Anyone here have experience with Firebird, formerly the Borland Database Engine, later Interbase? (The engine's had a pretty complete rewrite since 2000, so recent experience is more helpful) I've been called on for a consult for a client using Firebird as a backend for a 3rd-party extension to Quickbooks and would appreciate:
1. Recommendations for tools to work with it, 2. Cautions for things to look out for (e.g., "Transactions are not what you think they are") 3. General comments and TGIF snarkiness.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(database_server) http://www.firebirdsql.org/ https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird
Happy weekend,
Ted
*crickets*
On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Ted Roche tedroche@gmail.com wrote:
Anyone here have experience with Firebird, formerly the Borland Database Engine, later Interbase? (The engine's had a pretty complete rewrite since 2000, so recent experience is more helpful) I've been called on for a consult for a client using Firebird as a backend for a 3rd-party extension to Quickbooks and would appreciate:
- Recommendations for tools to work with it,
- Cautions for things to look out for (e.g., "Transactions are not
what you think they are") 3. General comments and TGIF snarkiness.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(database_server) http://www.firebirdsql.org/ https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird
Happy weekend,
Ted
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
Sorry, I missed the original message. On a conference call now, will put something together of what I know and will pass it along.
Paul H. Tarver Email: paul@tpcqpc.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Ted Roche Sent: Friday, November 24, 2017 12:31 PM To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: [NF] Experience with Firebird (nee' Interbase), recommended tools?
*crickets*
On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Ted Roche tedroche@gmail.com wrote:
Anyone here have experience with Firebird, formerly the Borland Database Engine, later Interbase? (The engine's had a pretty complete rewrite since 2000, so recent experience is more helpful) I've been called on for a consult for a client using Firebird as a backend for a 3rd-party extension to Quickbooks and would appreciate:
- Recommendations for tools to work with it, 2. Cautions for things
to look out for (e.g., "Transactions are not what you think they are") 3. General comments and TGIF snarkiness.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(database_server) http://www.firebirdsql.org/ https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird
Happy weekend,
Ted
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
[excessive quoting removed by server]
I'm playing w/ Firebase, but that's a whole different thing. Is Firebird still a thing? Is that the evoution of Paradox?
On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 12:30 PM, Ted Roche tedroche@gmail.com wrote:
*crickets*
On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Ted Roche tedroche@gmail.com wrote:
Anyone here have experience with Firebird, formerly the Borland Database Engine, later Interbase? (The engine's had a pretty complete rewrite since 2000, so recent experience is more helpful) I've been called on for a consult for a client using Firebird as a backend for a 3rd-party extension to Quickbooks and would appreciate:
- Recommendations for tools to work with it,
- Cautions for things to look out for (e.g., "Transactions are not
what you think they are") 3. General comments and TGIF snarkiness.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(database_server) http://www.firebirdsql.org/ https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird
Happy weekend,
Ted
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 3:54 PM, Eric Selje eric.selje@gmail.com wrote:
I'm playing w/ Firebase, but that's a whole different thing. Is Firebird still a thing? Is that the evoution of Paradox?
Firebird is different from Firebase, and has nothing to do with Freebird, either. Or Mozilla. Or FireFox, Thunderbird or Phoenix, AZ.
Firebird is the OpenSource release of the Interbase data engine, formerly known as the Borland Database Engine.
Is it still a thing might depend on your perspective. It is a free as in speech, free as in beer, fully open-sourced product. It's a robust RDBMS, capable of gigabytes of data storage, transactions, auditing, all the core "stuff" that goes into a database engine. It's got triggers and constraints and UDFs. Ideally, it runs on Linux, and the server and processes that interact with the server (like Java, Python, etc. apps) reside on the same machine, though the apps can certainly buffer web access through their applications. There are ADO, ODBC and many other connectors.
There's a small, ragtag, fervent group of zealots (sound familiar <g>?) keeping the flame alive. There are some pretty impressive 3rd party tools. A guru named Helen Borrie wrote a 1000+ page book on it in 2004, and she released a 3-volume book sent on it last year. There's a conference, and there are newsletters.
So, is it a thing? Yeah, maybe.
I happened across it because a potential client has a Quickbooks inventory extension that uses that as the backend, and they have customized it. So, I'm poking at it. There are packages for Fedora, RedHat, CentOS and Ubuntu, and I've got "Hello, World!" running.
Ted, I'm sorry in advance if this is TMI, but you asked for it! :)
Here are couple of articles I wrote back in the day about my FireBird experience. Essentially, the project was to create a web-based front-end system to an existing back office system written in VFP6. Having a very short time frame to build the system, we opted to use Java for the web portion, FirebirdSQL for the database and then we built a synchronization process to push and pull data between the Foxpro native tables and the Firebird SQL. http://www.paultarver.com/my-first-firebirdsql-project/ http://www.paultarver.com/installing-firebirdsql/
I'm a BIG fan of the EMS SQL Manager for InterBase/Firebird! The free version will let you do everything you can do with a database except edit Blob datatypes. You also can only register about 5 databases within the free version, but if you are doing only a single project you can get started with the free version and purchase later if you need more functionality. I ended up purchasing the SQL version because I use that system more often. https://www.sqlmanager.net/products/ibfb/manager
Although it looks like the screenshots have been lost over time, I wrote an article on Foxite that described using EMS with FireBird SQL and there may be enough documentation to help: http://weblogs.foxite.com/paultarver/2007/09/13/visually-create-edit-amp-mai ntain-firebirdsql-databases/
While looking at my Foxite articles, I ran across a post about the FoxForward 2007 event I attended and I noted in the third paragraph some names of people who led sessions I attended. Perhaps our group will recognize some of these names! :) http://weblogs.foxite.com/paultarver/2007/09/10/lingering-after-effects-of-f oxforward-2007/
I highly recommend you purchase this book for reference purposes. I'm a fan of owning physical books, so the fact that it didn't come in a electronic format didn't bother me too much: https://www.amazon.com/Firebird-Book-Reference-Database-Developers/dp/159059 2794
I have successfully connected to Firebird 1.5 and 2.5 from VFP6 and VFP9 using the ODBC drivers available on the Firebird SQL website. http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/odbc-driver/
There is supposed to be an embedded version of Firebird that you can use for single user installations, but I honestly never got very far with it.
I used a freeware tool named "Firebird-InterBase Backup Scheduler (FIBS)" that allowed you to setup scheduled backups from Firebird to local paths or FTP destinations. The original website for the developer is gone, but you can download the tool here:
FIBS was originally available at talatdogan.com. Since it is GPL, they host a copy right here are FirebirdFAQ website. They have a binary for version 2.0.0, and the latest source package for version 2.0.2. FIBS is written in Delphi: http://www.firebirdfaq.org/files/fibs200setup.exe http://www.firebirdfaq.org/files/fibs-source.zip
You can also get a copy off my server: http://www.tpcqpc.com/downloads/tools/fibs200setup.exe
The other tool I remember using extensively was IB Log Manager. We included this tool to capture a log of all changes to the database by any user and it worked really well. This was not a freeware tool, but I think we bought a license for a single website for less than $100. They have other tools available as well. http://www.upscene.com/database_auditing/firebird_and_interbase/
Here's my experience in a nutshell:
The Firebird server is amazingly small, uses only a tiny amount of resources and yet is one of the fastest databases I have ever worked with. I haven't done much with Firebird since version 2.5 came out so I can't speak to whether it has changed significantly since then, but I their evolutionary progress has continued. I selected FirebirdSQL prior to going to the FoxForward event in 2007 but at that event I met a guy (I wish I could remember his name) from England who was using FirebirdSQL to capture PLC log data from a manufacturing production line and he told me he was running a Firebird database file excess of 600GB and it was running just as fast and as stable as it was on the first day. I would concur with his assessment because the system we built captures 200,000 to 300,000 records annually and it has never been touched and runs just as fast 10 years later as it did the day we installed it.
Anyway, the biggest downside I found with Firebird and perhaps even the only downside was that I was very much a newbie in terms of SQL databases in general when I worked with it and being open source I was wholly dependent upon a community that didn't have much experience with Foxpro or newbies and I think the learning curve was a bit higher because of it.
I have migrated to doing more these days with MySQL & SQL, but Firebird is still installed on my serve and I am probably going to revisit it again on some project, because it has two big things in common with Foxpro: It is screaming fast and will run on just about any computer or OS. Sadly, I think it gets overshadowed by the bigger players, ie: MySQL, SQL Server Express, PostgreSQL, etc. and I'm just as guilty of letting that happen as anyone.
Hope this helps!
Paul H. Tarver Email: paul@tpcqpc.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Ted Roche Sent: Friday, November 24, 2017 12:31 PM To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: [NF] Experience with Firebird (nee' Interbase), recommended tools?
*crickets*
On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Ted Roche tedroche@gmail.com wrote:
Anyone here have experience with Firebird, formerly the Borland Database Engine, later Interbase? (The engine's had a pretty complete rewrite since 2000, so recent experience is more helpful) I've been called on for a consult for a client using Firebird as a backend for a 3rd-party extension to Quickbooks and would appreciate:
- Recommendations for tools to work with it, 2. Cautions for things
to look out for (e.g., "Transactions are not what you think they are") 3. General comments and TGIF snarkiness.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(database_server) http://www.firebirdsql.org/ https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird
Happy weekend,
Ted
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
-- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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Eric Selje -
Paul H. Tarver -
Ted Roche