What versions of Delphi and Kylix can be used with AstaIO?

AstaIO requires Dephi 5 Professional, Delphi 6 Professional or Kylix Desktop. Note neither the Enterprise version of Delphi nor the Server version of Kylix is required. This is a significant saving.

What kinds of applications can I develop with AstaIO?

AstaIO allows developers to create thin client Database applications that can run over the internet or any tcp/ip network. Instead of worrying about client side installs, DLLs and so forth, an AstaIO client is just an executable. There is no install required (Except for the normal QT libraries required for Kylix applications to run). An example would be an AstaIO server running on Linux connecting to Oracle using DBExpress or Direct Oracle Access. You could then deploy a single EXE of a Delphi 5 or 6 Windows client that could access Oracle without requiring an Oracle Client.

Should I buy AstaIO or Asta 2.6?

If you want to use AstaIO Linux Servers, then AstaIO is the only choice. The same is true if you need to use your own plug-in tcp/ip socket components or want separate dataset components.

If these are not important issues for you and you prefer a mature product that has been 3.5 years in development with many more features and thousands of deployed applications around the world, you may want to choose Asta 2.6 for Windows. In either case, both products continue to be aggressively evolved.

Current Asta 2 users can take advantage of special upgrade pricing.

What is the difference between ASTA 2.6 and AstaIO?

Asta 2.6 uses Borland Windows Sockets for transport. AstaIO has an abstracted transport layer employing interfaces which allow any type of transport to be used. Currently, all the examples use an AstaNative Transport, which are sockets written from the ground up, to the WinSock API on Windows and the Linux API on Linux.

Since Linux uses blocking sockets, AstaNative Sockets are also blocking. We will also provide examples using Indy, dxSocks, IPworks, and ICS as well as an example using shared memory or Delphi Strings. This means that a client and server can be compiled in the same executable with virtually no performance hit and no need for tcp/ip to be installed.

By allowing other transports to be used, support for SOCKS and HTTP tunneling can be used by the transport component rather than AstaIO itself. The AstaNative Transport already provides this support.

The basic design of AstaIO and Asta 2.6 is similar, both having a messaging layer and a database layer. Asta 2.6 has many properties and can be used for client or server side SQL, while AstaIO has specific components for each process.

Is AstaIO compatible with Asta 2.6?

No. AstaIO is a completely new code base with a pluggable transport layer. It allows any transport layer to be used under Windows or Linux. We will be producing an Asta 2.6 to AstaIO conversion wizard.

How much does AstaIO Cost?

The AstaIO Components are $499 for each platform. There is an Entry Suite that includes Windows and Linux components along with a server license for $699. Existing ASTA 2 users can upgrade for $399.

See the AstaIO pricing matrix for complete pricing information.

Does AstaIO have all the features of Asta 2.6?

No. We still need to add Provider Broadcasts and AutoClientUpdate support. We are working on these now.

What other features are planned for AstaIO?

Provider Broadcasts will be extended to allow for client side SQL broadcasts.

• HTTP Tunneling, including WinInet support, on Windows using AstaHTTP.DLL (ISAPI.DLL for Windows Web Servers) and a Linux Apache Plugin
• SOCKS Support
• Full support for all Palm,WinCE, Linux PDA and Java Clients along with non Delphi Windows Clients (VC++) and Windows COM Clients (VB)
• SOAP Support
• Replication and Syncronization Tools

I opened an AstaIO tutorial and tried to compile it under Kylix and it complains that the unit Windows or

We decided to use dfm files rather than xfm files for AstaIO as we wanted to be Delphi 5 compatible. Delphi 6 and Kylix support the new CLX xmf files. Any Delphi 5 Built AstaIO project/unit can be recompiled under Kylix by:

• changing *.DFM to *.dfm (lowercase)
• adding an {$IFDEF Linux} compiler directive and hitting F9 to bring in all the QForms, QDialogs etc