Announcing the RemObjects Software "Fall 2011" Releases

marc hoffman -

Dear Users,

We are happy to announce the immediate availability of the “Fall 2011” releases of our library products, including Data Abstract and RemObjects SDK for all three platforms, Hydra, Internet Pack, RemObjects Script and Pascal Script.

The new releases focus mainly on quality, with hundreds of fixes and small enhancements throughout the product – we have improved project templates, thoroughly reworked the samples and addressed lots and lots of outstanding issues across all platforms.

But that has not stopped us from shipping some significant new features, as well.

Full Support for Delphi XE2

The probably most significant change is full support for Embarcadero’s new Delphi XE2. XE2 brings a lot of changes to the Delphi platform, and we are fully committed to supporting Delphi developers. In the “Fall 2011” release, RemObjects SDK and Data Abstract both add support for creating 64-bit Windows applications and creating 32-bit Mac OS X Applications, the two new platforms being supported by Delphi XE. Data Abstract features all new templates for FireMonkey and has been integrated with the new Live Bindings feature for both FireMonkey and VCL.
Hydra has also been updated with basic XE2 support (and we have exciting plans for features around FireMonkey for the next major release, more on that below).

Data Abstract Improvements

  • Data Abstract for .NET has been improved with support for additional DA LINQ and DA SQL constructs, such as GROUP BY support and aggregate functions.
  • DA SQL queries are now able to return updateable data tables without the client knowing the involved table name(s) beforehand – a change that has let us implement full data editing support in Server Explorer for Mac.
  • Relativity Server has been enhanced to provide a self-hosted copy of our “PCTrade Sample” Domain, and all samples have been updated to optionally talk to Relativity Server instead of the standalone sample servers provided with each platform.
  • Data Abstract for Xcode has gained support for Cached Calculated Fields, a feature driven by our own needs using DA in internal applications here at RemObjects, that can provide a significantly performance boost to your apps.
  • Data Abstract (and RemObjects SDK) for Xcode have also been made fully compatible with the new Automated Reference Counting (ARC) feature that is coming to Objective-C with Xcode 4.2.
  • Server Explorer for Mac has also made great strides since first hitting the App Store in May and is turning into a versatile tool for Relativity and DB admins independently of Data Abstract. Server Explorer is available as part of Data Abstract for Xcode, and also standalone on the Mac App Store for users of DA/.NET and DA/Delphi and non-DA OData developers.

What’s Next?

As mentioned above, the “Fall 2011” mainly focuses on quality improvements and minor features, but that does not mean our teams have been sitting still where major new features are concerned.

  • Work is almost completed on our native JavaScript clients for RemObjects SDK and Data Abstract, and initial feedback is that it will be “impressive”. We are planning to have a beta with JavaScript available to all active customers within the next couple of weeks and ship the final JavaScript support in the “Winter 2011” release. RODA/JS will be available as part of all three of our server platforms: RODA/.NET, RODA/Delphi and Relativity Server, at no extra charge.
  • We’ve also been working hard on script debugging support for Data Abstract and Relativity Server, and the next release of Server Explorer will include a full graphical remote script debugger to help you write and debug JavaScript Business Rules in Relativity Server.
  • Since we introduced Server Explorer for the Mac, the tool has become a core part of how we work with Data Abstract and Relativity Servers, and the DA/.NET team is working on bringing the same experience to Windows, replacing the aging Schema Modeler with our all new Server Explorer for Windows. We have set no deadlines for DASM7/Win as we want the tool to be as good as we can make it, but we expect to have a usable pre-release to show before the end of the year.
  • On the Hydra front, our next “Winter 2011” release will be a major one, with Hydra 4 introducing two new visual plugin platforms to the mix: FireMonkey and Silverlight. With that, Hydra 4 will let you use VCL, FireMonkey, WinForms, WPF and Silverlight within a single app.

Remember that as always, these and other future enhancements will ship at no extra charge to customers with an active product subscription, and pre-release beta and gamma builds will be available to all active customers, as well.

So whether you’re excited about XE2 support and the other features and enhancements we ship this week or just want to get ready for the good stuff that’s still to come later this year – make sure your subscription is up to date so you don’t miss out!

Get it Now!

As always, the new products are available to licensed users on our Customer Portal; Free 30-day Trial versions are also available on our Trial Downloads page.

To purchase or to renew your existing subscription, visit our secure online shop at remobjects.com/shop.

Also remember that you can expand your platforms at any time, simply by renewing to the new platform combo. For example, if you currently own Data Abstract for .NET, add DA/Xcode to the mix and start developing iPhone and iPad apps, simply by renewing “Data Abstract for .NET and Xcode”.

Yours,
marc