Revising the FDO Toolbox roadmap

Hmmm, didn't I say that the FDO Toolbox project was going to die some months ago?

Well, like your sportsman who retired and then decided to come back because it was way too early to retire, I am having the same feeling with FDO Toolbox development. My renewed interest in continuing development is because:

• Having "dogfooded" FDO Toolbox on some of my client sites has revealed that there are still many things that can be improved.

• The FDO API will never stop evolving, so in a way there will always be something new that needs supporting.

Somewhere in the future, FDO Toolbox and Maestro will eventually become one. But in the meantime, there will be life after 1.0 for this little toolbox.

FDO Toolbox v0.9.5

Here's a new release for you all.

New Features

• Full support for side-by-side installation of 32 and 64-bit versions of FDO Toolbox. You can install and run both x86 and x64 versions of this release on your 64-bit machine, and each version is self-contained with their own settings and preferences.
  
• Added drag and drop support for Excel documents
• The RunTask command for FdoUtil.exe has been updated to support running a specific copy task within the bulk copy definition file.
• A new ExecuteSql command is included in FdoUtil.exe allowing for execution of non-SELECT SQL statements.
• A new streamlined naming convention is employed for added connection.
  
• Bulk copy for SQL Server now uses an experimental approach using SQL INSERT statements instead of the FDO insert. SQL Server is very fickle about its geometries and FDO's insert operation often fails due to "bad" geometries. Now with the new approach, we pump direct geometry WKT strings to SQL Server, and put the onus on SQL Server to fix the "bad" geometries. This only applies to SQL Server, other providers will still use the regular FDO insert method.
  

Also included are the following bug fixes:

• Data Query will now gracefully continue if the method of counting the number of results fails.
• Bundled a custom built SQLite provider which includes a fix for multiple spatial contexts.
  
• Fix bulk copy editor not removing deleted copy tasks on save.
  
• Fix refresh issue for OSGeo.PostgreSQL connections
• Fix Object Explorer loading issue when more than one class of the same un-qualified name exists.
• Fix a RDBMS connection issue where non-FDO datastores were not being listed.
• 64-bit fixes for ODBC connections to Excel and Microsoft Access. You don't have to use the cumbersome workaround anymore.
  
• 64-bit fixes for drag/drop of Access Databases and Excel spreadsheets.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you plan to use the 64-bit version of FDO Toolbox, be sure to download and install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 redistributable package otherwise you won't be able to work with Excel spreadsheets or Access Databases through the ODBC provider.

Download

Report bugs or feature requests

MapGuide Maestro 2.1

After 2 preview releases, I am proud to announce the general availability of MapGuide Maestro 2.1

New features include:

• Ability to preview feature sources locally (note that this is only enabled for releases newer than MapGuide Open Source 2.2 Beta 1)
• Support for connecting via the official MapGuide API (a.k.a. Web-less editing)
  
• Basic support for SDF and SHP Load Procedures
• Site Explorer context menu enhancements (provided by Crispin from 1spatial)
• XML editor find and replace (provided by Crispin from 1spatial)
• Support for applying overrides to multiple coordinate systems (provided by Crispin from 1spatial)
  
• Many bug fixes for LocalNativeConnection
• Support for adding layers to a map by dragging and dropping them from the Site Explorer.
• Open layer in Layer Editor when double clicked from the Map Editor.
  
• Support for selecting DSNs in the ODBC feature source editor.
• Updated french translation provided by Pierre Cardinal
• New Croatian translation provided by Ivan Miličević

A comprehensive list of changes since the 2.0 release can be found here

2.1 represents the last release in the 2.x line that will have new features. Future releases in the 2.x line will be strictly bug fixes only.

New features and/or enhancement requests will all be moved for the 3.0 release

Download (msi)

Download (zip)

Connecting to MS Access databases with the 64-bit FDO ODBC provider

One of the (many) joys of going 64-bit is the astronomically huge amount of memory (2^64 bytes) you can throw at any application.

However, one of the pains thus far (on Windows at least) is the lack of connectivity to MS Access databases due to a lack of a fully native 64-bit ODBC driver.

Well it seems Microsoft have finally listened to its 64-bit userbase and finally released 64-bit drivers for Microsoft Access Databases last month.

Now how can we use these drivers in the just released 64-bit FDO Toolbox? If you thought the Connect to ODBC command choosing MsAccess as the data source type (like I first did), then you thought wrong.

It turns out the Office 2010 ODBC drivers have slightly tweaked the required connection string.

Here's what a current MS Access ODBC connection string would look like:

Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=C:\parcels.mdb

If you used that same connection string in a 64-bit FDO Toolbox, that will not work (you'll get an error message similar to: RDBMS: No open database). You have to tweak that string so it looks like this:

Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};Dbq=C:\parcels.mdb

That will load the correct 64-bit driver.

Now I had just made this discovery after releasing the first ever 64-bit FDO Toolbox, so in the meantime to connect to MS Access databases using the 64-bit FDO Provider, choose Connect to ODBC command using the Generic data source type.

This will present a simple UI which will allow you to enter the raw ODBC connection string.

And remember that FDO Toolbox is just another FDO client application, so this method should work for any other application that uses 64-bit FDO, like: AutoCAD Map 2011 and MapGuide Enterprise 2011

FDO Toolbox v0.9.4

Here's a small point release with one big significant change: now available in 64-bit

Also included is:

• Better default settings that play nice with Windows UAC in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008
• User Coordinate System management is now done exclusively through the SQLite FDO provider (instead of a separate SQLite assembly), and some fixes made for the management UI.
  

Download

Bugs / Feature requests

The toolbox goes 64-bit

So far, so good.

The build system still needs some work though, the documentation builders are choking in 64-bit (then again, NDoc should probably be replaced anyway) and the NSIS installer is still yet untested.

Maestro package loading problems in IIS7 and above

Ever get this when loading a package?


The error message in question is quite deceptive. The true problem is that in IIS7 and above, a file upload limit has been imposed by IIS, causing this mysterious "404" error.

The solution is to simply raise this limit in IIS manager to a level that is more sensible. On the command prompt, issue the following command:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config "Default Web Site/YOUR_APP_NAME" -section:requestFiltering -requestLimits.maxAllowedContentLength:MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE_IN_BYTES

A default IIS7 configuration limits the file upload to a number shy under 30mb.

Where YOUR_APP_NAME is mapguide for a default MapGuide Open Source installation and mapguide2010 for a default installation of MapGuide Enterprise 2010

Given the more locked down nature of windows with IIS7 or newer, you would need to execute this command with administrator privileges