v4.0.21-beta (dev branch)

IMPORTANT - Work in Progress

This version of the add-in was built from the dev branch, and contains the latest features currently under development. You are welcome to use this for testing or production use, depending on your needs. If you decide to use the dev version in production, please do your own testing to ensure you are getting the desired output for exported source and builds.

If you are building the dev branch from source, you will need version 4.* or newer to successfully build the add-in. (You can build v3 with v4, but you can't build v4 with v3.) In other words, you need this beta version to build the dev branch for the first time.

PLEASE NOTE: When exporting your project for the first time after this update, you will see a large number of changed files. This is expected with a number of enhancements to the sanitizing functions and SQL formatting for Microsoft Access queries.

Major Changes / Features

• Add ability to export external database schemas (SQL, MySQL). #415
  If you are using a Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL as a back end to your database, and don't already have a strategy for managing database schema changes, this is a very simple way to get started. It is extremely performant, adding very little lag to the export process, but ensures that you have a current copy of the database schema in version control.

• Implement high-performance SQL formatter. #426
  This has been on my to-do list for a long time... Microsoft Access queries are now saved in .sql files with indenting and line breaks to improve readability and to provide a better source file for version control. The formatter is (my own) VBA port of the php formatter used in the well-known Doctrine library. I made a few changes to improve performance and readability for VBA, but followed the same general logic from this battle-tested php project.

Features / Fixes (Partial List)

• Sanitize the ColumnInfo property. #412 Thanks, @bclothier!
• Remove padding on blank lines in VBA code. #413
• Fix JSON parsing of linefeed characters. 42cbbde
• Preserve whitespace in XML values. (Potentially resolved?) #422
• Sanitize WebImagePadding values. #423 Thanks, @hecon5!
• Improve stability of merge build process. c7f9d1e
• Fix issue with export of large theme files. #431 Thanks, @dlangenafa!

Known Issues

• Merge build functionality has had limited testing in real-world applications. Feel free to use it, but recognize that there may be some bugs that pop up along the way. (Feel free to create issues to address any problems you find.)
• Automatic export on save is currently experimental, and potentially has issues with older versions of Microsoft Access.

See commit history for details on other changes not listed here.