MiniVend 3.14 released

[mikeh@minivend.com]

******    message to minivend-users from mikeh@minivend.com     ******

Dear All,

I have released MiniVend 3.14. The most significant new feature
is a new DbSearch.html module which allows you to specify 
searches on SQL and MiniVend databases using the standard MiniVend
search terminology.

To enable it, you typically add the mv_base_directory parameter
pointing to the table to search, as well as the mv_search_file of
the database table name itself.

It can search multiple tables, though the field-specific stuff will
not work unless the columns match.

To search for an email address in userdb, for example, you
would use:

[page scan
		se=mike
		sf=email
		st=db
		bd=userdb
		fi=userdb]Search for email addresses with the word "mike"[/page]

This works for SQL tables as well as MV GDBM ones.

For SQL, if you use the coordinated search and have an "=" or "eq"
operator, it will gate the selection of records with that parameter.

Full WHATSNEW entry is appended.

-- 
Mike Heins                          http://www.minivend.com/  ___ 
                                    Internet Robotics        |_ _|____
                                    131 Willow Lane, Floor 2  | ||  _ \
It's a little-known fact            Oxford, OH  45056         | || |_) |
that the Y1K problem caused         <mikeh@minivend.com>     |___|  _ <
the Dark Ages. -- unknown           513.523.7621 FAX 7501        |_| \_\


                  W H A T ' S   N E W 

MiniVend 3.14 is a bug fix release with a couple of new features:

    * You can now specify a database in minivend.cfg. It becomes
      global and is available in all catalogs. It also remains connected
      all of the time, so no connection overhead exists. Careful; 
      it is writable by any catalog unless you use WRITE_CONTROL
      defined below.

    * Added write control to all databases including SQL. If you wish to
      control writing of a global database, or to a certain catalog within
      a series of subcatalogs, or make one read only, you can do so.

      To enable write control:

        Database   products  WRITE_CONTROL  1

      Once that is done, you can make a database read only, which won't
      allow writing even if [tag flag write]products[/tag] is specified:

        Database   products  READ_ONLY  1

      If you want to have control with [tag flag write]products[/tag]:

        Database   products  WRITE_TAGGED  1

      If you want to limit write to certain catalogs, you can set:

        Database   products  WRITE_CATALOG  simple=0, sample=1

      The "simple" catalog will not be able to write, while "sample"
      will if [tag flag write]products[/tag] is enabled.

      If you want a database to be always writable without having
      to specify [tag flag write] ... [/tag], then you can
      define:

        Database   products  WRITE_ALWAYS  1

	  The default behavior of SQL datbases is equivalent to
	  WRITE_ALWAYS, while the default for GDBM_File, DB_File,
	  and Memory databases is equivalent to:

        Database   products  WRITE_CONTROL 1
        Database   products  WRITE_TAGGED  1

	  As a side effect, I also removed the server error if a write
	  fails on a DBM database. It simply doesn't write and logs
	  the problem.

    * Added a DbSearch.pm module which adds a new search type called
      "db". This searches a SQL database with MiniVend search types,
      or searches a MiniVend database instead of the ASCII file.

      If it is a SQL table being searched, you can specify a coordinated
      search and any "==" or "eq" operators will be used to filter the
      initial search return. Otherwise, all rows of the database are
      scanned upon each search. This can get slow, so you won't want to
      do this for large tables.

      The major difference between this and the TextSearch type is that
      you must set base_directory to the table name/identifier of the
      default database being searched; it defaults to 'products', which
      is probably not what you want. This sets the field specifications
      for the SQL qualification, so you must be careful. You can search
      multiple tables, which will work well if the column names and orders
      are the same. It will not work well if they are different, so it will
      be rare when you want to search multiple tables.

	Bug fixes:

	* Set default for NewReport to "yes", which prevents the occasional
	  problem with returning a bogus error report if mv_order_report is
	  not set.
	
	* Fixed some weirdness in parsing certain search parameters, notably
	  mv_sql_query and index search specifications.

	* Changed sort variables to globals so that sorting should be
	  reliable. I hope.

	* Fixed quantity problem for [price code].

	* Made mv_order_subject work for order routing.

	* Order tracking now can be done in order routing.

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