xCase 8 - Wow!

Resolution has released Xcase 8.0. In my opinion, this is the most major upgrade to Xcase to date. I've been a big fan of Xcase for a long time; in fact, I was so impressed when I first saw Xcase that F1 Technologies ended up becoming a distributor.

Xcase has always been the most capable database design tool I've ever used, especially when it came to Fox data since it was the only real game in town. Previously I liked Xcase more for what it could do, then for how it did it. What I didn't like was the interface. It had more of a Windows 3.1 style interface that I found to be a bit dated, clunky and sometimes awkward.

Xcase 8.0 eliminates all of my concerns about its interface. What was ugly is now beautiful, what was awkward is now elegant, what was obscure is now easy to find. They've really done an amazing job with this upgrade. The workspace has been completely redesigned. It now has a very XPish interface, is easy to navigate, is snappier and well, it's just plain sexy. The toolbars have been updated with more standard icons and are customizable. The menus adhere to Windows standards. Dialogs have been consolidated into multi-tabbed browsers and so on.

The interfaces changes themselves more than justify the upgrade, but in addition to the new capabilities in the UI there are a number of other worthwhile enhancements. Most importantly Xcase 8 fully supports both SQL Server 2005 and MySQL 5. For SQL Server 2005 Xcase supports Schemas, Partitions, XML collections, XML Indexes, Index Included Columns, Description Extended Property, CLR Objects and much more. For MySQL 5 support has been added for triggers, stored procedures, functions and views.

For more information on Xcase 8 or to download a fully functional demonstration version visit http://www.f1tech.com/xcase. I will also be out and about demonstrating xCase 8 to various user groups this summer. If you’d like to arrange an xCase demonstration at your user group, contact me.

A list of new features can be found at http://www.f1tech.com/xCase/whatsnew.htm. New orders and upgrades can be placed at http://www.f1tech.com/orders.