Version 4 has finally been released and the good ol’ version 3 has been deprecated after 8 years of distinguished service. While common users will notice only minor graphical changes, an almost total rewrite of the project has been done under the hood.
A huge effort has been spent on keeping things working and making the migration of the available applications as smooth as possible. This new version opens the door to future rewriting of the GUI, by clearly separating the application logic from the data presentation.
The most important new features are:
- the possibility of interchangeably using SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL as database engines and data storage
- easily creating a new application using GUI tools
- easily managing settings and database schema using GUI features: adding, renaming and removing tables, columns and relations has never been so easy
- a totally new API with a secure and flexible query language modelled on SQL, and named ShortSQL, to easily and securely query your data and build new applications
- a new guide and documentation site available at https://docs.bdus.cloud/
- more than 200 automated unit tests to rapidly and thoroughly test various parts of the lifecycle of the application, from creation to configuration and data management, for SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL
- four different hosting solutions:
- stable version 4
- legacy version 3
- a free-to-use educational version 4, for younger researchers
- a development and testing version
- finally, version 4 is released under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) 3.0, instead of the MIT licence used up to version 3.
The GNU Affero General Public License is a modified version of the ordinary GNU GPL version 3. It has one added requirement: if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version running there. The purpose of the GNU Affero GPL is to prevent a problem that affects developers of free programs that are often used on servers. Suppose you develop and release a free program under the ordinary GNU GPL. If developer D modifies the program and releases it, the GPL requires them to distribute their version under the GPL too. Thus, if you get a copy of their version, you are free to incorporate some or all of their changes into your own version. But suppose the program is mainly useful on servers. When D modifies the program, they might very likely run it on their own server and never release copies. Then you would never get a copy of the source code of their version, so you would never have the chance to include their changes in your version. You may not like that outcome. Using the GNU Affero GPL avoids that outcome. If D runs their version on a server that everyone can use, you too can use it. Assuming they have followed the license requirement to let the server’s users download the source code of their version, you can do so, and then you can incorporate their changes into your version. (If they haven’t followed it, you have your lawyer complain to them.) [Source: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html]
In the coming weeks all available applications will be migrated to the new version 4 and hopefully we will be able to definitively retire v3.
As usual, stay tuned and help testing and bug detection! Read the docs and file an issue if something is not working as expected!