Software Installation: Release Notes

Each new version of Omnidex brings a collection of improvements, from new features to increased performance. Here are the primary features and enhancements in the major releases of Omnidex:

Omnidex version: 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.0

Omnidex 4.3 (July 2006)

Omnidex 4.3 introduces significant performance improvements and features designed for large databases. While previous versions of Omnidex performed well on tables up to about 1 billion rows, most web applications demand even faster performance. Most queries must return in a few seconds, even on extremely large databases.

Initial Support for Omnidex Grids

Omnidex 4.3 introduces support for Omnidex Grids, which allow a database to be distributed across multiple servers and processed in parallel. This initial support for Omnidex Grids can be deployed on databases with one large table, with support for complex relational models planned for a future release.

Geographic Radius Searches

Omnidex 4.3 introduces high-speed geographic radius searches based on latitude and longitude coordinates, also known as geocoding. When rows include latitude and longitude, Omnidex can use indexes to locate all rows within a certain distance from one or more locations. This enables queries such as locating all customers that are within a certain distance from any of many branch locations.

Pre-Summarized Rollup Tables

Omnidex 4.3 introduces Rollup Tables, which pre-summarize a table using standard SQL aggregation functions (COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MIN and MAX). Omnidex optimizes queries that reference the original table by automatically redirecting the query to a rollup table whenever possible. For example, if rollup table is created based on common geography, such as country, region, state, county, city, SCF, DMA and postal code, this will typically result in a table with around 100,000 rows, regardless of the size of the original table. A query requesting counts grouped by one or more of these columns will return instantly, improving the speed of queries and reducing the load on system resources.

Automatic Query Caching

Omnidex 4.3 introduces query caching, which monitors queries and reuses existing index qualifications when possible. Applications often submit a pattern of queries that are similar, such as adding an additional piece of criteria to further refine a search, or requesting data from the database after first obtaining a count. Omnidex recognizes these situations and reuses the previous index qualifications when possible, substantially improving the speed of queries and reducing the load on system resources.

Hashed Data Caching

Omnidex 4.3 improves the performance of multi-table queries using a Hashed Data Cache. This feature uses temporary hash tables in memory to greatly speed table joins, especially those to small dimension or code lookup tables. The Hashed Data Cache scans a small table only once, improving the speed of queries and reducing the load on system resources.

Improved Omnidex Standalone Tables (OST's)

Omnidex 4.3 supports more advanced Omnidex Standalone Tables (OST)'s, adding support for data compression, null indicators, and online inserts, deletes and updates. OST's are typically used internally by Omnidex, but are also available for use by administrators who need relational storage capabilities without a relational database.

Support for New Versions of Microsoft SQL Server

Omnidex 4.3 gains support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, with version 2000 still supported.