Clarion / ABC / MSSQL and Hello

1

Hey All,
I’ve been busy workwise since b4 covid working exclusively with Microsoft SQL Server as developer and now DBA.

Asking on status of

  • Latest Clarion for Window versions

  • Any developments with TPS driver, how is the IP driver?

  • MSSQL Driver for ABC template chain apps.

  • MSSQL and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

  • MSSQL and data in-flight encryption

  • and, MSSQL 2025 build, which is the latest release?

Coding, mainly SQL but stuff as required in C#, clarion, clarion template language, html / php not that far away (and python but prefer c#)

Regards

Richard Bryce
Sydney, Australia

2

Hi Richard,

Craig Mitchell
Also Sydney Australia.

3

TPSW ???
not sure on this reference.

4

From the Clarion sharp website.

TopSpeed goes wide

Classic TPS is untouched. New driver: DRIVER('TopSpeedW'), .tpsw files, USTRING fields + UNICODE blobs, keys that work, and clean version rejects instead of silent mojibake. TopSpeedW files use the new 512 GB big file format — the classic 2 GB limit is now a guarded error, never a corrupted file, and SEND('BIGFILE=ON') upgrades an adopted classic file in place.

5

Hi Richard,

yeah quite a lot happening in this space. The new Clarion 12 (currently in beta) has a new TPS driver (TPSW) which supports USTRING, and allows TPS files to be (much larger).

From the SQL point of view, I’ve been working using the Driver Kit (GitHub - Bruce511/DriverKit: CapeSoft Clarion File Driver Kit · GitHub) to build new SQL drivers, with tons more Commands, properties and features. You can read through the docs here;
Clarion Object Based Database Drivers Documentation

MSSQL and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

This is a server-side thing - programs don’t know (or care) if it’s in play.

MSSQL and data in-flight encryption

This is handled by the ODBC layer, assuming you are using ODBC Driver version 18 or later.

New drivers are currently available for SQLite, MSSQL, PostgreSQL and I’m currently working on the MariaDB / MySQL one.

6

Hi Bruce, i try to download the driver kit from gitbub with three diferent browsers but three browses said that contain a virus

image
image519×222 9.65 KB

7

I don’t make the ZIP - Github does. So I’m guessing it’s a false positive. Not much I can do about that…

8

i think that the problems is a .bat or .exe in directory, somebody download without problem? if it how?

9

I just tried. ZIP downloaded without problems. File wasn’t infected. Using ESET antivirus.

Jens

10

Hi Omar,

I just tried downloading from here (I have ESET Security Ultimate) and it didn’t complain, so this is going to be an issue with your AV rather than the ZIP.

Another option is to clone or fork the repository rather than downloading it. This will allow you to pull the code directly to your computer without downloading a ZIP at all.

As Bruce said, he isn’t responsible for the ZIP; GitHub creates that automatically from the repository.

If your AV is actually detecting one of the files contained in the repository, rather than the ZIP itself, it may still complain when you clone it.

Mark

11

I only have Windows Security, and I can download it without problems using Git Desktop. However, I don’t think the .exe file should be in that repository if the source code that generates it already exists there.

12

I know the file wasn’t infected, but some antivirus programs always see .exe files as malicious…

13

Hi Omar,

FWIW:

I think there’s probably a practical reason the EXE is there.

This repository is the free version of Bruce’s DriverKit, and looking at the documentation, ObdPatch is supplied as a utility, with its source code also included. My guess is Bruce has included the compiled EXE deliberately so that someone using the free DriverKit doesn’t first have to open the project and compile the patch utility themselves.

Certainly, if this were purely a source repository then excluding generated binaries would make sense, but in this case the repository is intended as something developers can download and use directly.

Also, antivirus software doesn’t normally flag a file simply because it is an EXE. Executables may receive more scrutiny, particularly unsigned or uncommon ones, but if antivirus software treated every EXE as malicious we’d have a rather difficult time running Windows :slight_smile:

The fact that GitHub Desktop cloned the same repository, including the EXE, without Windows Security complaining also suggests there’s something different about how the downloaded ZIP is being scanned, rather than Windows Security simply objecting to ObdPatch.exe being present.

Mark