users” are especially efficient for large scale Internet and grid computing applications. Lite User ID and password can be assigned programmatically, and Lite Users share database access. A Lite User’s User ID is NOT a real database logon ID. As opposed to “Full Users”, a Lite User can NOT be used to circumvent application-level security (by unauthorized direct access with standard commercial database tools - a dangerous security hole). This is especially important for programming web sites because of the ease of security violation techniques, such as packet sniffing, to find User IDs and Passwords on the Internet.

* IBM DB2 v. 6.1 support added for OS/390 & NT, including full BLOB handling

BFC 5.7

BFC 5.7 was released in January 2001. It supports custom encryption/decryption of Internet traffic. Rich Client applications can efficiently add security via an encryption/decryption and compression/decompression API. This means that any Rich Client application built with the Database Library can be adapted easily to use its own proprietary method of encoding Internet transmissions, with no dependence on "Secure Sockets" or any other publicly known standards.

BFC 6.1

BFC 6.1 was released in March 2003. It extends the Database Library and grid computing architecture to support Visual Studio .NET (2002) and the .NET languages, C#, VB.NET, and ASP.NET.

BFC 7.4

BFC 7.4 was released in March 2010. It adds C# web and [[distributed processing]] samples plus several major Database Library features:

* Database-independent support for Automatic Sequence Numbers (Identity, Sequence, Auto-increment fields).

* New Database Trace facility with more thorough messages.

* Web Users are “ultra-lite” users that are impersonated by a small number of database connections. Web Users offer greater scalability for large web sites. This model allows for better performance and resource usage for large-scale, non-sticky web sites, while allowing the same authentication, authorization, and audit trail control available for Lite Users.

* Improves support for Time database fields.

* Support for generating clustered versus non clustered indexes added for SQL Server, Sybase, and DB2.

* SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008R2, Oracle 8i, 9i, 10g, 11g, Sybase 12.5, DB2/NT 8.1, 9.7, DB2 iSeries, and MySQL 5 support added.

BFC 7.5

BFC 7.5 was released in June 2018. It has an improved C# web site starter application (with better Logon and administrative support) and automatically adds responsive styling. Other upgrades:

* .NET Framework 4.7.2 support (with TLS 1.2 security support)

* Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 support

* Adds SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and Oracle 12c support

BFC 7.6

BFC 7.6 was released in November 2020. It has a .NET version update plus two new samples:

* .NET Framework 4.8 support

* Advanced Command Processor sample, showing how to add custom database commands for generating complex SQL scripts (for example, to add a new tenant in a Software as a Service application).

* Multi Reader Queue sample code, showing how to use the Multi Reader Database Queue class, in which multiple "subscribers" can process efficiently the same queue.