ApexSQL Log 2005.04 released

Yesterday we have finally released 2005.04 version of ApexSQL Log. You can download it here.

Here's the full list of enhancements, changes and fixes:

----------------------------------------------------
RELEASE 2005.04.0453
DATE: 15 May 2007
DESCRIPTION: Medium Enhancement/Fix release
----------------------------------------------------

Enhancements:

- Greatly improved reconstruction of UPDATE operations (MAJOR ENHANCEMENT)
- Greatly improved memory footprint and performance scaling (MAJOR ENHANCEMENT)
- Added support for recovery of VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) data types from
database files (MAJOR ENHANCEMENT)
- Improved support for transaction log backups converted from 3rd party backups (MAJOR ENHANCEMENT)
- Added partial reconstruction of changes made to fixed-length fields in UPDATE operations.
- Added partial support for recovery of XML data type from database files.
- Added support for reading SQL Server 7/2000 transaction logs under SQL Server 2005.
- Added support for reading SQL Server 2005 transaction logs under SQL Server 7/2000.
- Added more recovery reports details to recovery scripts.
- Added dummy data to BLOBs that are partially recovered due to lack of data.
- Added "row partially reconstructed" column to SQL, BULK, CSV and XML exports.
- Added "/run_small" switch to command line interface which forces the application not to save
most of intermediate files on the hard drive. If there is less than 5% free space on the drive
the application will switch automatically to "run small" mode.
- Added recovery script path selection to Recovery Wizard.
- Added table mapping to MDF data recovery.
- Improved generated recovery scripts for less-than-perfect data recovery scenarios.
- Improved progress bar during transaction log reading.
- Improved reliability of BLOB recovery algorithm.
- Improved auditing performance in general.
- Improved memory managment when under memory pressure.
- Improved formatting for REAL and DOUBLE SQL types.
- Improved diagnostic logging.
- Integrated client-side and server-side setups into one setup.

Changes:

- Increased drive usage for intermediate and temporary files during auditing/recovery, to approximately
10-20% of transaction log file sizes. If there is less than 5% free space on the drive the application
will switch automatically to "run small" mode thereby saving on drive space.
- Limited export options to exporting every 10th REDO/UNDO script during the evaluation period.
- Limited copy to clipboard for all REDO/UNDO scripts during the evaluation period.

Fixes:

- A set of problems with server-side components running on SQL Server run by non-administrator account (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with relying on @@SERVERNAME for server name on repeated connections which
blocked re-connections for servers not accessible through their @@SERVERNAME (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with UPDATETEXT and line breaks in BLOB recovery (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with double reading of log files during open (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with recovery of some system table structures (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with primary key values in SQL export (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with XML data type recovery (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with some recovery options not working correctly on remote servers (MAJOR FIX)
- A problem with putting server logs to system32 (or SysWOW64) directories. Now server logs are all in LOG
directory of SQL Server instance.
- A problem with recovery of dropped tables in SQL Server 2000.
- A problem with bad IDENTITY status for some reconstructed tables on SQL 2005.
- A problem with grid refresh if the last transaction was rolled back.
- A problem with clustered index keys not shown for un-reconstructed UPDATE operations.
- A problem with in-row values in NTEXT fields not correctly shown.
- A problem with recovery of BLOB data of NTEXT columns.
- A problem with NVARCHAR(MAX) columns in recovered table structures.
- A problem with some field values not being exported on UPDATE operations.
- A problem with application crashing when trying to write to a read-only file.
- A problem with "File not found" exception when doing recovery from online database files.
- A problem with extended procedure connecting back to SQL Server and being rejected due to lack of permissions.
- A problem with SQL authentication not working correctly when accessing logs from server tree.
- A problem with SQL authentication if invalid user/password entered.
- A problem with a label on SQL authentication user/password window.
- A problem with relying on @@SERVERNAME to start Connection Monitor.
- A problem with temporary UNDO/REDO scripts not having SQL extension.
- A problem with table structure lines not ending with consistent UNICODE line endings.
- A problem with reaching EOF of online database files.
- A problem with declaration of FLOAT data type in generated scripts.
- A problem with duplicate column names in some recovered table structures.
- A problem with duplicate recovered tables.
- A problem with lingering IDENTITY_INSERT state after a generated INSERT with identity fails.
- A problem with inserting NULL field values into NON-NULL columns in some recovery scenarios.
- A problem with application always demanding valid file paths in sysfiles.
- A problem with recovery of tables with timestamp columns in some recovery scenarios.
- A problem with duplicate servers in "Server Activation Center" dialog.
- A rare problem with BLOB data updates being out of range for the current BLOB values.
- A rare problem with not loading all operations in some circumstances.
- A rare problem with command line interface not creating log files correctly.
- A rare connectivity problem on SQL Server 2005.
- A rare problem with activation not working correctly.
- A rare problem with activations on multiple instances of SQL Server 2005.
- A rare problem with NULL values crashing the application.
- A very rare problem with calls to some empty extended stored procedures hanging on SQL 2005.
- A very rare problem with Connection Monitor not resetting on consecutive errors.
- A very rare problem with ApexSQL Server Helper driver sometimes crashing on SMP machines.

As you can see this is a huge release. I have blogged about some aspects of it before here and here.