Firebird Development: .NET Providers

The embedded server documentation states that the fbembded.dll should be renamed to fbclient.dll or gds32.dll, that is not needed in the .NET provider (as mentioned before unless the provider wasn't build with the default defines).

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6. Does the provider use gds32.dll/fbclient.dll ?

No, you don't need to install the Firebird client to work with the .NET provider.

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7. Can the provider work with Delphi 8 for .NET ?

Yes, but no with the Borland Data Provider, for that you will need to use the Borland Data Provider for Firebird.

You need to add a reference to the provider assembly in your project and you can add the provider components to the Delphi 8 Toolbox.

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8. Can the provider work with Visual Studio .NET ?

Yes.

You need to add a reference to the provider assembly in your project and you can add the provider components to the Visual Studio .NET Toolbox.

See this for a detailed explain

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9. Can i generate type datasets at design time using the FbDataAdapter component ?

No, design time support is limited to the FbConnection and FbCommand components.

You can generate typed datasets by code using the TypedDataSetGenerator .NET class.

FbConnection connection = new FbConnection(connectionString);

DataSet employees = new DataSet("Employees");
FbCommand command = new FbCommand("select * from employee", connection);
FbDataAdapter adapter = new FbDataAdapter(command);
adapter.MissingSchemaAction = MissingSchemaAction.AddWithKey;

adapter.Fill(employees, "Employees");

// Generate the employee TypedDataSet
string fileName = @"d:\employee.cs";

StreamWriter tw = new StreamWriter(new FileStream(fileName,
	FileMode.Create,
	FileAccess.Write));

CodeNamespace      cn = new CodeNamespace("employees");
CSharpCodeProvider cs = new CSharpCodeProvider();

System.Data.Design.TypedDataSetGenerator.Generate(dataSet, codeNamespace, csharpCodeProvider);

cg.GenerateCodeFromNamespace(cn, tw, null);

tw.Flush();
tw.Close();

employees.WriteXmlSchema(@"d:\employee.xsd");

connection.Close();

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10. Why FbDataReader.HasRows returns always true ?

The FbDataReader.HasRows property is implemented for compatibility only. It returns always true because Firebird doesn't have a way for know if a query returns rows of not without fetching the data.

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11. Are weekly builds available ?

Yes, you can find them here.

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12. What ASP.NET providers are available to be used with the Firebird provider ?

Available providers can be found in the FirebirdSql.Web.Providers assembly are:

Membership Provider
Profile Provider
Role Provider
Session State Store Provider

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13. Can the provider be integrated inside Visual Studio 2005 ?

Yes, using the Data Designer Extensibility ( DDEX ) provider.

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