Btrieve 12 Product Information
Click here for the Btrieve 12 Data Sheet from Actian.
Over the years, many developers and independent software vendors (ISV's) have used Btrieve database engines to safely store the data for their applications. However, some of those ISV's have chosen to keep using the rock-solid Btrieve 6.x product line for many, many years, even though it came out in 1993 and has been unsupported since 1999.
Fast forward 20 years, and the Btrieve 6.x engine is definitely showing its age. While some people have indicated success with getting Btrieve 6.15 to run on modern operating systems like Windows 7, many have failed to get it to work, due mostly to the new security implemented in these newer operating systems. Others have gotten bogged down with micro-managing the Btrieve 6.15 configuration -- which was not always intuitive, and sometimes involved manually editing the INI files or registry. Yuck!
The solution to these problems is now here! Btrieve 12 is the successor to Btrieve 6.15, and it is ideal for those ISV's who are not yet ready to make the jump to the full-featured (and thus more expensive) Actian PSQL database engine. This engine is file format and API compatible with Btrieve 6.15, so there is no need to change or even recompile your application to use Btrieve 12. This product also offers a number of improvements over the Btrieve 6.15 environment, including full OS support for Windows 7, 8, and 10, improved performance due to a better caching configuration, the ability to use across-the-wire encryption and auto-reconnect (to survive brief network outages on wireless networks), a vastly simplified configuration, and much more. It is available in a Deployment Pack capable of handling 1000 Seats for a low fixed cost, which makes it very easy to acquire and deploy this new release to your users.
As you can imagine, there are some critical limitations to this low-cost solution, and you may wish to consider the complete PSQL engine (which also has wonderful backward-compatability with Btrieve 6.x applications) instead of Btrieve 12. Here is a quick comparison chart to show you the differences:
| Feature | Btrieve 6.15 | Btrieve 12 | PSQL v12 | Zen v15 |
|---|
| Btrieve API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL API (ODBC, ADO, JDBC) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Non-Btrieve Access (PDAC, JCL) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Btrieve 5.x File Format | Read/Write | Read Only | Read Only | Read Only |
| Btrieve 6.x File Format | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write | Read/Write |
| 7.x, 8.x, 9.x File Formats | No | No | Read/Write | Read/Write |
| 13.x File Format | No | No | No | Read/Write |
| Windows 7 Support | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows 8/10 Support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows 11 Support | No | No | No | Yes |
| Windows Server 2008 Support | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows Server 2012/2016 Support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Server 2019/2022 Support | No | No | No | Yes |
| Multi-Core Performance | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Functions to Load/Purge Cache | No | No | No | Yes |
| Configurable L2 Cache | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Client Cache Engine | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Updated Utilities | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GUI-Driven Control Center | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux OS Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mac OSX Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Android/iOS/Rasperry Pi Support | No | No | No | Yes |
| Referential Integrity | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Unicode Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Installation | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Page Compression | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Long Owner Names | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| File Encryption | Proprietary | Proprietary | Up to 128-Bit | Up to AES-256 |
| Database Security | OS Only | OS Only | OS/Database | OS/Database/AD |
| VSS Support (for online Backups) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Online Database Defragmenter | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum File Page Size | 4 KB | 4 KB | 16 KB | 16 KB |
| Maximum File Size | 4 GB | 4 GB | 256 GB | 64 TB |
| AutoTimestamp Fields | No | No | No | Yes |
| Insert/Change Tracking | No | No | No | Yes |
Btrieve 12 is being sold to ISV's under a 1000-Seat Limited Distribution License ONLY -- you cannot purchase single-user or smaller license counts at this time. For very large deployments, you can either purchase multiple LDL licenses (of 1000 each), or contact us with your specific needs and we can work with Actian to find you a solution.
The LDL provides access to the Actian Deployment Portal for creating licenses, and it gives you the right to distribute the Btrieve 12 engine along with your named applications ONLY. Registration of your application on the Actian Btrieve
12 Catalog web site is required, which links the LDL serial number with your application. You can link multiple applications with the same LDL, or 1 application with multiple LDL's by simply registering each new combination.Officially, the LDL provides for a 1-year term, but this license is automatically renewed (at no extra charge) each
year as long as you are following the rules of distribution.
Btrieve v12 licenses are generated by you, the developer, using the Actian Deployment Portal. You can generate licenses in ANY user count you wish (up to the number of licenses remaining on your LDL). Unlike PSQL licenses, however, Btrieve v12 licenses are STACKABLE. This means that there is no need to manage base licenses and special
user count increase licenses. With one license type, you simply create a license for the number of users and distribute it with your software. If the user needs to add more licenses, you simply create a new license with the number of users to be added, and apply THAT to the server as well. In fact, some developers may wish to avoid the
complexity of creating a custom license for each user, and instead create a large number of 1-User licenses from the portal at one time. This gives you the ability to distribute and track those licenses on your own, and it simplifies installation, too: If a user buys 4 seats, you simply give them 4 licenses, and they all stack directly
on the server. (See the Installation Toolkit manual, provided inside the Download file, for more information on embedding the Btrieve v12 installer in your own installation, as well as ways to automatically apply licenses to your users' engines.)
If you are an ISV, you will want to carefully examine your options -- staying on the long-dead, unsupported (but still mostly working) Btrieve 6.15, migrating to the new Btrieve 12, or moving to the full-featured PSQL v12 environment instead. In short, if you need a new database for your Btrieve 6.15 application, try out Btrieve 12. If you would like to add some of the higer end features, such as SQL access, referential integrity, other API's like DTI, ADO.NET, PDAC, or others, or support for Mac OS X or Linux, then use the full-featured PSQL/Zen engines instead.
Are you confused by all of these options? Give us a call, and we'll help you through the decision process!
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