How to Upgrade to V9

Existing c-tree Plus customers might be asking the question, "What is c-treeACE and can I still use my existing c-tree Plus data?"

Yes! The same core database technology in c-tree Plus powers c-treeACE. With a fresh emphasis on ease of use and unfettered development, c-tree Plus required a fresh new name to match. c-treeACE is c-tree Advanced Core Engine, the same core engine you've come to depend and rely upon for many years in your existing successful applications.

There are many ways to move forward with c-treeACE technology from existing applications and previous versions of c-tree. See which pathway best fits your situation and see how easy it is to begin using c-treeACE today. Please contact FairCom should you have any questions about how best to migrate your application to c-treeACE.

Visit the V9 Upgrade Quick Guide for specific details that apply in most cases. As c-tree database technology is extremely flexible and has been deployed in a huge number of diverse applications, there may be subtle issues unique to any upgrade. Please don't hesitate to contact your nearest FairCom office for assistance. Our experienced engineering team is always willing to assist in any way possible.

Are you an existing c-tree Plus Standalone developer

c-treeACE Express is a client-server only package. In many cases, you can easily make your existing data work with the c-treeACE server and gain all of the benefits of c-treeACE technology. Dynamic backups, advanced caching, and SNAPSHOT statistics monitoring are just a few of the great features available with the c-treeACE server engine. To begin using this technology in your application follow these simple steps:

• Link your existing application to the c-treeACE V9 multithreaded library, mtclient.lib.
• Copy or move your existing data and index files to the working directory of c-treeACE. You could also consider the LOCAL_DIRECTORY configuration keyword to point c-treeACE to your existing data location. Be aware that you will need to remove existing transaction log files as previous versions of these files are incompatible with c-treeACE. Follow these steps to ensure a clean start with c-treeACE.
• Rebuild indexes to take advantage of larger page sizes. Standalone models default to a 2048 byte index node size, while c-treeACE Servers since V8.14 default to 8192 bytes. Increasing this allows more keys per node, as well as larger keys, that frequently arise when creating complex indexes via SQL.
• Switch your initialization to InitISAMXtd() and add the client user name and password to access the server. Use the Xtd() Function API calls that allow the user credentials and server name to be specified. You can include these in your standalone builds, as they are simply ignored in those models.
• Consider multithreading your application for enhanced scalability and performance.
• Access the power of c-treeACE in your application immediately.

Are you an existing c-tree Server developer?

• Link your existing application to the c-treeACE V9 multithreaded library, mtclient.lib.
• Simply copy or move your existing data and index files to the working directory of c-treeACE. You could also consider the LOCAL_DIRECTORY configuration keyword to point c-treeACE to your existing data location. Be aware that you will need to remove existing transaction log files as previous versions of these files are incompatible with c-treeACE. Follow these steps to ensure a clean start with c-treeACE.
• Continue using your existing application!

Do you wish to use existing c-tree Plus data with c-treeACE SQL?

• Ensure your data is compatible with c-treeACE SQL. c-treeACE SQL requires proper DODA and IFIL structures to be present. Use the c-tree Information utility, ctinfo, to check for the presence of these required resources. If you have not installed the command line tools, click here to download the installer for them.
• Use the c-tree SQL Import utility, ctsqlimp, to import your existing data and indexes to c-treeACE SQL. The following eNewsletter archive article - Let Your Existing ISAM Applications Co-Exist With c-treeSQL! - provides much valuable information on this process.
• Begin using any c-treeACE SQL interface technology with your existing c-tree data!