Readme file for Advanced Query Tool Version 3.0 Beta. Last update 29 Apr 2000.	

What's New in AQT Version 3.0?
==============================
1. the end-user interface has been majorly redesigned and enhanced on a number of windows.
2. numerous useability enhancements have been put in, improved history display, multi-level
   undo/redo, better copy/paste.
3. the row-detail screen has been improved.
4. a new feature Safe Update Mode has been added. The idea of this is to prevent inadverted 
   updating / deleting of more rows than intended. If this is done the user is warned and 
   given an option to rollback the change.
5. the licensing has been changed. The product can be used in it's evaluation mode indefinitely.
   It will not "expire" after 30 days. However the evaluation mode is now more restricted than it was
   in AQT V2.

What's Not in the Beta
=======================
The following were not completed in time for the beta:
1. Print row detail.
2. Help system hasn't been updated.

Bugs in Beta Version
====================
1. MS Access occassionally gets the message "Attribute Cannot be set now" when doing an update.
   It's objecting to going into Transaction mode. To circumvent, set Safe Update Mode off.

What is Advanced Query Tool?
============================
AQT is a database query tool designed for the DBA and database developer.
It provides a simple and fast way of seeing the tables in your system 
(both table definition and table content). It allows you to build and save queries. 
It also has a number of tools useful for the DBA.

Advanced Query Tool works with any ODBC database.

In addition (and this is what makes AQT unique), it will access the system tables 
(a.k.a. catalog, dictionary) to provide you with comprehensive information about the 
objects in your system. 
The feature which reads the system tables needs to be configured for each 
database type (this is done with a *.cfg file which contains the menu structure 
and system queries for that database). So for this has been done for the 
DB2s, Oracle, Sybases and MS SQL Server. Other databases will be added in the future. 
See Software Updates for more on this.

For a fuller list of features, see www.cardett.co.nz, or double-click on the help 
file aqt.hlp which comes with the product (you can download this separately). 

Prerequisites
=============
Software:	Windows 95/98/2000, Windows NT V4.0 or above
Hardware:	486 or Pentium processor. 
Disk space:  	4.4 MB in your Windows system directory     
		1.2 MB in your program directory	
Memory:		AQT uses 10-15 MB of memory.	 
ODBC:		32-bit ODBC driver. ODBC connections to your databases 
		must be configured. In some cases this may require 
		database client software to be installed on your
		machine. 

In addition, you will need to have been given the database access rights to read 
the system tables in your database. 

Freeware Version
================
When you install AQT you get a freeware version of the product which you can use without
restriction in perpetuity. There are some restrictions in this version, principally:
1. only 50 rows can be displayed
2. queries cannot be saved
3. query results cannot be printed (apart from screen print) 
To fully activate all the features of the product you must pay for it.

Distribution
============
You can distribute this product freely to anyone, as long as you don't receive any money 
for this (apart from the cost of the media) or pass it off as your own product. However
you cannot reveal your registration code to anyone else.

Product Cost and Payment
========================
AQT costs $50 US Dollars per copy.
Once you register and pay for the product you will be sent a registration key.

You can register in a number of ways:
a) within AQT, go Help->Register->Click Here to Obtain a Registration Key. 
Fill out the form to pay for the product in whichever way you wish (credit card etc).
b) alternatively, within the Cardett home page www.cardett.co.nz click on Purchase.

Note that the payment and registration of the product is handled by Kagi (www.kagi.com). 
Any queries regarding payment and registration should be directed to sales@kagi.com. 

Installation (full install)
===========================
1. after downloading aqt30.zip, unzip it into some temporary directory.
2. double-click on setup.exe. 
3. follow the installation instructions.
Installation generally takes 5 minutes or less. You do not need to reboot your machine 
after installing. 

The setup files have been split into three pieces (aqt1.cab, aqt2.cab and aqt3.cab) to make it 
easier for you to transport this product on floppies.

More on Installation
====================
AQT is written in Visual Basic Version 6. The installation process uses the VB 
application setup wizard. This will install a number of DLLs and OCXs in your 
Windows System directory. It will do so "safely" - eg. it will not replace a DLL 
with an older DLL. If you want to see exactly what the installation did see file 
St6unst.log in the installation directory (eg. c:\Program Files\Advanced Query Tool). 
Note: do not delete St6unst.log as it is needed by the uninstall.

Much of the installation package is the VB V6 runtime environment.

The DLLs and OCXes installed by AQT are as follows:
File 		File Date		File Size
------------    -------------------     ---------
VB6STKIT.DLL	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  102,912
COMCAT.DLL	5/31/98 12:00:00 AM	   22,288
Stdole2.tlb	6/17/98 12:00:00 AM  	   17,920
Asycfilt.dll	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  147,728
Olepro32.dll	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  164,112
OLEAUT32.DLL	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  598,288
MSVBVM60.DLL	6/25/98 12:00:00 AM  	1,409,024
RDOCURS.DLL	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  151,552
MSRDO20.DLL	6/18/98 12:00:00 AM	  393,216
COMDLG32.OCX	6/24/98 12:00:00 AM	  140,096
MSHFLXGRD.OCX	6/24/98 12:00:00 AM	  407,104
COMCT332.OCX	6/24/98 12:00:00 AM	  369,696
MSCOMCTL.OCX    6/26/98 12:00:00 AM     1,062,704  
TABCTL32.OCX	8/17/99 1:58:58 PM	  209,192
MSSTDFMT.DLL    6/18/98 12:00:00 AM       118,784

If you are a paranoid type, you might like to back up the existing versions of these 
files before installing AQT. You do trust Microsoft don't you?

Three of the DLLs deserve mention: olepro32, oleaut32 and stdole2. These DLLs are 
in continuous use by Windows so cannot be upgraded while Windows is running. 
If the install process needs to update these you will get a message "Setup cannot 
continue because some system files are out of date on your system..... You will 
need to restart Windows before you can run setup again....". If you click on OK, 
Windows will upgrade these DLLs the next time it is restarted.

If you get this message you should:
1. click OK on the Setup message. Click Cancel on the restart message
2. (optional) back up the existing versions of these DLLs
3. restart your machine
4. rerun setup.exe
 
If after doing this you still get the above message (has happened on one install) you 
will need to manually move the above three DLLs into your Windows System directory by 
restarting your machine in DOS mode.

DeInstallation
==============
To remove the product from your machine: 
1. select option Add / Remove Programs from the Control panel
2. click on Advanced Query Tool then click on Add/Remove
3. click on Yes when prompted.

Software Updates
================
Updates to Advanced Query Tool will be posted at regular intervals to 
www.cardett.co.nz/download. It is worthwhile checking this occassionally in case an 
extra feature you may find useful has been implemented.
You can download and use new versions of the product for no extra charge.

A large amount of the intelligence of the product is contained on the cfg files, 
which contain the queries which drive the system information about the databases. 
These cfg files are likely to be updated frequently as new system queries are implemented, 
or as AQT is configured to use a new database type. The new cfg files are downloaded 
with option Upgrade Config files within www.cardett.co.nz/download. 

Problem Reporting
=================
If you have any problems, or find any bugs, please email aqt@cardett.co.nz with full 
details of the problem (including screen snapshots if possible and relevant).

Enhancement Requests
====================
Where AQT heads as a product is up to you as users. Please let us know what extra features 
you would like to see implemented in the product. 

Known Problems
==============
The following known problems exist with AQT. A number of these are due to peculiarities/bugs 
of ODBC drivers. You may or may not experience these problems depending on what level 
of ODBC drivers you are running. 

1. Cancelling active queries causes a problem. While you can do this (and it works), 
it seems to muck up the cursor and prevents further queries from running. 
It is uncertain whether this is due to a problem with the ODBC drivers, or fault in the 
AQT code. Use this feature with caution. Ditto for query timeout. 
2. Sorting the result-set grid doesn't work very well with date / time values. 
A VB peculiarity.
3. Queries fails to work with DB2/390 Version 6 when using substitutional parameters. 
Possibly because we were using an old version of the DRDA gateway. 
Circumvention: use Options->Parameter Usage->Use Substitution.
4. DB2/390 doesn't give accurate information for column default values. These are held 
in a complex way in the database which AQT doesn't yet handle. This also effects Default 
Values in the DDL generation of DB2/390 tables.
5. New->ODBC Datasource (from the signon screen) sometimes hangs for some databases. 
Possibly a bug in the ODBC driver setup dll.
6. Occassionally AQT starts to fail with the message "Object Not Set". This is an 
intermittent problem which we've never gotten to the bottom of. It seems to only happen 
in a memory-constrained machine. Circumvention: sign off and back on to the database.
7. The product doesn't work very well with Oracle if you use the Oracle ODBC Driver. Instead
use Microsoft ODBC Driver for Oracle.

Many problems exist if you use Options->Table Info->Use ODBC. You wouldn't normally 
do this. When running in this mode AQT gets information on the tables from the ODBC 
API calls, as opposed to querying the system tables and there appear to be many bugs 
with these APIs.
Some of these problems also exist for non-catalog databases such as Access.
The circumvention for all these problems is to use Options->Table Info->Use System Tables.
1. Oracle Version 7 gives duplicate values for the table owner names.
2. Most databases don't give anything for the column Default value.
3. DB2 doesn't give anything for the column Description.
