Embedded Firebird Server in VB6

Embedded Firebird Server in VB6

Hi Young Hern,

To use embedded Firebird Server in VB6 at first you need to download the Embedded server kit from SourceForge. It's naturally called Firebird-n.n.n.xxxx_embed_win32.zip, with n.n.n.xxxx the Firebird version & build number.

After unzipping, you'll find the embedded server “fbembed.dll” in the origin directory of the package, along with some other files. As well, there are three subdirectories “doc”, “intl” and “udf”.

To create your application work with the embedded server follow these steps”

1. Copy “fbembed.dll” into your program directory. Rename it to “fbclient.dll” or “gds32.dll”, depending on what your program expects as a Firebird client file-name. Numerous applications still look for “gds32.dll”. Firebird command-line tools like “isql” and “gbak” – which you may also run against the embedded server – need “fbclient.dll”. You can also create copies with both names.

2. Also copy “firebird.msg” & “ib_util.dll” to your application directory. Copy “aliases.conf” if your program uses aliases to join. The configuration file “firebird.conf” is single required if you need to change the Firebird root directory.

3. For Firebird 2 or higher, copy the “icu*.dll” libraries too.

4. From the “intl” & “udf” directories, copy whatsoever your application or databases might need to same-named folders under your program directory.

5. Now if you run your program it will utilize the embedded server DLL to join to any local database you wish, provided that the Windows user who runs the application has enough access rights to the database file(s) in question! Any combination of worker name & password is accepted, as long as neither is an empty string (a space is “OK” however).

The most significant advantage of all this is that you can easily pack the Firebird Embedded files with your application & have them connected or unzipped at your users' PC’s without having to execute a separate Firebird install there.