Devart Forums

Our company just finished an important project for an important client. We did our development in Delphi 7 using the trial version of UniDac for SQL Server. We were amazed at how much better our product worked with UniDac as opposed to the Delphi "out of the box" support.

Today I downloaded our paid version of UniDac, uninstalled the demo version, reinstalled the commercial version and find our project ALL BLOWN UP!

The cause is that the SQLServerUniProvider is missing! The DCU is present but, without source, I'm not sure that will do me any good.

Please advise. This is urgent.

Best Regards.

Wes Peterson

Hello,

It seems that you are using UniDAC Standard Edition. Providers are included in UniDAC Professional Edition. If you use UniDAC Professional Edition, you will not have these problems. UniDAC Standard Edition is intended to be used by developers that already use other DAC products (SDAC, ODAC, etc.). In this case, providers for UniDAC are supplied with these DAC products. If you don't use other DAC products, you should upgrade UniDAC to Professional Edition. You can find differences between UniDAC Standard and Professional Editions at our site: http://www.devart.com/unidac/editions.html

Clearly there is a communications problem. First of all, I think a product demo, should disclose the ways in which it is different from other products I might buy. The demo did not.

Next, your web site is less than clear. My introduction to UniDac was on this page:
http://www.devart.com/unidac/.

I arrived there after selecting Products -> Delphi Data Access Components -> Unidac.

The page says "Universal Data Access Components (UniDAC) is a library of components that provides direct access to multiple databases from Delphi, C++Builder, Lazarus (and Free Pascal) for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Linux, and FreeBSD platforms. We have combined the experience of long-term successful development into one product, which provides unified access to the popular database servers like Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, InterBase, Firebird, PostgreSQL, SQLite, DB2, Microsoft Access, Sybase Advantage Database Server, Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, and other databases (using ODBC provider)."

The page makes no mention of needing a separate product.

Even your diagram shows UniDac -> DB Client -> SQL Server (the only database that we are currently interested in).

Since Microsoft calls their client "Native Client", not "Provider," again, I had no clue that using UniDac would be any different than depicted.

When I clicked the Buy button, I arrived at this page:
http://www.devart.com/unidac/ordering.html

Yes, the fine print under Standard says "The right choice for existing Dac users." The Nomenclature is confusing: We wanted to buy UniDac and had no idea who would constitute an existing DAC user."

The Professional Edition fine print says "Includes all data providers." That didn't seem like what we wanted; we only wanted SQL Server.

I'm not saying that your web site is deliberately misleading, but I do think it should do a better job of disclosing early on exactly what the customer is buying and what he is not. I think you can understand how that was not at all evident to us.

Having now returned to your site, and on the above page, I see an obscure listing headed "Related Products" I clicked the SQL Server link beneath that and arrived at this page:
http://www.devart.com/sdac/

Now I'm confused.

It appears that, had I purchased UniDac Professional, I would have received the providers and support for multiple databases; not just SQL Server.

But, for the same price, I could buy SDAC. I'd get support for only SQL Server, and that would be okay, too.

So I have just two questions:

1: Is SDAC in any better than UniDac? (Better performance, stability)

2: What is the fastest way for us to pay the $50 difference and obtain the product?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards.

Wes Peterson

First of all, I think a product demo, should disclose the ways in which it is different from other products I might buy. The demo did not.

The demo projects of each DAC demonstrate using the particluar DAC components. The UniDAC demo projects demonstrate using the UniDAC components, and the SDAC demo projects demonstrate using the SDAC components. We don't think it is a good idea to demonstrate all DAC components in one project because such project would be very difficult to work with.

The page makes no mention of needing a separate product.

You can find the detailed information about UniDAC editions at http://www.devart.com/unidac/editions.html . The first paragraph explains the purpose of the UniDAC Standard edition. Also, this page shows the difference between UniDAC editions and explains the set of components and features that are present or not in each particular edition.

Even your diagram shows UniDac -> DB Client -> SQL Server (the only database that we are currently interested in).

The UniDAC diagram shows how UniDAC connects to SQL Server, but has nothing to do with UniDAC editions. Using UniDAC Professional Edition or UniDAC Standard Edition plus any SDAC Edition, you will be able to connect to SQL Server using only DB Client (in case of SQL Server it means OLEDB or SQL Native Client).

Yes, the fine print under Standard says "The right choice for existing Dac users." The Nomenclature is confusing: We wanted to buy UniDac and had no idea who would constitute an existing DAC user."

Please note that the http://www.devart.com/unidac/ordering.html page has link to the http://www.devart.com/unidac/editions.html page. It was done to help you choose the right UniDAC edition to buy before actual buying UniDAC.

The Professional Edition fine print says "Includes all data providers." That didn't seem like what we wanted; we only wanted SQL Server.

If you want to work only with SQL Server, we recommend you to use SDAC that is intended to work only with SQL Server.

1. UniDAC provides unified access to a lot of database servers, such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, InterBase, Firebird, PostgreSQL, SQLite, NexusDB, and others. If you want to use server-specific features of a particular database server, it's better to use corresponding DAC components. For example, with UniDAC you cannot use such server-specific features of SQL Server as notifications, Table-Valued Parameters, FILESTREAM, and SQL Server specific data types. All these features are implemented only in SDAC.

2. I have redirected this question to our Sales department. They will answer you soon.

Thank you for your detailed response. I'd ask only about a couple things you mentioned:

If you want to work only with SQL Server, we recommend you to use SDAC that is intended to work only with SQL Server.

[wp]I'm looking at the "Editions" page
http://www.devart.com/sdac/editions.html

There I see that, under "Base Components" only TMSSQL is provided in either Standard or Professional. I'm concerned about connectivity because TMSConnection isn't provided. Other important-looking components appear to be absent, too:

TMSQuery
TMSTable
TMSStoredProc
TMSUpdateSQL
TMSDataSource

At this point, we're interested only in SQL Server and Delphi.

I thought we'd want SDAC Professional for SQL Server, Delphi 7 through XE2, but I must be sure that we have all the components to connect to SQL server, as well as the above.

1. UniDAC provides unified access to a lot of database servers, such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, InterBase, Firebird, PostgreSQL, SQLite, NexusDB, and others. If you want to use server-specific features of a particular database server, it's better to use corresponding DAC components. For example, with UniDAC you cannot use such server-specific features of SQL Server as notifications, Table-Valued Parameters, FILESTREAM, and SQL Server specific data types. All these features are implemented only in SDAC.

[wp] And all those features seem very desireable. I'd love to have them, but I must be sure I have connectivity and the other comonents mentioned above.

2. I have redirected this question to our Sales department. They will answer you soon.

[wp] Thank you. Salse has responded. I've replied to them with the same concerns only because time is of the essence.

Thank you very much.

The tick in the components table is related to the whole "Base components" group. It means that all base components (TMSConnection, TMSQuery, TMSSQL, TMSTable, TMSStoredProc, TMSUpdateSQL, TMSDataSource) are included in both Professional and Standard editions. Please note that SQL Server notifications are supported only in SDAC Professional Edition. Table-Valued Parameters, FILESTREAM, and SQL Server specific data types are supported in both Professional and Standard editions of SDAC.

AndreyZ,

Thank you for your definitive answer. It has raised two more matters:

1: I am experiencing what seems like confusion between your department and sales. Sales thinks I should order SDAC Professional and sent me a link where I could pay the $100 difference. However, from what you've said and what I've read, the SDAC Standard edition should suffice.

I explained that to sales and requested a link where I could pay the $50 difference. That was last Wednesday (18) and I have not heard back from sales.

Is there any way you can help?

2: Performance. My first exposure to DevArt products was with the demo of UniDac. When you clarified how SDAC Standard is more appropriate for our needs, I uninstalled UniDac demo and installed SDAC demo in its place.

I didn't collect any benchmark data, but it sure seems that SDACC is much slower than UniDac. Is that a known situation? Should I explore component properties to see if there are properties I could change to improve SDAC performance?

Thank you very much.

1. I've redirected this question with the explanation about the correct SDAC edition you want to use to our sales department. They will answer you soon.
2. UniDAC uses SDAC functionality internally, so the performance should be almost the same using both products. Please describe the exact situation when SDAC is slower than UniDAC.

AndreyZ

Thank you for your prompt response. It was Wednesday that you requested action from the sales department. I have not heard from them yet.

I hope that means that they are backed up with orders; your great products deserve it.

Our sales department will contact you soon.

I have contacted our sales department and they answered that they will change your license and send you the registration email tomorrow (Tuesday).

Hi Andrey

AndreyZ wrote:I have contacted our sales department and they answered that they will change your license and send you the registration email tomorrow (Tuesday).

This is the Friday after the promised Tuesday. Sales has done nothing!

I don't know what is happening but I suspect that your sales department answers to somebody that really cares about selling your products. If necessary, please bring this situation to their attention.

And let me know if there is something else that I should do.

Thank you in advance.

Wes Peterson

Our sales department has answered you today. Please confirm that you received an e-mail.