Readme file for Advanced Query Tool. Last update 6 Nov 99.	

If using notepad to read this, select Edit->Word Wrap.

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. 

Trial Period
============
When you install AQT you get a 30-day trial of the product. During the trial period the majority of the functions of the product are available - enough for you to evaluate whether the product meets your requirements or not.

After the 30 day trial period is up you are legally required to either pay for the product or remove it from your machine.

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 aqt23.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 two pieces (aqt1.cab and aqt2.cab) to make it easier for you to transport this product on floppies.

Installation (no VB)
====================
Some shareware sites require the product to packaged excluding the VB runtime environment. The download file for this is aqt23n.zip. 
You will not be able to run AQT unless you have the VB runtime environment (and associated OCXs) on your machine. 
If this is the case, go into the Cardett web site (www.cardett.co.nz) and select Download -> Full Download.

Installation (update install)
=============================
If you downloaded aqt_update.zip see install.zip. Briefly:
1. unzip the files into some temporary directory.
2. Copy/replace all these files into your AQT runtime directory (if you want to know where this is do Help->About from within AQT).  

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
MSFLXGRD.OCX	6/24/98 12:00:00 AM	  244,024
COMCTL32.OCX	6/24/98 12:00:00 AM	  609,584
TABCTL32.OCX	8/17/99 1:58:58 PM	  209,192

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.

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.
