Firebird

Mono versions up to Mono 2.6 shipped a provider for the Firebird database. As of Mono 2.8, this provider is no longer distributed by Mono since the code in Mono’s source tree was never updated by the Firebird maintainers.

Recent versions of Firebird bundle an up-to-date version of the database provider, and we strongly recommend developers to use that provider instead of using the bundled provider, even on versions 2.4 and 2.6 of Mono.

Info

• Fully Managed ADO.NET Data Provider for Firebird database

• The Firebird Relational Database is is an independent project which uses source code based on the Interbase source code released by Borland under the Interbase Public License

• Both the Firebird Relational Database and the Firebird .NET Data Provider can be downloaded from here

• Does not require an unmanaged client library to use.

Support

• You can get support from the mailing list firebird-net-provider. Please use this list for any questions that you may have about the provider

Using

Prerequisites

• Need a working mono and mcs

• Need access to a Firebird Relational Database or you can download it from here

• Get the Firebird .NET data provider from here as firebird-net-provider. Make sure the Firebird .NET data provider binary assembly FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird.dll is installed in the same place as the mono class libraries.

• Connection String format:

Database=databasefile.gdb;User=user;Password=pass;Dialect=3;Server=hostname

• Connection String Parameters:

Parameter Definition	Description	Example
Server	hostname or network address of the Firebird SQL server	Server=localhost
Database	name of Firebird database file in which to connect	Database=C:\PROGRAM FILES\FIREBIRD\EXAMPLES\EMPLOYEE.GDB;
User	name of Firebird database user	User=SYSDBA
Password	password for Firebird database user	Password=masterkey
Dialect	Not sure. See Firebird net provider docs.	Dialect=3

C# Example

using System;
using System.Data;
using FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird;
 
public class Test {
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        string connectionString =
            "Database=C:\\PROGRAM FILES\\FIREBIRD\\EXAMPLES\\EMPLOYEE.GDB;" +
            "User=SYSDBA;" + "Password=masterkey;" +
            "Dialect=3;" + "Server=localhost";
 
        IDbConnection dbcon = new FbConnection(connectionString);
        dbcon.Open();
        IDbCommand dbcmd = dbcon.CreateCommand();
        string sql = "SELECT * FROM employee";
        dbcmd.CommandText = sql;
        IDataReader reader = dbcmd.ExecuteReader();
        while(reader.Read()) {
            object dataValue = reader.GetValue(0);
            string sValue = dataValue.ToString();
            Console.WriteLine("Value: " + sValue);
        }
 
        // clean up
        reader.Close();
        reader = null;
        dbcmd.Dispose();
        dbcmd = null;
        dbcon.Close();
        dbcon = null;
    }
}

• Building C# Example:

• Save the example to a file, such as, TestExample.cs

• Build using Mono C# compiler:

mcs TestExample.cs -r System.Data.dll -r FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird.dll

• Running the Example:

mono TestExample.exe