Tag Archives: InterBase

General, InterBase, Intermediate

InterBase Array Fields and FireDAC

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InterBase Array Field

The IoT Award Winning database InterBase, has for a long time supported the ability to store data in an array field type. This was originally introduced as a new field type to reduce API calls and speed up data write time for a specific Boeing project many years ago. Writing each value into an array can also simplified the data model as well as benefiting database performance.

While array field in InterBase have been around for a long time, they have not aways been that easy to access from the components layer reducing their adoption.

With the growth of IoT, and the ability to store multiple data points per record becoming much more common place today, the ability to work with data in the InterBase array field type using FireDAC components has been added to 10.1 Berlin.

Explore the sample in depth, and get the link the sample below. Continue reading InterBase Array Fields and FireDAC →

Beginner, InterBase

InterBase Journaling – InterBase Labs

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InterBase Journaling

We (geeks) should all know that applications that run in memory run faster than those that have regular disk I/O.

Having more of the data processing in memory has a positive effect on speed and performance,  however its not without risk. As memory is transient, you are always at risk of data loss if the data in memory hasn’t been saved to disk (which is where you get the disk i/o speed degradation again.

InterBase brings together the speed of in memory data processing with the security of immediate disk I/O with InterBase Journaling. The write ahead logging enables InterBase to securely log the write transactions to the journal making the best of both worlds possible.

Using Journaling – the basics

Continue reading InterBase Journaling – InterBase Labs →

General, InterBase

Connecting to InterBase from Visual Studio

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I was recently asked how to connect to InterBase from Visual Studio, and while its not something I have done before, luckily I know a man who has. – Thanks to Gabe Goldfield for checking the example below with InterBase XE7 and Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate.

Connecting to InterBase from Visual Studio

InterBase currently supports an ADO.Net driver that works with InterBase XE, XE3 and XE7 providing both 32bit and 64bit support. Full details here.

Prerequisites

  • You will need to have .Net 2.0 SDK with update.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or above.
  • InterBase XE or above.

Installation Instructions

Usage Instructions

  • Start Visual Studio 2005/2008
  • File new C# Windows application
  • Project – Add Reference and add the AdoDbxClient.dll, DbxCommonDriver, DBXInterBaseDriver to your project.
  • Add a DataGridView component to your Windows Form
  • The sample code below fills a DataGridView component with the contents of the employee table of the employee.gdb sample InterBase database:

Code Example

>>>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Borland.Data;
using Borland.Data.Units;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.Common;
namespace IBXEApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            ReadData(getConnection());
        }
        public DbConnection getConnection()
        {
           // DbProviderFactory factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory
             //            ("Borland.Data.AdoDbxClient");
            DbConnection c = new TAdoDbxInterBaseConnection();
            //DbConnection c = factory.CreateConnection();
            c.ConnectionString = "Database=C:\\Embarcadero\\InterBase\\examples\\database\\employee.gdb;User_Name=sysdba;Password=masterkey";
            return c;
        }
        public void ReadData(DbConnection conn)
        {
            string sql = "select * from employee";
            DbCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand();
            cmd.CommandText = sql;
            conn.Open();
            DbDataReader myreader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
            dataGridView1.DataSource = myreader;
            DataSet ds = new DataSet();
            DataTable dt = new DataTable("employee");
            ds.Tables.Add(dt);
            ds.Load(myreader, LoadOption.PreserveChanges, ds.Tables[0]);
            dataGridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables[0];
            myreader.Close();
        }
        private void dataGridView1_CellContentClick(object sender, DataGridViewCellEventArgs e)
        {

        }
   }
}
<<<
General, InterBase

InterBase XE7 – First Look Events!!

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InterBase XE7 First look live and online!

Starting with the InterBase Product Address at CodeRage 9 news about the new edition of InterBase has been slowly spreading.

InterBase project DeltaForce, named due to its new patent pending technology for tracking and querying of deltas, is a highly scalable, low footprint answer to a number of distributed data set questions.

I’m really excited about what we have coming up in the InterBase XE7 preview events.  I will be hitting the road over the coming weeks in person to present and talk to developers, system architects etc about what InterBase DeltaForce (XE7) can help you achieve and how it can dramatically assist you throughout the product life cycle.

InterBase XE7 First Look – LIVE!

I will be in the following cities over the next few weeks for live preview workshops

InterBase XE7 First Look – Webinar

If your unable to attend one of the live events, then a global live webinar, repeated in 3 time zones, will be going out Thursday 4th December.InterBase XE7 First Look

  • 6AM San Francisco / 9AM New York / 2PM London
  • 11AM San Francisco / 2PM New York / 7PM London

5PM San Francisco / 5-Dec 10AM Tokyo / 5-Dec 12PM Sydney
http://embt.co/IBXE7FirstLook

Can’t wait?

If you are a current InterBase customer, then we still have space on the beta for those of you who really can’t wait. Register now and get priority access to explore InterBase DeltaForce now!

To keep up on on the latest, please follow @InterBase on twitter.

Beginner, C++, InterBase, Objective Pascal

IBLite example from CodeRage 9

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The Object Pascal programming source code for the IBLite example from CodeRage 9 that I demo’ed is now available from Embarcadero’s Code Central http://cc.embarcadero.com/item/30035

The C++ programming version demo’ed requires the data module from the Object Pascal code, so once I’ve cleaned that up I’ll post that as well.

The IBLite example code works on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android.  The session replays are available online via the CodeRage website. – More on the InterBase sessions in my previous post

 

C++, General, InterBase, Objective Pascal

InterBase CodeRage 28th-30th November

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CodeRage 9Register NOW and join me live at #CodeRage!

CodeRage is a fantastic Object Pascal programming and C++ Programming event – highly recommended for any developer, and best of all – REGISTRATION IS FREE!!

Missed it or got a meeting? – Don’t worry, register and you can still get to see the replays!

My two InterBase CodeRage Sessions!

I will be presenting two InterBase CodeRage sessions on Thursday 30th November 2014

  • the InterBase Keynote (8am Pacific / 4pm UK / 5pm CET) where we will be revealing some of the exciting new developments we are working on with InterBase with project DeltaForce!
  • I will also be talking about InterBase’s free edition that can be used on Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS – IBLite in the session Embedding local and remote data access into your applications with IBLite (3pm – C++ & 6pm – Object Pascal)

For times and details of all sessions visit the CodeRage website – See you there!!

 

Beginner, General, IDE

Debugging to PA Server on Windows

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PA Server – What and why?

When developing software for multiple platforms you often need to debug and run applications on machine and devices that are not your development PC. The RAD Studio and Appmethod approach to this is an ingenious little program that acts as a go-between from the IDE to the remote device / machine. Called PAServer (PA = Platform Assistant) allows the IDE to retrieve the full call stack at run time, pause code with break points, inspect values etc, exactly as you would do debugging a local application.

PA Server is often used on a Mac OS X target for running and debugging applications to Mac OS X, iOS Simulator and iOS Devices, however there is also a windows version of PAServer and this can also be used to simplify preparing for deployment.

PA Server runs over TCP/IP and while developers often use it for local network work, in theory there is no reason why you can not use it to remote debug that trouble some customer where you can’t quite recreate what they are doing. (as long as they are happy for you to install the PA Server client on their machine).

PA Server is also great for deploying files directly to a remote machine when used with the Deployment Options for the project. This ensures that all the files specified are pushed remotely. This is great for updating a remote server or internal build machines.

Installation of PAServer

PA Server needs to be installed on the machine you want to run applications on remotely The install files both Windows and Mac OS X are located in the PAServer folder under your Appmethod / RAD Studio / Delphi / C++ Builder installation. e.g. with RAD Studio XE7 they are located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\15.0\PAServer.

Both installers (Windows / Mac OS X) just require you to push the next button a few times to install the server.

Running PA Server remotely…

PA Server is ultimately a Console application that you launch, enter a session password (that remote developers will need to connect to the session) and leave running without having to go back to it, but this is how to launch it on each platform.

..on MAC OS X

To launch PAServer on a Mac you have two choices.

  1. Go to “Applications” and choose PAServer 15.0 (for XE7)
  2. Use the new GUI in LaunchPad called PAServer Manager PAServer Manager Icon

If you use PAServer Manager you will see the icon appear at the top of your screen in the menu bar. Clicking on this allows you to “Add Server” (I just call it MyMac by default) and then start and stop the services as well as other useful things like viewing the information (such as IP Address etc).  A lot easier than remembering command codes.

PA Server Manager

PA Server Manager is also useful for managing groups of developers who want to run multiple instances of PA Server on the same machine when developing.

..On Windows

To launch PA Server on windows once installed, you need to browse to the PAServer folder (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\PAServer\15.0) and double click on the PAServer application.

PAServer on Windows Running
PAServer running on Windows

 Connecting to PAServer running on a Windows machine from the IDE

With PA Server installed, opened and a password set for the session, it is possible to make the remote connection (or even a loopback for a more advanced local test). To achieve this we need to configure a profile for connecting to the remote PAServer instance. – this is really quick to do.

Firstly select the desired compilation target of Win32 or Win64  in the Project Manager, and then right click and choose properties.  The platform properties window is then opened allowing you to choose a profile for the target.

Platform Properties

By default you will need to choose “Add New…” under platforms the first time you run this step, subsequently you will already have the profile saved.

 

Following the wizard for Add New, you can enter a name (e.g. MyPC) and then the IP address (port 64211 should be default unless you have changed it during install). Once you have the IPAddress or pc name entered you can “Test Connection” to verify that the path is working correctly.

Platform Properties Wizard 2

If this fails then check you IP Address is correct – if unsure type “i” into the PAServer console and hit enter to get a list of the listening IPAddresses and check your firewall.

Once you have selected the Platform Profile and its tested, all you need to do is hit run just like before.  Rather than deploying to your project directory, deploying to PA Server sends out all the files into a the PAServer scratch directory (under Documents\PAServer) e.g. C:\Users\Steve\Documents\PAServer\15.0\scratch-dir\

Tip for making things simple?

If you have selected any feature files or added your own files under Deployment Options when developing your applications, e.g. enabling InterBase, IBLite or DBExpress etc. These files will be packaged up for you when running out to PAServer giving you a complete folder structure with files ready for packaging. This also makes testing locally a lot lot simpler 🙂

Getting back to normal

Once you are done testing against a remote profile you can easily return to running locally by right clicking on the target and choosing to Revert to Default Connection.

Revert to default connection