eGenix mxODBC Distribution 3.0 GA
Introduction
The eGenix mxODBC Distribution is an add-on distribution for our eGenix mx Base Distribution.
It comes with mxODBC, our universal ODBC database interface for Python.
News
mxODBC 3.0 has received a large number of enhancements and supports more ODBC drivers than ever.
Some highlights:
- mxODBC has been ported to Python 2.5.
- We've worked a lot on the Unicode support and made it more robust, especially on Unix platforms where the ODBC Unicode support has stabilized over the last few years. You can now issue commands using Unicode and exchange Unicode data with the database in various configurable ways.
- We've also added a methods to give you more control of the connections and cursors as well as the .callproc() method for calling stored procedures that mxODBC 2.0 was missing.
- Multiple result sets via the .nextset() are also supported, so working with stored procedures should be a lot easier now.
- Another highlight is the added support for Python's datetime module types and the option to use strings for date/time processing (e.g. to be able to use timezones in timestamps if that's supported by the database).
- Python's decimal module is now supported as well and it's possible to configure mxODBC to return Decimal types for numeric values.
- mxODBC 3.0 received full 64-bit support, so that you can run mxODBC (and all other mx Extensions) on e.g. AMD64 platforms.
- We've switched from the old distutils wininst installer to the new MSI installer for the Windows Python 2.5 build. This gives you a lot more options for automatic installs, including unattended installs. See http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/msi/ for details.
Note that in order to avoid confusion, we've decided to rename the eGenix.com mx Commercial Distribution to eGenix.com mxODBC Distribution with this release. The commercial distribution has always only contained the mxODBC package, so this was an obvious step to clarify things for our users.
Upgrading
Please note that mxODBC 2.0 does not support Python 2.5 on 64-bit platforms due to the Py_ssize_t changes in the Python C API.
You are encouraged to upgrade to the new mxODBC 3.0 release, if you plan to deploy on 64-bit platforms and use Python 2.5 as basis for your applications.
Licenses
This release brings you all the new features and enhancements in mxODBC that were previously only available in through our mxODBC Zope Database Adapter.
Like the Zope product, mxODBC now requires that you install a license in order to use it.
You can request 30-day evaluation licenses by writing to sales@egenix.com, stating your name (or the name of the company) and the number of eval licenses that you need. We will then issue you licenses and send them to you by email.
Please make sure that you can receive ZIP file attachments on the email you specify in the request, since the license files are send out as ZIP attachements.
Downloads
Please visit the eGenix mxODBC Distribution page for downloads, instructions on installation and documentation of the packages.
Note that in order to use the eGenix mxODBC Distribution you need to install the eGenix mx Base Distribution first.
More Information
For more information on the eGenix mx Distributions, licensing and download instructions, please write to sales@egenix.com.
Enjoy !
Marc-Andre Lemburg, eGenix.com