5-10 minute read of my thoughts & impressions of Valentina Studio and Server products after a year of daily use.
http://www.dev.1701software.com/blog/2016/3/12/the-curious-case-of-valentina
"Microsoft may be releasing the relational engine of SQL Server 2016 on Linux but how will you manage them?
You will use Valentina Studio."
nice review!
I totally agree that the documentation is hard work.
I really want to give studio a go, i bought the omegabundle recently, but because i work on lots of different things i find it hard to find time to spend figuring things out. if its not obvious, or the help doesnt answer my questions very quickly, i tend to move on and do something else.
im currently struggling to find out how i add a parameter into a query, so that i get asked for the value in a where clause. searching for ‘parameters’ seems to bring back no answers, so maybe it doesnt support this?
I got Valentina Studio with the previous OmegaBundle, but only used it a few time 6-8 months ago and have have not need to use it since then… (I was starting a new DB based project back then)
After reading the review I decided to go to the website and see how much renewing the license would cost… (It expired 2/4/16). Well I found out that you had to renew BEFORE your license expired to get a discount. I don’t know if I would have renewed, ( as I don’t use it a lot)) but now for sure i won’t buy a new license.
I think that policy is rather draconian…IMO at the very least they should allow renewing anytime within the next year but have the new term start when the last one expired. That would not cut their renewal profits and might actually increase them a bit.
In any case, that is something anybody who is thinking of purchasing should keep in mind.
BTW I agree Paradigma docs and website are VERY confusing.
[quote=252839:@Russ Lunn]im currently struggling to find out how i add a parameter into a query, so that i get asked for the value in a where clause. searching for ‘parameters’ seems to bring back no answers, so maybe it doesnt support this?
[/quote]
Hi Russ,
I have go to Valentina wiki, and was need only 2 clicks to come to page which answers your question about Report Parameters.
Let me show.
And you know already that we are fast enough on our Valentina forum with help.
[quote=252894:@Karen Atkocius]I got Valentina Studio with the previous OmegaBundle, but only used it a few time 6-8 months ago and have have not need to use it since then… (I was starting a new DB based project back then)
After reading the review I decided to go to the website and see how much renewing the license would cost… (It expired 2/4/16). Well I found out that you had to renew BEFORE your license expired to get a discount. I don’t know if I would have renewed, ( as I don’t use it a lot)) but now for sure i won’t buy a new license.
I think that policy is rather draconian…IMO at the very least they should allow renewing anytime within the next year but have the new term start when the last one expired. That would not cut their renewal profits and might actually increase them a bit.
In any case, that is something anybody who is thinking of purchasing should keep in mind.
BTW I agree Paradigma docs and website are VERY confusing.
Hi Karen,
may be Lynn will better answer on purchase questions, but I will try.
2.1) draconian? You really think that we will not accept renew expired 30 days ago? Well, yes, we are so bad guys 
2.2) May be I am wrong, but exactly such ‘renew’ rules today have a lots of software products.
2.3) May be you can try consider us kind enough that we give the 1 year of FREE updates?
[quote=252926:@Ruslan Zasukhin]2.1) draconian? You really think that we will not accept renew expired 30 days ago? Well, yes, we are so bad guys
2.2) May be I am wrong, but exactly such ‘renew’ rules today have a lots of software products. [/quote]
App Store apps have it, but that’s because there are no paid updates, only new full price versions. On the other hand prices on the app store are MUCH lower than they were outside the app store, even lower than the old “50% off renewal” prices, so people don’t mind too much.
Xojo has it, but otherwise I don’t know anyone.
What’s the point of a “renewal”? If you have to pay full price, then get a new license. Otherwise the “renewal” is taking something away (aka the ability to have an additional older license, or sell the older license). So you are punishing long-term users with a “renewal” instead of rewarding them for their loyality.
And that is just stu not very intelligent.
And “1 year of free uodates” is standard. So I wouldn’t shout about it as if it is something special - that just makes you seem dodgy insincere not quite sure what the correct word would be, but it’s like someone trying to sell OpenOffice for $20 and saying “that’s a bargain” sure, it is a bargain for what it does. But other places give it away for free.
[quote=252833:@Phillip Zedalis]This clearly feels like to me that they are saying SQLite is an inferior technology and thus costs less. However no distinction or evidence of this is demonstrated anywhere in the IDE or documentation. In fact it makes no mention at all anywhere why you might choose one or the other. I am left feeling like perhaps the Studio product has become the primary focus and the database server development is winding down.
[/quote]
Hi Phillip,
Thank you for nice article. I have read up to this point currently, and I want provide immediate feedback on this
DB Server usually is considered more powerful when it is able provide server-side features, such as stored procedures.
in Valentina DB Server we have quite powerful stored procedures. Which yet are more comfortable for development than e.g. mySQL or standard. We have provide, for example, exceptions.
Also you can take a look on how many SQL functions have Valentina DB, what again can be used on server side and inside of SPs.
All this is missing in SQLite Server … at least for now.
SQLite have db-level lock, while Valentina have record level locks, what is again better for multi-user access.
And probably other things, including the same speed advance.
Aha, SQLite has only SQL access. While Valentina DB also give you API access, thing which love NO-SQL guys…
Aha2: no we not stopping development of Valentina DB We have a lots of ideas todo yet, some follow mainstream of DB world, some are quite unique.
[quote=252926:@Ruslan Zasukhin]2.1) draconian? You really think that we will not accept renew expired 30 days ago? Well, yes, we are so bad guys
[/quote]
Rulsan,
I am not sure how you mean that.
Draconian IMO is not being able to renew after the expiration even on teh terms I mentioned above.
The renewal policy is clearly stated on the website - though buying teh bundle I did not know it. Also there is no indication on the website what the renew price would be (that is something people considering purchasing might want to know).
If you want more renewals put that info on the website and change the renewal policy to what I suggested as it would not loss you anything on renewals, and might generate a few more.
All of that is speaking in general. I personally am not motivated enough to ask for a special favor for something I don’t use a lot anyway, who’s cost I don’t know upfront.
[quote=252833:@Phillip Zedalis]I am convinced that every time someone on the team checks something in they deploy it live. Version numbers dont seem to be very meaningful as entirely new features and paradigms will appear with little fanfare or mention. Oh by the way we added full SQLite server capabilities. You are left scratching your head wondering if these people have hobbies.
[/quote]
By the way
we have got Valentina Server working on Raspberry.
yes, for all 3 servers: Valentina DB Server, Valentina SQLite Server, Valentina Reports Server.
Available soon.
[quote=252943:@Karen Atkocius]Rulsan,
I am not sure how you mean that. [/quote]
I think he was trying to say that they could set you up with the discount because your license had expired such a short time ago. I can’t say for sure that’s what he meant, but if I was their representative that’s what I would do.
Well this thread certainly proves my point that the documentation and pricing leave something to be desired.
Regarding performance I understand it handles multiple users writing better because its row based vs table. Is the Valentina server multi-threaded? Can I take advantage of using multiple cores?
Lastly more examples of how to use Valentina API vs SQL would be nice.
Good morning,
yes.
yes, Valentina Server is multi-threaded from born, but this issues is very complex, because today you can have 10 tasks threaded, tomorrow 20, later 100 … We constantly working on improve of threading.
You can find separate installer VServer_MT, which always have more MT tasks than our standard installer.
Just few weeks ago, we did improve a lots MT for report server, and REST layer.
There are a lots of examples. We have about 60 examples. Exists 2 folders API_Way and SQL_way. Many tasks are shown in API and SQL way. In this case examples in this folders have similar names.
This EXAMPLE GUIDE should help you. Click “API Style Examples” to see more of 20 examples.
Phillip and other Valentina (DB/Reports/Studio/Servers) users,
Do you know what wonder me most of all in this article and few comments?
I wonder why you do not talk with us?
Phillip, you mention that you use in this or that way Valentina Studio and even Valentina Server for your clients. I bet I did not see any question from you on our Valentina Forum.
We answer here on each question. We try to do this asap. Usually in few hours. This is free option so why not use it?
In article you have mention you have some features requests…
Please look on our bug tracker Mantis and Release notes in WIKI.
Valentina Studio team fix bugs and feature requests sometimes in few days after they was reported.
You are welcome to report your feature requests into Mantis.
You are welcome to discuss any issues and questions on forum.
You are welcome ask - where in docs describe this or that
We try help to everybody.
What about cubeSQL from Xojo world?
“This license includes one year of updates.”
Hmm, I do not see renew price for it at all.
what about these few products by random search:
[quote=252935:@Markus Winter]What’s the point of a “renewal”? If you have to pay full price, then get a new license. Otherwise the “renewal” is taking something away (aka the ability to have an additional older license, or sell the older license). So you are punishing long-term users with a “renewal” instead of rewarding them for their loyality.
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You have buy APP v3, and use it… you have got some fixes may be 3.1, 3.2 In very limited time. For example Navicat says 90 days after major release.
Next MAJOR version v4 you need buy again. Usually with 30-40% discount.
But only if you was owner of v3 usually. Not v2 or v1.
Loyality of users here… To users which follow product.
Am I wrong?
You do not care now about MAJOR versions. You can buy today 6.x, and get for free 7.x versions.
Exactly this have happened for OmegaBundle-2015, when was 5.x and in Sept 2015 we shipped major 6.x products upgrade.
Loyality of users in this model is the same 40% discount.
You can note, that if you do not want buy renew one year later, you are not forced. You can use your current 5.x version even 5 years if it do job for you.
[quote=252921:@Ruslan Zasukhin]
I have go to Valentina wiki, and was need only 2 clicks to come to page which answers your question about Report Parameters.[/quote]
Congratulations! The fact that you could quickly find something in your own documentation does not count for anything. While the information provided might be fine, once found, the structure and presentation leaves a lot to be desired. And is very off putting to a potential new customer.
okay, another try …
I go to Valentina WIKI, and just typing in the SEARCH field of WIKI (top left) the single word ‘PARAMETERS’,
In the search result that page is on the 5th position with name ‘Valentina Reports Parameters’
[quote=252894:@Karen Atkocius]I got Valentina Studio with the previous OmegaBundle, but only used it a few time 6-8 months ago and have have not need to use it since then… (I was starting a new DB based project back then)
After reading the review I decided to go to the website and see how much renewing the license would cost… (It expired 2/4/16). Well I found out that you had to renew BEFORE your license expired to get a discount. I don’t know if I would have renewed, ( as I don’t use it a lot)) but now for sure i won’t buy a new license.[/quote]
Now and then we run a ‘get up to date’ promotional offer for folks who let their licenses lapse. In general, if you renew within a few weeks, we let it pass. We also offer a competitive upgrade now too from other solutions.
So, just for Karen, and to celebrate Ruslan becoming a parent for THIRD TIME, and in celebration of St Patrick’s Day (which I guess is huge for us in America, and not so much in Ireland), we will honor update requests of expired Valentina Studio licenses:
March 13, 2016 - March 20, 2016.
So if you let your Valentina Studio Pro license lapse, now is the time to get the upgrade again.
I don’t consider this shouting, but an assurance of how long you’ll get updates, both minor and major. It absolutely is a critical piece of information for people to get to understand the value of what they are getting.
There is simply too much variations on how companies implement licenses. You have -
and others I am not thinking of before having coffee after ‘daylight savings time’ clock adjustment on a Sunday.
Nowadays, your license model does make a difference, and there isn’t a standard model any more. Just like you no longer have a reasonable assurance that the new version of the software you get, even with the same name, hasn’t had some features removed.
Of course, a time based model for updates should make you ask how often a product typically gets updated. If it doesn’t get updated often, then there is a lower perceived value.
At Paradigma Software, we’ve kept to a specific ‘school’ of licensing which makes investing in our products more predictable.
Here’s a conundrum regarding documentation (and for the site, for that matter), and we’d appreciate your feedback on it.
Since many of Paradigma products are targeted at vertical development tool markets (Xojo, Java, C#, etc), but work around the same base feature set, what would be the best way to help people drill down to what they want?
Many tools available for Xojo are Xojo only. You go to their sites, and, everything there is for Xojo. There are some exceptions, I know. In our case, we support many platforms.
A simple landing page by platform might solve overhead / presentation for sales and marketing purposes, but in regards to documentation it gets a bit more complicated than that.
[quote=253057:@Lynn Fredricks]So, just for Karen, and to celebrate Ruslan becoming a parent for THIRD TIME, and in celebration of St Patrick’s Day (which I guess is huge for us in America, and not so much in Ireland), we will honor update requests of expired Valentina Studio licenses:
March 13, 2016 - March 20, 2016.
[/quote]
I till don’t know what the cost would be… I can’t find anything on the website (including in my account) as to renewal price or how to do it IF is decided to.