Hello, All.

> Regards,
> Vlad
>
> PS RedSoft already have some extension for external files, iirc
>

Yes. RedSoft implemented an "ADAPTER" for external tables. The syntax
likes CREATE TABLE table [EXTERNAL [FILE] ‘<filespec>’] [ADAPTER
‘<adap_name>’] [<cols_def>].
Inside there is an abstract class and each its child implements one
adapter. Now we supports two formats: existing one with fixed record
length and binary log of fbtrace for using it as exterlan data for
analyzing.
Transactions are not supported. I think it would be good to support CSV too.
On the one hand in Firebird one can implement build-in ADAPTERS for a
lot of external file formats. On the other hand Firebird must not be a
ALL format DBMS. Certainly, external tables very useful in many practice
cases. It enough to support some common build in adapters as practice
nice gadget such as CSV, XML, DBF. The other external table formats must
be supported via external engines or loadable plugins.

Roman Simakov