PureBasic Forums - English

I'm guessing to use this PB I'd have to include/install the FB ODBC driver along with my app. Or could I load the .DLL as a library in PB?

The list of FB database admin tools is fairly big. Which is the best?

Omnius wrote:I'm guessing to use this PB I'd have to include/install the FB ODBC driver along with my app. Or could I load the .DLL as a library in PB?

You're probably limited to ODBC until someone comes up with a PB wrapper for the FP DLL.

Colin

Omnius wrote:The list of FB database admin tools is fairly big. Which is the best?

From what I've seen the best is DataWorkshop from http://www.upscene.com albeit it's expensive. The best free admin tool I've found and the one I actually use is IBEasy from http://nte-socio.univ-lyon2.fr/Marc_Gra ... ger_en.htm

If you are after a book that youy can use as a reference manual I can thoroughly recommend The Firebird Book: A Reference for Database Developers by Helen Borrie, available via Amazon.

Colin

IBEasy won't start. I get a Windows error alert. The quickstart help in IBEasy only talk about installing the FB Server app then installing and running IBEasy and setting up the "first user". Does IBEasy work with the embeded FB?

Omnius wrote:IBEasy won't start. I get a Windows error alert. The quickstart help in IBEasy only talk about installing the FB Server app then installing and running IBEasy and setting up the "first user". Does IBEasy work with the embeded FB?

Ooops, sorry not sure, you'll probably need the FB server to use any of the FB admin programs. I do all my embedded development using the FB server and then use the embedded version to ship the product.

Colin

Ok that's cool. I'm looking at DBManager right now. If I can't make that work, I'll setup the FB Server and try IBEasy again.

Thanks for the help!

I've tried every variation of GUI checkbox/dropdown/etc setting in two different Firebird database admin tools (IBEasy and DBManager) and I just f'ing CAN'T create a bigint primary key field that autoincrements. Please help before I throw myself down the stairs.

A free easy to use Firebird tool that compares with IBEasy is a program called: IBOConsole

Available from: http://www.mengoni.it/downloads.html

--blueb

<RANT>
I'm having such a ridiculous hard time working with these FB admin tools. I've been using MSSQL and Enterprise manager for well over four years now and nothing was ever this difficult. The simplest tasks just not understandable. I've been wrestling with just the dumbest stuff for over three hours and it's just not working.

Eventually I learned that you CAN'T create autoincrement fields in FB. That's beatiful you have to go through this convoluted process of creating a "generator". I now fully understand why MSSQL Server is the king. It's intuitive and a thousand times easier than any other DBM.
</RANT>

Ok, now that said that with the expletives removed...

@Colboy
Why can't I click the "NULL not allowed" checkbox on the table edit window? I'm trying to create a primary key and disallow nulls and I can't do it.

If I can get past this stupid-silly-should-be-totally-obvious task of disallowing nulls in the PKey field, I'll then spend the rest of the day figuring how to create a "generator" to autoincrement the PKey.

I R E A L L Y appreciate your help

I'll keep posting here so you guys can enjoy my suffering as I learn Firebird/Interbase. Perhaps someone will find this post later and have an easier time than I am...

Ok, I figured out the "autoincrement" field crap. You have to create a "generator", then you have to create a trigger that uses the generator to update the key field. Craziness.

Now, if I can figure out (using IBEasy) how to set the primary key field to disallow nulls...

Aparently the two dbase admin tools I'm trying (DBManager and IBEasy) both create database with -forced- quoted identifiers. No way to turn this off. This means you MUST put dblquotes ( " ) around every table name and every fieldname. UNLESS, apparently, you create all your table names and all your fieldnames in uppercase. If they're in uppercase, apparently you don't have to use the dblquotes.

That drove me f'ing nuts for a good hour trying figure out why my tables and fields were not found...

Omnius wrote:Aparently the two dbase admin tools I'm trying (DBManager and IBEasy) both create database with -forced- quoted identifiers. No way to turn this off. This means you MUST put dblquotes ( " ) around every table name and every fieldname. UNLESS, apparently, you create all your table names and all your fieldnames in uppercase. If they're in uppercase, apparently you don't have to use the dblquotes.

That drove me f'ing nuts for a good hour trying figure out why my tables and fields were not found...

From what I've read

"In dialect 3 databases, Firebird supports the ANSI SQL conection for optionally delimiting identifiers. To use reserved words, diacritic characters, case-sensitive strings, or embedded spaced in an object name, enclose the name in double quotes. It is the a delimited identifier. Delimited identifiers must always be references in double quotes."

"If you define objects with double quotes, you must use them everywhere and everytime with double quotes and perfect case matching. Most experienced Firebird developers recommend avoiding them, except in occasional cases where you are stuck with using an "illegal" identifier. The choice is yours."

I hope this helps.

Omnius wrote:I'll keep posting here so you guys can enjoy my suffering as I learn Firebird/Interbase. Perhaps someone will find this post later and have an easier time than I am...

Ok, I figured out the "autoincrement" field crap. You have to create a "generator", then you have to create a trigger that uses the generator to update the key field. Craziness.

Now, if I can figure out (using IBEasy) how to set the primary key field to disallow nulls...

To be honest I never use auto incrementing fields. I prefer to manage the unique ID's myself, in a separate sysdata table.