IBReplicator Beta 2.0.0.10 has been released

IBReplicator Beta 2.0.0.10 has been released and is available for download.

Want your own Firebird T-Shirt or Polo Shirt?

Want your own Firebird T-Shirt or Polo Shirt to impress your friends and advertise your favourite open source database? Well now you can - the Firebird Project has just started to make available, official branded Firebird merchandise. To start with T-Shirts and Polo Shirts, other goodies to follow.

Delphi Renaissance

"The TIOBE Programming Community Index is reporting that Delphi is experiencing a revival, this coincides with Borland recently releasing Delphi 2005 allowing users to target both win32 and .net platforms, which to some, is a welcome alternative for .net developers reluctant to use Microsoft Visual Studio or the opensource alternative SharpDevelop."

http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/04/11/29/1424210.shtml?tid=156&tid=8

Firebird currently beats Ingres on performance

On the CA Ingres community page there is an interesting discussion thread:
http://opensource.ca.com/projects/ingres/forum/10/650886925835?b_start:int=0

Problems in Firebird 1.5.2 RC 3

Some minor new problems showed up in the Release Candidate 3 build. Release candidate 4 will follow shortly. Meanwhile, point release notes v.0152_08 are available online in English and for download in English and German.

Delphi 2005 update coming...

Just wanted to let you know that we do have an update underway that will improve memory usage among some other issues that have been raised post ship. Thank you for bringing some of these to our attention, your early feedback has been very helpful. We expect to have this update available after Thanksgiving, sometime in early December. Although there are some common issues raised here in these forums, the majority of early customer feedback has been that Delphi 2005 is a high quality Delphi release with an amazing feature set. With more features than we ever put in a single release, there will inevitably be some bugs that come up that we need to fix and we're focused on keeping Delphi 2005 quality level up to it's feature level - the highest ever :o)

Thanks again for your feedback and happy holidays,
Michael

Originally posted by Michael Swindell on Borland's newsgroups

IBReplicator Beta 2.0.0.9

IBReplicator Beta 2.0.0.9 is available for download.

Linux's future has many challenges

INTELLECTUAL property challenges, business perception of security vulnerabilities and the reliability of open-source software are likely to be Linux's main risks this decade. Read more at australianit.news.com.au »

Evans Data research survey of databases

Evans Data research survey of databases includes Firebird, for once. Firebird is listed under "What Open Source database are you using?" but appears not to rate with MySQL, MaxDB, PostgreSQL, Progress, et al., under these two: "Which of the following server database products do you work with?" and "Which database product do you use to do MOST of your programming?" Oh well.... Everyone who completes a survey is automatically entered into a draw to win $500.00 US.

They should be concerned about us...

MySQL to Oracle "They should be concerned about us" by Sylvia Carr on Silicon.com

SQLDirect Component Library V4.1.1

SQLDirect Component Library V4.1.1 is available. (SQLDirect is a light-weight BDE replacement for Borland Delphi V4 - 8 and C++Builder V4 - 6. It uses the native application programming interfaces to access to a number of database servers including InterBase and Firebird).

ZeosDBO 6.5.1 Alpha

Zeos Library, ZeosDBO 6.5.1 Alpha has been released.

Is Oracle A Legacy Technology?

Something to ponder: Is Oracle A Legacy Technology? On Mark Rittman's Oracle Weblog.

Firebird 1.5.2 RC3 is ready for testing

Release candidate 3 of Firebird 1.5.2 is now ready in the pre-release area for download and testing. Point release notes v.0152_07 are available online in English and for download in both English and German.

FlameRobin has Moved!

The FlameRobin project has now moved to its own home site on Sourceforge. All future releases will happen under the flamerobin SF project name. Those previously monitoring the package by way of the old fbmanager project will need to re-register your interest. The new Alpha 0.2 package is identical to the one released earlier in the week, so there is no need to download anything again.

Anyone subscribed to our current mailing lists should unsubscribe and re-subscribe to the new lists here.

InterBase Performance Monitoring: Vision and Control

In older versions of InterBase it was sometimes difficult to tell what was going on inside the server. This could make debugging applications very difficult. You could tell, for example, that there was a long-running transaction by looking at the DB header statistics, but you couldn't tell whose it was or what it was doing. Nor could the DBA preemptively end the transaction.

With InterBase 7 and higher, InterBase now provides insight into and control over the internal functions of the server via the temporary system tables. In some ways, InterBase developers and DBAs have a new problem: Instead of not enough information, we now have so much information and so many options for controlling the server that it's possible to get lost in the minutia of InterBase internals.

This session will focus on practical use of the feature. I'm not going to reproduce the InterBase documentation or explain every column of every table, but instead will focus on how to debug and enhance applications, and how to effectively administer an InterBase server.

Read more at: http://blogs.teamb.com/craigstuntz/articles/IBPerformanceMonitoring.aspx

Delphi 2005 Architect Trial available!!!

Borland posted trial version of Delphi 2005 Architect!!!
Let's go for it!

Fyracle 0.8.1 released!

This release fixes a number of issues:

- fixed install failure when the installer was located on
a different drive than the installation directory (Win)
- fixed install failure where fyracle.dll did not get
installed properly (Win)
- fixed install failure where the desktop icons did not
always properly launch their program
- fixed issue with the installer where post-install errors
caused the installer to abort
- removed the maximum statement length in the plsql
compiler
- fixed incorrect command line parameter handling in the
plsql compiler

Download from http://www.fyracle.org/downloads/

myTracker 1.06

myTracker updated!

MyTracker is tracking and collaboration system that allows users to collect, file, share, and discuss any type of information, whether it is news, a thought, bug, task, idea, document, graph and report. MyTracker is powerful, well-organized, efficient, fully customizable and easy to use.

MyTracker is designed to make massive amounts of information manageable. It flexible, giving users a powerful framework allowing them to focus on their own problem-solving decisions. It can arrange large groups of information in an enormous number of ways, but quickly find a single item within the groups. MyTracker supports custom form design, queries, reporting, charting, notification and export of data - in HTML, XML and XLS (Excel) formats.

MyTracker is released under GPL License.

History

---

1.06 released on 17.11.2004

improved: documentation reviewed and updated by Chris

new:New Template macro for formatting stylesheet (very hot)

new:3 new permissions (Login restricted, Restrict selection of other users, Restrict selection of other user groups user)

new: open issue attachments via click on Stylesheet

fixed: At opening the issue details dialog set the focus on first editable field on properties page

1.05 released on 13.11.2004

new:Client console remebers the last logged user ;-)

fixed:All user can delete issues references from the tray

fixed:Wrong issue history BUG:1064527

fxed:Delete custom issue field BUG:1064045

fixed:Remember last query works also for Tray and selects the correct node

1.04 released on 8.11.2004

fixed: SOAP server dlls contain the missed midas.dll

1.03 released on 4.11.2004

fixed: Empty tray in direct DB connection does not delete the issues but the item in tray

changed: Stylesheet Macro  sorts the rows by Change at field

new: Stylesheet Macro  sorts the rows by field (old functionality)

1.02 released on 28.10.2004

fixed: Date formating in regions with no dd.mm.yyyy format

1.0 First official release (14.10.2004)

Programming Language Popularity: UPDATE

http://www.developer.com/java/other/article.php/3433891

"In the newest poll, there are some interesting things happening in the top five. C dropped a little, but Java dropped a lot going from 17.050% in October to just 14.804% in November. C++ also dropped a little. Both Visual Basic and Perl increased in their percentages, but not enough to change positions. Also notable is Delphi/Kylix in seventh position. This is notable because Pascal has been separated from this category to stand on its own. Pascal still made 17th position. "

GExperts 1.21 Released!

GExperts 1.21 is now available for download for Delphi 5/6/7/8/2005 and C++Builder 6. This release fixes a few minor bugs reported against GExperts 1.2. Support for Delphi 2005 (Delphi 9) is included but largely untested. Please report any problems using the feedback wizard in the GExperts about box.

FIBPlus 6.0 fixes

If you cannot wait for the service pack, you can try these quick fixes:

1. A report "Can''t read Buffer.Incorrect RecordNo" appeared on adding a new record to the database. An exception arose on trying to refresh an empty dataset.

function TRecordsCache.OldBuffer(RecordNo:integer): PChar;

begin

if SaveChangeLog then

begin

 if RecordNo<=FRecordCount then

  ReadRecordBuffer(RecordNo,FOldBuffer,True)

 else

  ClearOldBuffer

end

else

begin

  if FOldBufRecordNumber<>RecordNo then

   if RecordNo<=FRecordCount then

    SaveOldBuffer(RecordNo)

   else

    ClearOldBuffer

end;

Result:=FOldBuffer

end;



procedure TRecordsCache.SaveOldBuffer(RecordNo: integer);

begin

if SaveChangeLog then

  SaveToChangeLog(RecordNo)

else

begin

 if RecordNo<=FRecordCount then

  ReadRecord(RecordNo,FOldBuffer)

 else

  ClearOldBuffer;

 FOldBufRecordNumber:=RecordNo;

end;

end;

2. Incorrect FullRefresh occurred with CacheModelKind=cmkLimitedBufferSize

unit FIBDataSet;



function TFIBCustomDataSet.RefreshAround(BaseQuery: TFIBQuery;var 

BaseRecNum:integer;

IgnoreEmptyBaseQuery:boolean = True;ReopenBaseQuery:boolean = True

):boolean;



procedure ExecCurSelect( aCurSelect:TFIBQuery; SourceObject:ISQLObject);

begin

    aCurSelect.Close;

    AssignSQLObjectParams(aCurSelect,[SourceObject]);

    aCurSelect.Params.AssignValues(FQSelect.Params);

    aCurSelect.ExecQuery;

end;



function FetchAround(aCurSelect:TFIBQuery; RecordsLimit:integer; 

Arrow:smallint;

  FromRecNum:integer =-1

):boolean;

var

  i:integer;

begin

    if FromRecNum=-1 then

     FCurrentRecord:=BaseRecNum

    else

     FCurrentRecord:=FromRecNum;

    i:=RecordsLimit;

    Result := False;

    while  (i>0) and (aCurSelect.Next<>nil)  do

    begin

      Result := True;

      Inc(FCurrentRecord,Arrow);

      FetchRecordToCache(aCurSelect, FCurrentRecord);

      if Arrow<0 then

      begin

       vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo:=FCurrentRecord;

       if vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo=-1 then

        vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo:=vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo

      end

      else

      begin

       vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo  :=FCurrentRecord;

       if vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo=-1 then

        vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo:=vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo;

      end;

      Dec(i);

    end;

    if aCurSelect.Eof then

     if Arrow<0 then

      vPartition^.IncludeBof:=True

     else

      vPartition^.IncludeEof:=True;

end;



var

   RecordSource  :ISQLObject;

   EmptyDataSet  :boolean;

   NotFetchedCount:integer;

begin

with BaseQuery do

begin

  if ReopenBaseQuery then

  begin

   Close;

   Params.AssignValues(FQSelect.Params);

   ExecQuery;

   Next;

   Result:=not Eof;

  end

  else

   Result :=RecordCount>0;



end;



EmptyDataSet :=True;



if Result or (not IgnoreEmptyBaseQuery) then

begin

    if BaseRecNum<(FCacheModelOptions.FBufferChunks div 2) then

     BaseRecNum:=FCacheModelOptions.FBufferChunks div 2;



    if Result then

    begin

      EmptyDataSet     :=False;

      FetchRecordToCache(BaseQuery, BaseRecNum);

      vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo:=BaseRecNum;

      vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo  :=BaseRecNum;

      RecordSource:=BaseQuery

    end

    else

    begin

     RecordSource:=Self;

    end;



    vPartition^.IncludeBof:=False;

    vPartition^.IncludeEof:=False;



    ExecCurSelect(FQSelectDescPart,RecordSource);

    ExecCurSelect(FQSelectPart,RecordSource);

    if not Result then

    begin

     vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo:=-1;

     vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo  :=-1;

    end;



    if FetchAround(FQSelectDescPart,FCacheModelOptions.FBufferChunks div 

2,-1) then

     EmptyDataSet:=False;



    if not Result then

     Dec(BaseRecNum);



    NotFetchedCount:=FCacheModelOptions.FBufferChunks-(vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo-vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo+2);

    if FetchAround(FQSelectPart,NotFetchedCount,1) then

     EmptyDataSet:=False;



    NotFetchedCount:=FCacheModelOptions.FBufferChunks-(vPartition^.EndPartRecordNo-vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo+2);

    if NotFetchedCount>0 then

     FetchAround(FQSelectDescPart,NotFetchedCount,-1,vPartition^.BeginPartRecordNo);



    FQSelectDescPart.Close;



    if  Result then

     FCurrentRecord:=BaseRecNum

    else

    if EmptyDataSet then

     FCurrentRecord:=-1

    else

     FCurrentRecord:=BaseRecNum+1;

    FQCurrentSelect:=FQSelectPart ;



    BaseQuery.Close;

end;

end;

3. Local sorting and the CloneCurRecord method did not work.

unit FIBDataSet;



procedure GetInspectRecBuffer;

var

  dsState:TDataSetState;

begin

   dsState:=State;

   Allocated:=

    (dsState<>dsCalcFields) and (Field.FieldKind in 

[fkLookUp,fkCalculated]);

   if Allocated then

   begin

    Buff :=AllocRecordBuffer;

    ReadRecordCache(vInspectRecno, Buff, State=dsOldValue);

    if (Field.FieldKind in [fkLookUp,fkCalculated])  then

    try

     SetTempState(dsCalcFields);

     CalculateFields(Buff);

    finally

     RestoreState(dsState);

    end

   end

   else

   begin

    Allocated:=(dsState in [dsOldValue,dsFilter]) or

     (vTypeDispositionField=dfRRecNumber);

    if Allocated then

    begin

     Buff :=AllocRecordBuffer;

     ReadRecordCache(vInspectRecno, Buff, State=dsOldValue)

    end

    else

     Buff:=GetActiveBuf;

   end;

end;

4. On saving a dataset to the repository the query dialog always opened with an empty string.

unit RegFIBPlusEditors;



procedure TFIBGenSQlEd.SaveDataSetInfo;

var

 vDescription:string;

begin

 with Component as TpFibDataSet do

   if DataSet_ID = 0 then ShowMessage(Name + SCompEditDataSet_ID)

   else

     if DataBase = nil then ShowMessage(SDataBaseNotAssigned)

     else

     begin

       if not ExistDRepositaryTable(TFIBDataset(Component).DataBase) then

       begin

         if

           MessageDlg(SCompEditInfoTableNotExist, mtConfirmation, [mbOK, mbCancel], 0

           ) <> mrOk

           then Exit;

         CreateDRepositaryTable(TFibDataSet(Component).DataBase);

       end;

       vDescription:=TpFibDataSet(Component).Description;

       if not InputQuery(SCompEditSaveDataSetProperty, SCompEditDataSetDesc, vDescription) then

        Exit;

       SaveFIBDataSetInfo(TpFibDataSet(Component),vDescription);

       TpFibDataSet(Component).Description:=vDescription;

     end;

end;

5. When creating the SQL statements at design time, FibPlus 6 invoked an error in the Refreh SQL Query.

unit fraDSSQLEdit;



procedure TfDSSQLEdit.cmbTablesChange(Sender: TObject);

begin

with cmbTables do

 if ItemIndex>-1 then

 begin

  FUpdTableSynonym:=

   FormatIdentifier(FDatabase.SQLDialect,AliasForTable(SelectSQLEdit.SQLText,cmbTables.Text))    +'.';

  if FUpdTableSynonym[1]='@' then FUpdTableSynonym:='';    

 end

 else

  FUpdTableSynonym:='';



 LstKeyFields.Clear;  LstUpdFields.Clear;

 btnGetFieldsClick(btnGetFields);  

end;

6. On trying to connect to the database in design-time FIBPlus used the client library gds32.dll, though the LibraryName property had fbclient.dll.

unit pFIBDBEdit;



procedure TDBEditForm.TestBClick(Sender: TObject);

var TempDB : TFIBDatabase;

begin

 TestB.Enabled := false;

 TempDB := TFIBDatabase.Create(nil);

 try

   if LocalC.Checked then

     TempDB.DBName := DBNameE.Text

   else

     case ProtocolC.ItemIndex of

       0: TempDB.DBName := Format('\\%s\%s', [ServerE.Text, DBNameE.Text]);

       1: TempDB.DBName := Format('%s@%s', [ServerE.Text, DBNameE.Text]);

       2: TempDB.DBName := Format('%s:%s', [ServerE.Text, DBNameE.Text]);

     end;

   TempDB.DBParams.Assign(ParamsM.Lines);

   TempDB.UseLoginPrompt := UseLoginC.Checked;

/////////////

   TempDB.LibraryName    := aDatabase.LibraryName;

////^^^^^^^^^ to add



   TempDB.SQLDialect :=  DialectC.ItemIndex + 1;

   TempDB.Connected := True;

   ShowMessage(SDBEditSuccessConnection);

 finally

   TempDB.Free;

   TestB.Enabled := true;

 end;

end;

6. If Select uses macro, refresh did not work.

function TFIBCustomDataSet.InternalRefreshRow(Qry: TFIBQuery; Buff:Pointer):boolean;

var

 iCurScreenState: Integer;

begin

 ChangeScreenCursor(iCurScreenState);

 Result:=False;

 try

   if Buff=nil then

    Exit;

   if not EmptyStrings(Qry.SQL)  and (Active) then

   begin

    if not FCachedUpdates and (CacheModelOptions.CacheModelKind=cmkStandard) then

     SaveOldBuffer(Buff);

    if  not (Qry.Open  or Qry.ProcExecuted) then

    begin

     SetQueryParams(Qry, Buff);

     PrepareQuery(skRefresh);

     if (poStartTransaction in Options) and

       not Qry.Transaction.InTransaction

     then

      Qry.Transaction.StartTransaction;

     Qry.ExecQuery;

    end;

    if Qry.Open then

     with PRecordData(Buff)^ do

     try

       if (Qry.SQLType = SQLExecProcedure) or  (Qry.Next <> nil) then

       begin

         FetchCurrentRecordToBuffer(Qry,PRecordData(Buff)^.rdRecordNumber,Buff);

         Result:=True;

       end

       else

       if poRefreshDeletedRecord in Options then

       begin

         if (CacheModelOptions.CacheModelKind=cmkStandard) then

         begin

          CacheDelete;

          DoAfterRefresh;

         end;

       end;

     finally

       Qry.Close;

     end;

   end

   else

   if RecordCount>0 then

     FIBError(feCannotRefresh, [CmpFullName(Self)]);

 finally

  RestoreScreenCursor(iCurScreenState);

 end;

end;

FYRACLE listed on GrokDoc

"Grokdoc is an offshoot of the well-known site Groklaw. Groklaw has the goal of covering legal news. Grokdoc is our newbie usability study, our attempt to help new users of GNU/Linux systems make the transition in a pleasant way, using the open method that proved so successful in developing FOSS software."

Fyracle and Firebird are listed on the "application crossover" page under the "Databases" heading:
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Application_Crossover_Chart

Does your company need an open source compliance program?

Companies across the board are utilizing open source at an unprecedented rate, sometimes without much internal visibility. Who in an organization keeps track of open source adoption, modification, implementation and terms of use? Without a formal compliance program, business enterprises put themselves at risk of unintended violation of open source licenses, inadvertent loss of their own intellectual property rights, and contravention of government regulations. Yet most companies today lack the policies, procedures, and trained personnel to minimize the legal and intellectual property risks of using open source.

Read more at IT Manager's Journal »

Is SuSE Ready for the Laptop? Review of SuSE 9.2 Pro

"Linux laptop support has been in my experience abysmal at best. Things that just work when running Windows XP are either horribly broken, or simply not implemented at all under Linux. Many Linux distributions have little or no real ACPI support. Imagine using your laptop without a battery meter, or any noticeable fan control whatsoever. Due to the lack of mature ACPI support in most modern distributions, I have had to deal with a very large amount of suffering."

Read more

Advanced Data Generator

Upscene Productions is happy to announce a new version of the database developer tool: "Advanced Data Generator." More info and a 30-day trial version on Upscene

IBEasy+ announced!

Marc Grange announced IBEasy+, Firebird/Interbase design and administration tool.

Firebird support in Neo 1.3.

Johannes Ahrer announced Firebird support in Neo 1.3. Neo (.Net Entity Objects) is an open source framework for .NET developers who want an object-based domain model.

Installing Firebird on FreeBSD

http://81.138.11.136:8080/tikifirebird/wiki/index.php?page=FirebirdOnFreeBSD

By far the easiest way to install Firebird is via a package, or the ports tree.
When people in the FreeBSD community get a package running on FreeBSD, they often submit how they did it as a 'port', back to FreeBSD.
( This saves you working out what configure scripts to change, which make to use (make, gmake, bmake, aimk, etc) )

So we'll follow the road they've already blazed. Of course, feel free to download the source tarball, and get it building yourself, but it could take a while...


If you can't find a pre-compiled binary package on FreeBSD.org, firebirdsql.org, or ibphoenix.com, sync up your ports tree.
(Building it yourself ensure's it's built using optimisations for the processor you're running, too)


once ports tree is updated, do:


code:

---

cd /usr/ports/databases/firebird
make install

---

Once this is finished, all dependencies are installed, the database is installed, the startup scripts are in place, the firebird user is added, and we're ready to go.

As the comment at the end of the install process suggests, we should change the password of the sysdba user, so lets do that now.

Starting Firebird
This involves running

code:

---

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/000.firebird.sh start
killall -HUP inetd

---

Or, simply reboot

Setting up Firebird's SYSDBA User

code:

---

cd /usr/local/firebird
./bin/gsec -user SYSDBA -pass masterkey
( the ./bin/ is required if you haven't got /usr/local/firebird/bin in your path )
GSEC> modify SYSDBA -pw

( We might add a user while we're here )
GSEC> add testuser -pw testuser

( Now quit out )
GSEC> quit

---

Done. Now we're ready for databases. the Firebird runs as the user firebird, thusly needs read/write permissions to a directory to store the databases.
I usually make one called '/usr/db':

code:

---

mkdir /usr/db
chown firebird /usr/db
chgrp firebird /usr/db
chown 770 /usr/db

---

There we have a nice, secure little home for our databases.
This directory isn't created by the install,as people will always want their databases stored in a different place, on a different HDD controller, etc.

Lets make a database

using your favourite editor, start a file in your home directory called 'fire1.sql', and in it, put the following:

code:

---

CREATE DATABASE "localhost:/usr/db/fire1.gdb".
COMMIT.

CREATE TABLE tbl_test1(
str_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
str_phone VARCHAR(20),
PRIMARY KEY(str_name)
).

---

Then save, and exit the file

Now, well create the database
( It may pay to put '/usr/local/firebird/bin' in your path, to save using the full path to the binaries every time )

code:

---

isql -u testuser -p testuser < fire1.sql

---

Logging in for the very first time
Lets log in, and have a look. Run:

isql -u testuser -p testuser localhost:/usr/db/fire1.gdb

Database: localhost:/usr/db/fire1.gdb, User: testuser
SQL>

You're in! Lets see what's inside:
( Note. Put a semi-colon at the end of every command. It's the terminator at the moment )


SQL> show tables;
TBL_TEST1
SQL>

Let see how that table's made up:
SQL> show table tbl_test1;
STR_NAME VARCHAR(200) Not Null
STR_PHONE VARCHAR(20) Nullable
CONSTRAINT INTEG_2:
Primary key (STR_NAME)
SQL >

Lovely! put some data in
SQL> insert into tbl_test1 (str_name, str_phone)
CON> values ('henry','12345678');
SQL>

( Note the 'CON>' appears while a statement is continuing )

Let's select everything in the table
SQL> select * from tbl_test1;
STR_NAME STR_PHONE
===== ===
henry 12345678

Lets put some more in
SQL> insert into tbl_test1 (str_name, str_phone)
CON> values ('jane','87654321');
SQL>

Select all
SQL> select * from tbl_test1;
STR_NAME STR_PHONE
==== ========
henry 12345678
jane 87654321

Select henry
select * from tbl_test1 where str_name = 'henry';

select people starting with 'h'
select * from tbl_test where str_name like 'h%';

select the first record
select first 1 * from tbl_test1;

select 1 record, but skip 1
select first 1 skip 1 * from tbl_test1;

select any records with the letter 'e' in them
select * from tbl_test1 where str_name containing 'e';

As you can see, the SQL is very similar to other databases.

Asterisk: The open source PBX replacement

Corporate voice communications have traditionally required expensive office exchange systems and service from big telephone companies. Today, however, organizations can use voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to provide internal voice communications, and continue to use a local telephone carrier for interfacing with the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Read more »

FlameRobin 0.2.0 just released !

We are glad to announce the release of FlameRobin 0.2.0 ALPHA, now with property sheets and editors for most database objects, brand new background backup & restore features and a MacOS X port. Not to mention the new program logo.
New features:
- Brand new Backup/Restore dialogs that work in background, let you suppress the output messages and store their settings among invocations. Plus, the output messages can be copied to the clipboard.
- Many dialogs have been redesigned and now feature a cleaner GUI.
- "Show value" and "Show all values" context menu commands implemented for generators.
- Exceptions are now shown in the tree view and have Create/Drop menu commands and a property page.
- Property pages for triggers, table constraints, dependencies (all objects), generators were added. Plus, a special empty property page now appears for not yet supported object types, instead of an error message.
- Ability to view/add/drop table constraints.
- Reconnect menu command for databases will physically disconnect and reconnect a database in one shot.
- "Create new" and "Drop" commands added for external functions.
- New MacOS X port.
Release notes here, download here. Please send us comments, bug reports, feature requests, wishes, etc.

Firebird Words Reference

Here you can find interesting list created by Lester Caine

http://81.138.11.136:8080/tikifirebird/wiki/index.php?page=FirebirdWordsReference

Delphi 2005 live audio chat

http://tinyurl.com/6wtx3

First Delphi 2005 live audio chat is with Danny Thorpe this Friday, Nov
19th at 10:00am PST, 1800GMT.

Devrace Releases FIBPlus 6.0

FIBPlus 6.0 - Database connectivity improvement tool for InterBase and Firebird developers

FIBPlus 6.0 is a library for Delphi, C++ Builder and Kylix developers who need fast direct access to InterBase and Firebird databases. FIBPlus is already familiar to most database professionals and this year the product got prestigious Best Database Connectivity Award from the Delphi Informant Magazine (Reader’s Choice). Improvements in this new version make FIBPlus 6.0 the fastest InterBase/Firebird database connectivity component available on the Internet.

The advantage of FIBPlus is that it supports all Borland InterBase and Firebird features like array-fields, convenient transaction handling, and is 100% compatible with third-party components and report generators. Most importantly, applications based on FIBPlus do not require BDE, ODBC or anything else.

This true direct database connectivity solution is capable of caching records in TpFIBDataSet, which reduces the amount of network traffic and speeds up data transfer time. Likewise, BLOB-fields can be cached as well, so when they are queried again, the values will be taken from the local cache rather from the server. Plus, the library employs a unique BLOB-field saving strategy. It splits all fields into BLOB-types and other types and saves other (common) types first. If it encounters a problem during this step, FIBPlus will not try saving BLOB-fields, thus reducing the amount of unnecessary network traffic.

FIBPlus was always easy to integrate with other visual applications and components, but now it provides extremely simple integration option for applications that have no GUI. This makes it possible to use FIBPlus for system-wide ‘non-user’ database applications. Finally IBX (InterBase Express) applications can be easily ported to FIBPlus to make sure it is 100% stable in new Firebird versions.

FIBPlus 6.0 is available at www.devrace.com for free evaluation. The price of registering this library is 235 Euros per license. Unlimited (site) license is available for 1250 Euros.

Devrace supplies components and expertise to developers who use Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, Borland InterBase and the Open Source Firebird. The FIBPlus component set has evolved through use and feedback from ourselves and a number of very experienced developers, making it a first class component set. The company is an official Borland Technology Partner since 2001.

System Requirements:
• IDE: Borland Delphi 5-7, C++ Builder 6-7, Kylix 3
• Database: Borland InterBase, Open Source Firebird

C# Compiler Warnings ;)

11. WARNING: You appear to be making too much money. The going rate in India for code of this quality is $4/hour.
10. WARNING: Microsoft is committed to turning C# into another C++. You appear to only be using about 25% of the features currently available in the language. Please consult an approriate guide on how to incorporate the other 75% into your application.
9. WARNING: The book sitting on your bookshelf titled "Teach Yourself C# in 21 Days" is obsolete. Microsoft Press will soon be publishing a replacement titled "Teach Yourself C# in 42 Days".
8. WARNING: Your project contains over 400,000 lines of code and does not contain any abstract classes or implement any interfaces. You may want to consult with the "Gang of Four" for assistance in refactoring your application.
7. WARNING: You have marked a UserControl with the abstract keyword. Any classes derived from this class will not be editable in the Forms Designer. We don't really know why.
6. WARNING: I am an IBM Vendor who is being detained against my will at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. I have managed to infiltrate the C# development team in order to add this compiler warning. Please contact the authorities immediately. I believe that they are on to me. Just this morning, the secretary noticed that all of the Snickers bars and barbeque potato chips were missing from the "honor bar".
5. WARNING: The new intern is not a woman. Please stop staring at his "man boobs" and referring to him as "she". His name is Dexter.
4. WARNING: You do not appear to have any experience in Object Oriented design. Please switch back to VB6 immediately.
3. WARNING: The conditional operator (cond-expr ? expr1 : expr2) is too complex to be understood by the average programmer. Use an (if-else) construct instead.
2. WARNING: Your program did not generate any warnings.
1. WARNING: You are spending too much time on the Internet. You should get back to work to avoid losing your job.

Build your own search engine with ht://Dig

Most Linux users know how easily they can run a Web server on their favorite distros. Unfortunately, serving pages is one thing -- finding them is another. That's when many users turn to ht://Dig.

Read more »

CrossKylix VisualCLX patch

CrossKylix VisualCLX patch is available for Download (http://unvclx.sourceforge.net/download.html)

ibWebAdmin 0.99.1 released - Version 1.0 soon

This release includes only small feature enhancements and bugfixes.
But it comes with a polish translation contributed by
Matthias Hryniszak and a first draft of a documentation which can be
found in the doc directory inside of the source tree.

Due to the fact that there are no known bugs for some time now I have
decided to change the development status from 'beta' to 'stable' with
this release. The version number will become 1.0 when the
documentation is finished.


Changes:
- added polish language file, contributed by Matthias Hryniszak
- fixed editing of data for values containing double quotes
- fixed trigger-source when modifying triggers
- fixed a bug for csv-import of text-blobs
- direct editing of textblobs when entering/editing data
- added a 'delete all' option to the delete udf selectlist
- fixed editing/deleting data from the watchtable panel when cookies
are disabled


More on the fbwebadmin page

Updated ODBC Snapshot

Updated ODBC Snapshot (Beta V1.03.00.0074) is available for download.

The .NET Entity Objects Framework

The .NET Entity Objects Framework :- NEO is a framework for .NET developers who want to write enterprise applications with an object-based domain model. Version 1.3.0 of the Neo framework provides support for Firebird.

"The Free Database Niche"

This article "The Free Database Niche" appeared in Computerwoche, a German weekly IT newspaper a few weeks ago. The article that was printed was originally in German, this is an English translation of the original article. Despite emails and even a letter responding to this article we have had no response from Computerwoche or Wolfgang Sommergut. So we decided to print the article on our web site along with our response so supporters of Open Source databases, and in particular Firebird can see what we had to say in our defence.

FireFoot - alternative to the current Firebird API

New component library has been added to the contributed downloads section. FireFoot created as an alternative to the current Firebird API. It has been made using C and the GLib object model.

A new search engine for open source developers

Firebird is on http://www.koders.com. A new search engine for open source developers looking for code snippets, examples etc.

FireFox 1.0 Final

The wait is over. Firefox 1.0 empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. Join more than 8 million others and make the switch today — Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose.

Novell Launches an Enterprise Linux Desktop

Novell is announcing a new Linux desktop today, called "Novell Linux Desktop 9: Powered by SUSE Linux." More info at Newsforge and News.com.

Mantis 0.19.1 Released

This release is more than a minor release. It has more than one hundred features and bug fixes. The features include: relationship graphs, a report that summarizes the the access rights needed for the different actions, and many others. For more details checkout the change log at:

http://bugs.mantisbt.org/changelog_page.php?project_id=1

The Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.7 Beta 1

The Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.7 Beta 1 is available for download.


Download information can be found here:

http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files&id=netprovider


Beta 1 ( 2004-11-05 )
---- - - ---- -- -- -

( Please, see the changelog for details )


* Bug fixes:

- Fixed Event Parameter buffer handling.

- Fixed plan retrieval using the connection character set.

- Fixed Globalization issues.

- Documentation fixes.

- Minor fix in the FbCommandBuilder class on quotes usage.

- Fixed Input parameter describe when the Prepare method
is called before the FbCommand instance has parameters assigned.

- Fixed Role usage in Connection Strings.

* Added new "Isolation Level" parameter for the connection string,
that allows to set the default IsolationLevel for implicit transactions.

* Improve handling of parameters when they have null values (embedded
server support only.)


* Added changes to try to handle arrays defined with lowerbound 0 correctly.



NOTE: The design time support included in this release for the
FbDataAdapter class is not complete, please, do not use it until it get
finished in future releases.




CVS Tag: NP_1_7_Beta1

IBEasy+ V1.2.2

IBEasy+ V1.2.2 is available for download. IBEasy+ is a freeware Firebird/InterBase database design and administration tool.

Mono 1.0.4 Released

Novell released Mono 1.0.4 recently, along with testing version 1.1.2.

XPde Tools - Your Way To Linux

Oct 31th, 2004: A New Components link TFreeTimer - a Qt-free timer for Kylix.

Oct 31th, 2004: A New Components link TAALabel - an anti-aliased label using Xft.

TIOBE Programming Community Index for November 2004

http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index/index.htm

November Headline: SAP/ABAP programmers still in great demand

November's Newsflash

brought to you by Paul Jansen

• Pascal has been introduced as a separate entry this month. Until now Pascal has been part of the Delphi/Kylix group of programming languages. Various e-mails concerning Pascal initiated this change. The general motivation was most of the times something like "if VB.NET and classic Visual Basic are considered separate languages, Pascal and Delphi should be regarded as different languages as well". Since there is no historical data available for Pascal, its one years' difference had to be estimated. For this we took the average of two other dinosaurs: COBOL and Fortran. Within one year we can use Pascal's own historical data.
  
  
• Because I was really surprised about the revival of Delphi, I asked Delphi expert Bob Swart (http://www.drbob42.com ) why. According to him this is mainly because Delphi allows you to program single-source for both win32 and .NET by using VCL, just like CLX enables single-source Delphi development for both Windows and Linux.
  
  
• Finally, FYI. We started monitoring the programming languages Rebol, Clarion and Simula (again) and stopped keeping track of the Cg and Curl programming languages.
  

kbmMW v. 2.03 Free edition

kbmMW v. 2.03 Free edition and kbmMemTable v5 is on the Delphi 2005 Companion CD!

IBReplicator V2.0.0.8 (Beta)

IBReplicator V2.0.0.8 (Beta) is available for download.

IBReplicator Features

Database replication synchronizes data when and where you want it! A tailored solution Fast, small and inexpensive Advanced datatypes Event-alerters Two-phase commits Internationalisation Ease of use Point-and-click configuration tool Minimal configuration Performance monitor Powerful replication strategies Multiple sources and targets Flexible replication timing N-way replication Conflict resolution Remote replication Operation logging Sophisticated database operations Optimizations Multi-segment primary keys Complete transactions A tailored solution IBReplicator uses Firebird's/InterBase's own native API for all replication, so there is no reliance on middleware and drivers. IBReplicator is, therefore: Fast: Replication occurs directly between servers: there are no intervening layers of processing from database engines or drivers, for example. Our tests indicate that actual replication speeds range from five operations per second over a 28.8 dial-up connection to 200 operations per second between two 200Mhz Pentium machines on a 10BaseT network, where an "operation" is an insert, update or delete. Small: IBReplicator consists only of the necessary code; there is none of the overhead associated with any form of middleware. Inexpensive: IBReplicator does not rely on any other software, so we pay no royalties, which means a cheaper product for you. Furthermore, IBReplicator can take advantage of Firebirds/InterBase's advanced, non-standard features: Advanced datatypes: IBReplicator can replicate data of all types, including BLObs and arrays. Event-alerters: Replication can occur in response to database events. Two-phase commits: IBReplicator uses InterBase's two-phase commit to ensure that source and target databases are always synchronized. Internationalisation: International character sets are supported. Ease of use A replication tool is, by it's nature, a complex piece of software, especially if it is a highly configurable one, like IBReplicator. Nonetheless, careful design has ensured that our replication server is exceptionally easy to install and use: Point-and-click configuration: This tool allows you to select which tables and fields are to be replicated, and to view and edit optional settings; it also generates the required triggers on the source database for you. Minimal configuration: Target databases need no configuration at all. Performance monitor: This tool provides a real-time graph showing how replications are going. Powerful replication strategies Just how data should be replicated depends on the what you're trying to do, so our replication server offers you great flexibility as you configure your replications: Multiple source and target databases: IBReplicator allows you to publish the data in many databases, and to subscribe many databases to each of them. Flexible replication timing: Replication can occur either synchronously or asynchronously, i.e. on request, at timed intervals, or in response to database events. N-way replication: Each target database can also be a source database in its turn, with replication being controlled by different instances of the replication server, or even by the same one. Conflict resolution: IBReplicator provides three ways to handle cases where replicated data conflicts with extant data in the target database: Priority-based Databases can be given priorities, and the database with the higher priority takes precedence. Time-stamped Either the earliest or the latest change takes effect. Master/slave The source database always takes precedence. Remote replication Our replication engine doesn't have to be running on either the source or the target database server for replication to occur; it can be running on any machine on your network or intranet. Operation logging IBReplicator can record its transactions in a log which can be either a window onscreen or a disk file. Sophisticated database operations IBReplicator uses a variety of techniques to get the most out of an Firebird/InterBase server, and to give you all the flexibility you need to configure a replication that fits your needs: Optimizations: Only transactions that must be replicated are, in fact, replicated. For example, if an insert is immediately followed by an update of the same row, then only the insert is replicated, but with the more recent data. Multi-segment primary keys: IBReplicator recognizes primary keys made up of multiple columns, and allows each column to be of any InterBase datatype. Complete transactions: Only committed transactions are replicated (and the replication server may bundle multiple transactions into super-transactions for reasons of efficiency).

Firebird 1.5.2 Release Candidate 1 is available for download and testing.

Firebird 1.5.2 Release Candidate 1 is available for download and testing.
Note this is a "Release Candidate", not an official release. We would
like people to help test this before official release. Any comments
issues, problems etc should be reported to the Firebird Development
list.

Builds can be downloaded from:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/download/prerelease/

Windows, Linux, Linux NPTL and 64 bit Linux versions are all available
under the appropriate subdirectories at the above url.

Details on what bugs have been fixed in this release, can be found in the
release notes at:

http://firebird.sourceforge.net/index.php?op=devel&sub=engine&id=rnotes0152_05&nosb=1

This release includes a fix for the following known problem with events.
Those of you who have experienced this bug should please test 1.5.2 and
make sure that the problem has been resolved.

"An old legacy bug that has continued to bug us is that, when a client had some
events registered and its network connection had been terminated abnormally
(hardware failure, reset button or task manager), then the server would start
using 100% of the CPU time until the "parent" port (client connection which
called isc_que_events() API routine) reported on its failure.

This bug affected all FB versions (more or less, depending on the
DummyPacketInterval configuration option) and only TCP/IP connections.

Solution
Further work has been done to rectify the problem in v.1.5.2. It now appears to be solved."

I would like to thank all of those who worked on the release for their efforts.

Regards
Firebird Release Team.