What's New in CBFS Direct 2020

CBFS Direct 2020 is the latest version of Callback Technologies' popular raw disk access product, and represents a major upgrade from CBFS Direct 2017. The CBFS Direct 2020 toolkit includes a redesigned component API, extensively revised and expanded documentation, and numerous internal changes and upgrades.

This article is intended to provide in-depth details about how to upgrade existing code from CBFS Direct 2017 to CBFS Direct 2020. Please refer to the CBFS Direct 2020 product page and documentation for more information.

Contents

What's New

Updated Development Experience

A primary goal for Callback Technologies' 2020 product line was to revisit and refine the developer experience. Our efforts in this area have resulted in a number of changes across the board for each product, a few of which are worth noting here.

The CBFS Direct user mode API has been redesigned. The new API is designed to be easier to understand and to use; it is more streamlined and consistent than in previous versions, but just as flexible and performant. Additional details about how the API has changed can be found in the Upgrading section, below.

The product's documentation has also been extensively revised and expanded, making it easier to read and more helpful overall; and the included demo projects have been improved so as to better illustrate the usage of the components.

Upgrading

This section contains information helpful for upgrading existing code from CBFS Direct 2017 to CBFS Direct 2020. Please note that a number of finer details and edition-specific differences are omitted due to the general-purpose nature of this content; such information can be found in the CBFS Direct 2020 documentation applicable to your edition.

General

When upgrading to CBFS Direct 2020, there are a number of general changes to keep in mind:

  • The CBFSDirect component has been renamed to CBDirect.
  • Constants have been renamed; and all constants have moved to a dedicated, product-wide "Constants" class.
  • The manner in which errors are reported has changed for some editions.
  • The end-user driver deployment procedure has changed.
  • The licensing scheme for the product has changed.
  • The assembly and namespace names have changed in the .NET edition.

CBDirect Component

The following table describes how to upgrade from the old CBFSDirect component API to the new CBDirect component API:

CBFSDirect Component (2017) CBDirect Component (2020)
DeleteFileEx method Removed; pass True for the DeleteFile method's new CloseOpenHandles parameter instead.
Open and OpenEx methods Merged into one method named OpenVolume.
OpenPhysicalMemoryForReading method Renamed to OpenMemory.

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