#Firebird.Embedded

Ez-pz embedding of the fantastic Firebird SQL RDBMS database.

Simply reference Firebird.Embedded in nuget and you're good to go, the required Firebird libraries and files will automatically be copied to your output directory on build.

##Getting Started

To start an embedded instance create a connection string like so:

var connectionString = new FbConnectionStringBuilder
{
    Database = @"C:\Example\Path\To\File.fdb",
    ServerType = FbServerType.Embedded,
    UserID = ...,
    Password = ...
}.ToString();

Create the database:

new FbConnection.CreateDatabase(connectionString, false);

Connect to the database:

new FbConnection(connectionString);

You might want tables also, here's how to do it:

using (var connection = new FbConnection(connectionString))
using (var command = new FbCommand(
    @"
    EXECUTE BLOCK AS BEGIN

    IF (NOT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM rdb$relations WHERE rdb$relation_name = 'EXAMPLE_TABLE')) THEN 
        execute statement 'create table example_table (
            id int not null primary key,
            ...
        );';

    END",
    connection))
{

    if (connection.State == ConnectionState.Closed)
        connection.Open();

    command.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

Creating the Database

The value for the Database option can also be a relative path, but it is relative to the user directory of the user running the application, and not relative to the directory in which the executing process resides (as might be expected), so if you run the application under the Local System account and supply a relative path, the database will get created in the C:\Windows\System32\ directory -- probably not what we want!

To create the database relative to the directory of the executing process do the following:

var currentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName);

var connectionString = new FbConnectionStringBuilder
{
    Database = Path.Combine(currentDirectory, "File.fdb"),
    ServerType = FbServerType.Embedded,
    UserID = ...,
    Password = ...
}.ToString();

To create it relative to the project you will want to do this instead:

var currentDirectory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

DllNotFoundException

Certain applications will not know to look for Firebird's DLLs in the output directory.

To get around this, add an environment variable on application startup using the following code:

var assemblyPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Uri.UnescapeDataString(new UriBuilder(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).Path));
var path = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Path");

if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(assemblyPath) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(path) && !path.Contains(assemblyPath))
    Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", assemblyPath + ";" + path);

ASP.Net Core

ASP.Net does not respect nuget package build targets so you have to copy the files manually.

In your project.json add the following:

{
    "scripts": {
        "postcompile": ["robocopy /E %USERPROFILE%\\.nuget\\packages\\Firebird.Embedded.3.0.0.32485\\build\\x64\\ %compile:RuntimeOutputDir%\\"]
    }
}

Note that if you're not building for the x64 architecture you have to change it to build for the x86 architecture:

robocopy /E %USERPROFILE%\\.nuget\\packages\\Firebird.Embedded.3.0.0.32485\\build\\x86\\ %compile:RuntimeOutputDir%\\

If you are referencing Firebird.Embedded in another, non .xproj project and not the .xproj project itself then you want the following path instead:

robocopy /E ..\\packages\\Firebird.Embedded.3.0.0.32485\\build\\x64\\ %compile:RuntimeOutputDir%\\

More Information

http://firebirdsql.org/en/net-examples-of-use/

Don't be frightened by the hideous website, its actually a great database!