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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Hi,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Some significant changes were made today, in the open-source
trunk repository, for the MySQL provider. The main change was to set the
connection character set to UTF8. Previously, the character set was Latin1 (the
default), but the MySQL provider was passing UTF8-encoded strings to MySQL. This
caused a few problems when names and strings contained non-ASCII7 characters:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> -
After creating a datastore with non-ASCII7 name, it was not possible to open it.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> -
String data inserted into tables, with double byte character sets, could not be
read properly</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> -
Any string data inserted by FDO, into MySQL tables, was double UTF8 encoded,
making it difficult for 3rd party applications to read it.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The changes have the following impacts on the MySQL
Provider:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - minimum MySQL version now 5.0.22</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>- when you create a new datastore,
through FDO, the character set and collation are the MySQL server defaults. Previously,
these were set to </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> “latin1” and “latin1_bin”
respectively.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - the current open-source MySQL Provider
and previous versions are no longer compatible for non-ASCII7 users.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>MySQL Version:</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The changes rely on some collation
fixes made to MySQL somewhere between 5.0.15 and 5.0.22. Therefore, it is recommend
that you upgrade to MySQL 5.0.22 before using the latest open-source MySQL
Provider. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Datastore character set:</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> Previously, all datastores created by FDO
had default character set Latin1 and default collation Latin1_bin. With this
change, the character set and collation default to that of the MySQL server. To
find out what these settings currently are, connect directly to MySQL and
execute the following:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> show variables
like 'character_set_server';</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> show variables
like 'collation_server';</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> You are now responsible for using a
server character set and collation that matches your data. For English and
Western European customers, the Latin1 character set is fine. Other
customers will need to use the UTF8 character set, or a language specific one
such as CP932 (Japanese). When in doubt, UTF8 is the best one to use since it
is a Unicode format.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> The server collation determines whether
your data is treated as case-sensitive or case-insensitive. This includes
column contents, not just table and column names. Note that the default is
usually a case-insensitive one.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> Server character set and collation can be set by
stopping the MySQL service, modifying my.ini, and restarting the service. In
my.ini, look for any:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> default-character-set=</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> settings, and change these to the desired character
set. The collation can be set by adding a default-collation setting to the [mysqld]
section, e.g:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> default-collation=utf8_bin</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> to use case-insensitive UTF8 collation.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> Please refer to the MySQL documentation
at www.mysql.com for more information on character sets and collations.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Provider and Datastore Compatibility</span></font></b><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Previous versions of the MySQL
provider inserted strings, via Feature Commands, that were UTF8-encoded once
too many. This change fixes this problem. However, this means that pre-existing
MySQL datastores can be properly accessed by both current and previous MySQL
providers only if all of the following is true:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - none of the
character data in the datastore contains any non-ASCII7 characters</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - the default
character set for the datastore is latin1</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - the default
collation for the datastore is latin1_bin</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - the server
character set is latin1</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - the server
collation is latin1_bin.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> For all other cases, pre-existing datastores
must be upgraded before they are accessed by the current MySQL Provider. This
can be done by doing the following:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - copy the datastore
to SDF, using previous MySQL Provider.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - create a new MySQL
datastore, using current MySQL Provider</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> - copy the above
SDF data to the new datastore, using current MySQL Provider.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Note that the above is not an
in-place conversion. You must create a new datastore for use by the current MySQL
Provider.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Note also that datastores created by
the current MySQL Provider must not be accessed by previous provider versions. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Just a bit more background on the
above info. ASCII7 characters ( 0x00-0x7f) have the same values for their representations
in various character sets. Therefore the extra UTF8 encoding, done by previous MySQL
Providers, on strings to insert, had no effect. For this reason, there are no
compatibility problems for datastores with only latin1_bin tables, storing only
ASCII7 characters. However, for other characters, their values are different
for different character sets so the extra UTF8 encoding does change their
values, thus leading to the above compatibility problems.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Brent Robinson</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
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