Subject cannot connect to an embedded firebird database using Python (.NET client works)
Author btapkan
Post date 2012-10-11T18:52:16Z
Hello,

Hope everyone is doing well.  Having this problem of not being able to connect to an existing embedded Firebird database using Python. 

I work regularly on a Windows 7 x64-bit, Python 2.7 (switched to 2.6 for kinterbasdb w/o success, then switch back). I also have a licensed copy of Firebird Maestro.  Tried three different library packages:


have the bellow code (basically trying to invoke the sample code on the documentation:

# import firebirdsql
import kinterbasdb

# the server is named test.fsdb
# con = firebirdsql.connect(dsn='TEST.FDB', user='SYSDBA', password='masterkey')
con = kinterbasdb.connect(host='', database=r'C:\src\python\pyfirebirdsql\TEST.FDB',user='sysdba', password='masterkey')

cur = con.cursor()

# execute the select statement
cur.execute("select * from languages order by year_released")

# retrieve all rows in a sequence and print the sequence
print cur.fetchall()

TEST.FDB file is in the same directory as I am running the script. With firebirdsql package, I receive below:

c:\src\python\pyfirebirdsql>python fsdb_test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "fsdb_test.py", line 5, in <module>
    con = firebirdsql.connect(dsn='TEST.FDB', user='SYSDBA', password='masterkey')
  File "c:\src\python\pyfirebirdsql\firebirdsql\__init__.py", line 64, in connect
    database=database, charset=charset, port=port)
  File "c:\src\python\pyfirebirdsql\firebirdsql\fbcore.py", line 759, in __init__
    self.sock.connect((self.hostname, self.port))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\socket.py", line 224, in meth
    return getattr(self._sock,name)(*args)
socket.error: [Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

Looks like support for embedded is missing for firebirdsql.

With kinterbasdb, I get this:

c:\src\python\pyfirebirdsql>python fsdb_test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "fsdb_test.py", line 2, in <module>
    import kinterbasdb
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\kinterbasdb\__init__.py", line 119, in <module>
    import _kinterbasdb as _k
ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

This is 32 bit vs 64-bit issue looks like. I made sure I used both 64-bit editions of Python 2.7 and kinterbasdb-3.3.0. Still getting this message. Created an embedded folder as described here in the Python27\Lib\site-packages\kinterbasdb\embedded and copied the three DLLS (unblocked on Windows).

Could not even install fdb using below command:

c:\src\python\fdb-0.9.1>python setup.py build
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 7, in <module>
    from fdb import __version__
  File "c:\src\python\fdb-0.9.1\fdb\__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    from fdb.fbcore import *
  File "c:\src\python\fdb-0.9.1\fdb\fbcore.py", line 26, in <module>
    from . import ibase
  File "c:\src\python\fdb-0.9.1\fdb\ibase.py", line 39, in <module>
    fb_library = WinDLL(fb_library_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 353, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
TypeError: expected string or Unicode object, NoneType found

Just to see if embedded works, I switched to .NET (sigh) and able to connect to the same database using the below:

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string ConnectionString = "Database=E:\\TEST.FDB;User=SYSDBA;Password=masterkey;Dialect=3;ServerType=1";
            FbConnection addDetailsConnection = new FbConnection(ConnectionString);
            addDetailsConnection.Open();

            Console.WriteLine("connection open");
            Console.ReadLine();
            addDetailsConnection.Close();
            Console.WriteLine("connection closed");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
 }

For .NET, I followed the detailed and easy-to-follow instructions found here. http://nazmialtun.blogspot.com/2012/01/using-embedded-firebird-database-in-net.html

Any help, expertise with the above would be appreciated. Thanks!

Baskin Tapkan