DataMgr 2.2 is Gold!
After more than a year in development, including plenty of help from others, DataMgr 2.2 is now in final release state.
DataMgr 2.2 Release Candidate (with Documentation!)
The last beta of DataMgr 2.2 was released just over a month ago and things seem to have gone smoothly so I am going to release at as release candidate. Assuming that no problems are found with this build, the final version of 2.2 should follow shortly.
DAL / Persistence Layer Comparisons
I was curious yesterday about which databases were supported by which ColdFusion Data Access Layers (DALs). I went to check on that and before I knew it, I had compiled quite a few comparisons on each.
Perhaps I should back up at this point and explain what I mean by a DAL. I DAL is any application that manages access to data (usually a database). These are often referred to as an ORM. An ORM, however, is one type of DAL (one that maps objects to a database). An ORM is a DAL, but a DAL need not be an ORM.
DataMgr 2.2 Compatibility for Custom Relations
I have tried to ensure that each version of DataMgr is completely backward compatible with every previous version of DataMgr. With version 2.2, however, I did introduce a small compatibility issue that may require a change in code.
The 2.2 code will work on previous versions, but code written for previous versions may need a small adjustment for new versions.
The reason for this is that while relation fields can call other relation fields, sometimes the combination doesn't make sense. For example, it does make sense to have a "label" relation that gets the value of a "sum" relation for another table. It doesn't make sense, however, to do a sum on a "concat" field (or any normal field that isn't numeric). It also isn't possible for any relation field to get the value from a "list" relation.
DataMgr 2.2 Beta 3 (with Railo support!)
Coming just 6 weeks after the previous beta, DataMgr 2.2 Beta 3 is ready and I expect it is pretty close to the final release.
DataMgr List Relations
DataMgr has had "list" relations for some time now, but I don't think I have yet done a good job of explaining them. Hopefully I can correct that today.
DataMgr SmartCache
Way back in January, I released the first Alpha build of DataMgr 2.2 (I still can't believe how long I have let development stretch out). In the announcement for that build, I mentioned a new experimental feature called "SmartCache", but I never explained what it was.
DataMgr 2.2 Beta 2
Coming nearly four months after the previous beta, DataMgr 2.2 Beta 2 is finally ready. I regret having taken so long to get this build completed, but I am happy with the results.
Galleon on DataMgr
I recently noticed that Galleon has been used as a sample application for a few frameworks. Showing a complete lack of originality, I decided to do the same thing with DataMgr on Galleon. Where relevant, I changed the code from cfquery calls to DataMgr calls. The goal was to change only the business layer internals and leave the rest of the code unchanged.
DataMgr 2.2 Beta 1
This is the first release of DataMgr wherein I can't take credit for any of the new features. Although this is a beta release, it should be pretty stable as I am running all of my live sites on it.
