Quick Guide to Interbase

Introduction

FireBird Interbase Setup

Server

FireBird comes in two versions: Classic (programs have direct access to the database files) and Super (indirect access through a process); Only the Super version is available for Windows.

Client

All it takes is an Java Connectivity Kit?

Borland Interbase Setup

Common files

The following three files are common when installing the server and the client packages:*

Server

To start the Interbase server, simply run IBSERVER.EXE. If using NT/W2K, you can install the Interbase server application to run as a service, using the following instruction: "instsvc install "%INTERBASE%" -auto" (avoid using pathnames that contain spaces.)

Client

If the server is located on a remote host, you must add an entry in the "services" file (on NT: C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\services; on 98: C:\WINDOWS\SERVICES) so the Interbase client knows which TCP port to connect to:

gds_db     3050/tcp    # InterBase

Add-ons

Other files

Q&A

When creating an ODBC connection to FB, Database lets me choose a .GDB file

Does it mean that access to FireBird database does not use sockets but rather direct access to the filesystem? If so, what about performance over WAN links?

Any ODBC driver to connect to an Interbase server?

Two free and open source ODBC drivers are available: the XTG driver and the ODBC/JDBC driver, also known as the Starkey driver.  These two drivers can connect to both FireBird Interbase and the standard Interbase.

What are the different modules used for?

What is BDE?

Borland Database Engine. Middleware to connec to a DBMS. Was it used previously to connect to a remote Interbase server, and is now replaced by the Interbase client? A lighter alternative for Delphi programmes is IBX (Interbase Express.)

From http://www.cvalde.com/document/glossary.htm#BDE: It stands for Borland Database Engine. Originally designed as the engine to deal with both Dbase and Paradox, it was extended to serve as middleware to remote connectivity with relational databases through a set of libraries known as Borland SQL Links. Given that, BDE supports both record-oriented commands and SQL syntax. The name BDE is used to refer to the package that consists of the core technology (that includes the IDAPI Infrastructure and the common Query engine) plus the three IDAPI drivers/engines (for Paradox, dBASE and Text formats) plus the ODBC Socket that makes any ODBC driver into an IDAPI driver for BDE applications. It's important to say that because BDE connects to several engines through SQL Links, it cannot recognize or take advantage of every feature in each specific relational engine, so the support for some IB features is limited or it doesn't exist. Also, BDE cannot take advantage of IB version 6, because it has not been updated yet in January 2001.

What do I need to let my application connect to a remote Interbase server?

Interbase client? ODBC? BDE?

Note that the ODBC driver that shipped with InterBase 5.x is free, but does not support the new features in InterBase 6.

What is FireBird?

An actively developed version of Borland's Interbase. The reason for the project is that Borland didn't contribute much to the project since it was open-sourced.

What's the difference between "Classic" and "SuperServer" FireBird architectures?

What's the difference between the commercial version and the open-source version of Borland Interbase?

Extra features, I assume?

What is InterClient and InterServer?

Yet another client component to connect to FireBird?

I'm getting confused on how to connect to a FireBird server

Resources