Changinf Datbase from BDE to Firebird

I have a current application wich uses the BDE as its database engine. My current +-13 tables database has in one table alone 300 000 records and in total has +- 100 MB size. Now the speed of my BDE is not sufficient for my database. Yes it is normalized.
Therefore I want to move away from the BDE to an alternate database. So I decided on Firebird as it is small , faster than BDE , has tons of features and has the necessary license to distribute it with my application on CD without raising costs astronomically.


Q.1 Can I distribute Firebird on a CD with my application , without worrying what database system the user has already installed ?

The program , the database engine and the database file/table will have to be installed on the users harddisk. What happens if the user already has Firebird installed ?


Q.2 How do I transfer/move/convert my data from my BDE tables to my Firebird tables ? Are there any tools programs that can do this for me ?

I have Firebird V1.5. Wrote SQL scripts/text files to create tables which should be 100% compatible with my existing BDE tables.


Q.3 Is there a way that I can protectmy data and datastructures/tables from prying eyes ?

I need the users to look/view the data with my application , but under no circumstances should they have access to the actual data. They should not be able to open the database and have access to the data or the table structure.

Q.4 How do I then connect to Firebird from Delphi. what do I use dbExpress , ADO , IBX ?

All tables except one must have read-only access. One table gets modified.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I regard myself as a beginner programmer as an intermediate programmer would know all of this already. Has anybody done something similar beforehand. If Yes then perhaps that person could point out further problems which I might of overlooked.

Thank You

I think you can distribute it on the cd and modify the firebird installer . You can make
the Firebird run from the CD !! (Ask for
firebird embeded on the developer list)

Ask him if he want to install your version ?
It is possible to run on other ports with v1.5
but didn't tried (Here you need tweak the installer -Hard work)


I think there are some good tools here for data pump

http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a...e=ibp_mig_tools



What you ask is crypting the data ? or you need only the rights on the tables to be applied?


Try Ibobjects, freeibplus , ado ; I think there are many other good components . Worked with IBO and are better than Borland IBX components



Grant the users only read access on thouse
tables and write on the table you modify .