Support for Access 2002 and SQL Server 2000

SPEED Ferret 4.1 provides new drivers to support the following project types:

• Access 2002 Databases (mdb)
• Access 2002 Projects (adp)
• SQL Server 2000 Databases

In addition to the new platforms listed above, SPEED Ferret 4.1 retains full support for these project types:

• Access 97 Databases
• Access 2000 Databases
• Access 2000 Projects
• SQL Server 6.5 Databases
• SQL Server 7 Databases
• Visual Basic 5 Projects
• Visual Basic 6 Projects

Improved Project Interface

SPEED Ferret 4.1 makes it easier to create and maintain your project definitions.

• You do not need to know which version of Access, SQL Server, or Visual Basic created the database or project that you wish to add. Just specify the location, and SPEED Ferret will automatically determine the project format and select the appropriate driver.

• The project parameters have been integrated into the project window, making it much easier to review and edit them.

Improved Substitution Sequencing

When you use a substitution list to perform multiple replacements, the substitutions are now performed in decreasing order of the length of the search strings. This automatically prevents unintentional substring replacements of the type that might occur when replacing grand with large prior to replacing grandfather with grandmother.

Increased Performance

SPEED Ferret 4.1 has been internally restructured to improve performance.

• An improved driver interface uses fewer out-of-process OLE Automation calls, thereby increasing performance.
• The Activate and Deactivate commands have been eliminated. Access and SQL Server projects are now automatically deactivated when not in use to minimize run-time memory requirements. NOTE: VB sessions are not automatically closed because significant time is required to reopen them.
• An Access session is no longer required to inspect backend Access databases containing only tables, queries, and relationships. SPEED Ferret now requires only a DAO connection for this purpose, which is much faster and uses less memory.
• An Access session is no longer required to list the objects in an Access database, and a VB session is no longer required to list the objects in a VB project. As a result, you can now view the names of objects in the project window and in the Object Filter Builder drop-down list without causing Access or VB to start up.
• SPEED Ferret now exits faster, because it doesn't have to close a lot of active projects.

Verification Error Override

SPEED Ferret verifies replacements by reading back the modified properties and comparing them to their expected values. Sometimes when SPEED Ferret assigns a new value to a property, the value is reformatted by the program that stores it. For example, Microsoft Access sometimes reorders the fields in a WHERE clause. This causes SPEED Ferret to report a verification error, because the actual and expected values of the property do not match.

The Save Replacements and Undo Replacements dialog boxes now provide an option to Ignore Verification Errors. It is recommended that you employ this option only after you have attempted the replacements and reviewed any verification errors to ensure the errors are benign

Performance Profiler

A new profiling system tracks the number of invocations and total execution time for almost every subroutine in SPEED Ferret. This feature is normally disabled, and is mainly intended for our own internal use. But if you should happen to encounter a performance issue, this feature will allow us to more effectively troubleshoot the problem.

To enable the performance profiler, go to Tools>Options>Diagnostics. SPEED Ferret runs more slowly when profiling is enabled, so you should not use this feature routinely.