Catalyst Development

We’re pleased to announce a release date for the new SocketTools family of products. Version 7.0 will be released on March 2nd, 2011 and it includes some significant changes to the products. We’d like to thank those who participated in beta testing and all of you who have been patiently waiting for this release. The two most important changes are support for 64-bit Windows platforms and support for IPv6. We have also consolidated products to create fewer but more robust Editions.

64-bit Development
This has been one of the most requested features for SocketTools, and we’re pleased to include both 32-bit and 64-bit components in each of our SocketTools 7.0 products. Of course we’ve gotten quite a few questions from developers wanting to know how this will impact their applications and what kind of code changes will be required.

If you are currently using either the .NET or ActiveX components, you’ll find that there’s very little that has changed when it comes to working with SocketTools. Because they have a higher-level interface, you don’t need to worry about the core changes that were made to support 64-bit platforms. With .NET development, you’ll be able to build applications that explicitly target either the x86 or x64 platforms, or both. The most significant changes you’ll probably need to make are with how your installer deploys your application, since it will need to be aware of whether or not the installation is being performed on a 32-bit or 64-bit system.

For developers who are using the Library Edition, there will be more significant changes because of the lower-level interface presented by the SocketTools API. In particular, the size of pointers and handles are different based on whether you’re building your application for 32-bit or 64-bit systems. The signatures for some of the SocketTools functions have changed to accommodate this, and it may require that you modify your code. This is really a general programming issue, so it’s not something unique to SocketTools, but it is something to be aware of if you’re planning to port your software to 64-bit Windows.

IPv6 Networking
The other significant change that we’ve made to SocketTools is to support IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol. You may have read recently in the news that the last of the IPv4 address blocks have been released, and that we’re essentially “running out” of available IPv4 addresses. IPv6 resolves this significant problem by providing a (much) larger address space, where there are more than enough unique IPv6 addresses available for every network-enabled device.

SocketTools 7.0 includes support for both IPv4 and IPv6, and we have worked to make it as seamless as possible. For the majority of developers, there’s actually very little that you’ll need to do in order to support IPv6 in your applications. Because IPv4 is still the dominant version of the protocol that is in use today, SocketTools uses that as a default for connections. For example, if a remote host has both an IPv4 and IPv6 address, we will default to using an IPv4 connection unless you explicitly tell us that you want to use IPv6 instead. However, if that host only has an IPv6 address, that is what we’ll use.

Although SocketTools makes the transition to support IPv6 much simpler, there are changes that you’ll need to make to your applications to support it. For example, the format of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are very different. An IPv4 address looks like 192.168.0.20, while an IPv6 address can look something like fd7c:2f6a:4f4f:ba34::a32. If your software checks for the format of these addresses, it needs to be aware of the differences. You also need to make sure that you’re providing enough space to display or store an address.

Another consideration is that IPv6 support on the Windows platforms varies according to version. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 support IPv6, but it needs to be installed and configured separately. Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows 7 have IPv6 installed by default. If you attempt to establish an IPv6 connection on a system that doesn’t support it, an error will be returned that your application will need to handle.

Product Consolidation
SocketTools originally started as a single product, the Visual Edition, which included Visual Basic (VBX) and ActiveX components. As time went on, we created additional versions of SocketTools to address the emerging needs of different types of developers. These included the Library Edition with a lower-level API, the Scripting Edition for light-weight scripting and web development, and the .NET Edition for developers using the .NET platform. We also had different editions based on whether or not security features (SSL, TLS, SSH) were needed.

Product consolidation achieves two general goals. First, it simplifies and reduces the number of SocketTools editions, and second, it better reflects the current needs of developers. For these reasons, the number of SocketTools Editions has been reduced from eight to three:

SocketTools .NET Edition
SocketTools ActiveX Edition
SocketTools Library Edition

In addition, the Internet Mail and File Transfer products were each consolidated to include both the ActiveX and .NET components. The SocketWrench products were consolidated into one but continues to include the lower-level API for those developers who prefer it. The SocketTools Subscription includes every product so reflects all the changes.

We hope these changes simplify things for our existing customers and for new developers evaluating our products. If you already own a SocketTools license and want to upgrade to 7.0, here’s what you need to know:

Each SocketTools Edition now includes support for the security features that were previously only available in the Secure Editions.

The ActiveX Edition merges the components of both the Visual Edition and Scripting Edition. Developers who currently have either of those editions are directed to upgrade to the ActiveX Edition.

Each product includes both 32-bit and 64-bit components and/or libraries. Even if you aren’t currently developing software for 64-bit Windows, it will be there when you’re ready to make that transition.

There will be a single upgrade price, regardless of your current version or if you previously owned a Standard or Secure Edition of your product. The finalized upgrade pricing will be available on our website when the new products are released. Of course, those of you with an active SocketTools Subscription will be able to download the new version for free as part of your subscription service.

Thank you for your continued support of SocketTools, and if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. If you have any technical questions about 64-bit development or IPv6 support in SocketTools, post them here and we’ll do our best to address them.