3. Features and Highlights

3. Features and Highlights
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The pgExpress PostgreSQL dbExpress driver can access PostgreSQL databases, use all its field types, and is complient to the Codegear specifications of dbExpress drivers. The pgExpress Driver also includes support for stored procedures, through use of PostgreSQL functions.

Arrays are mapped as strings (see Known Issues) and ADT (custom fields) support will be fully supported only by the pgExpress Suite. It has support for all the most commonly used PostgreSQL field types; notably: int2, int4, int8, serial, char, varchar, text, date, datetime, time, timestamp, timestamp with time zone, BLOB (large objects; read only), float, real, numeric and others).

Highlights of the pgExpress Driver:

100% VCL/CLX implementation - unlike other drivers which are coded in C language, our driver is 100% coded using Codegear Delphi itself (and Codegear Kylix). This automatically makes it portable to any platform where Delphi/Kylix/C++ Builder are available.
Portability: Delphi, Kylix and C++ Builder are supported.
dbExpress protocol 3.0 support; pgExpress is the first driver to implement it outside Codegear.
FAST: The pgExpress Driver is highly optimized, and designed to minimize the traffic to the server as much as possible.
Low Cost: pgExpress has NO RUNTIME FEES and does not need to be licensed in a per machine basis. PostgreSQL itself has the one of the most unobstrusive licenses in the market - BSD (totally free).
Exclusive features: the Vita Voom Software™ pgExpress Driver has much more features then the Borland's Kylix PostgreSQL driver, is available also for Delphi and has features not found on any other driver. Some of the exclusive pgExpress features (over Codegear's PostgreSQL driver) are:
- Delphi6/7/8/2005/2006/2007 support
- Codegear C++ Buildersupport
- Kylix1/2/ 3 support
- Supported databases:
  - PostgreSQLv.7.1 to 8.3 or the latest
  - EnterpriseDB support.
  - PostgreSQL - Red Hat Edition Project
- Extensive documentation
- Full types support - all regular types from PostgreSQL are supported (see Known Issues).
- Automatic support for locale/decimal separator settings
- Multibyte support
- Connection timeout Support
- Several custom settings that modify the way the driver works.
- Stored Procedures Support (emulated through functions)
- Automatic Fetch Cursors
- Native support for LargeInt/Int8/Int64types
- Support for unknown types
- Hability to work with quoted object names
- Schema support (for PostgreSQLv7.3+)
- Custom, elucidating error messages
- Asynchronous connections, with option to Cancel them (exclusive among all Delphi interfaces).
- UNICODE (TWideString) support.
- Localization. You can easily have driver messages in your own language; check the languages already implemented, or implement yours.
- Support - Vita Voom Software™ primes for its custumers. We have a real great and responsive support system for ensuring our customers have the best and fastest possible support.

Other advantages:

Reability - Since the driver is based on dbExpress implementation, it minimizes the possibility of bugs on database applications, because many of the code that actually access the databases from Delphi it is proven technology written by Codegear.
Database independence - you can switch to another database, just by replacing the driver for another one. This is a main advantage of the dbExpress technology itself.
Small - The pgExpress Driver is around 100Kb (non-Multilanguage version).

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