Debug access to database

Hi!

I am working with a Point-of-Sale (POS) application that uses Firebird. Unfortunately, the reporting capabilities of this application are very limited so I would like to employ another tool (e.g. Crystal Reports) to create the reports I need. The problem is that I the tables and procedures in the database are not well documented. In order to understand how the databse works, I would like to intercept the SQL queries that my POS application makes to the database. That is, if I use my POS application to register a new client, I would like to know if a certain stored procedured is called and which table(s) are accessed for what. Is this possible?

Thank you very much for your help!

NicoCas

It's generally possible, is it connecting through ODBC driver? Does it use network or local protocol?

Hi Pabloj!

The POS application is written in Delphi, but I do not know which driver it uses for the DB access. The database is on a dedicated server that the clients access using the network protocol.

Ok, so in the worst case you can sniff what is sent to the server.

Yes, I was thinking on that, but i do not know an effective way of doing that. I know of applications such as Ethereal that allow to monitor and inspect the traffic of a LAN. With such an application I could inspect the packages arriving at the server, but I miss an effective way of decoding those packages in terms of SQL queries...

Check my signature for I paper I once put up about securing connections to firebird with stunnel, it showed firebird connection sniffing.

Thanks! This is what I need. Moreover I found the security part very interesting also.

Just one last thing. In Ethereal I don't see any decoder for Interbase. How did you configure Ethereal to obtain the two screenshots in your paper? Did you just captured traffic on the server's address + firebird's port? Thanks again

Yes, I went that way