--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, jesus martinez
<jesus_martinez1967@...> wrote:

>
>
> Adam, i really appreciate your answers and the
> rest of the members of the list.
>
> i also think that i was not very clear about
> my issue.
>
> i have to develop a software that another
> person will sell to his clients.
>
> me <--> my client <--> his clients
>
> netheir my client nor his clients understands
> anything about computers. i will not be "technical
> support" of anybody.

As a reality check, at some stage something will go wrong, even if it
is beyond your control, like faulty hardware. It would be naive to not
have a plan for support of the end users, even if it is just an online
knowledge base. Someone must be capable of opening port 3050 on the
server if there is a firewall.

>
> the problem comes when:
> 1) because of economic situation, win98/me is
> a common computers in my country, to both
> servera (p2p lan) and clients. they are people
> that have win-domains, but they are only few.
>
> thats why i am concerned and looking for a
> rdbms that works on a machine designed to be
> the server.

Firebird is then a good choice because of its small footprint and
proven stability.

>
> 2) the system will only make queries to the database,
> not updates or inserts.
> because of this, the first and simple approach
> is to share a folder (even in a designed server or
> in a domain), public an ms-access file on it,
> and just it. (to say more, not many concurrency
> will usually happend, but i must be prepared to
> deal with it when it appears)

You can not access a firebird over a network share. It has its own
client library that supports numerous protocols including TCP/IP

>
> the problem comes when i also have to develop
> a "daemon" (service or application, depending on
> the win-xx tech available) that must connect
> to internet and look for updates.

I was talking about installing the RDBMS as a service wherever
possible, because you are less likely to have problems when the person
sitting at the machine acting as the server decides to log off. It is
obviously not possible to install as a service under win98, but it is
the same binary so your installer can decide which way to launch
depending on the OS it detects.

How you deliver your update daemon is up to you.

>
> updates will be sql_scripts with updates, inserts,
> and deletes...
>
> because of this, i choosed to enable a rdbms
> that will centralize the records.

In this case you may not want to use the database in read-only mode.
You can use "read only" transactions instead, and your update daemon
will need a "read-write" transaction.

> as you can see, i am not worry about security
> or db's corruption right now. i just need to
> access to the same db via different clients.

I agree you may not need to worry about security. Running a server on
windows 98 means that unless you use some third party tool to mount an
encrypted volume, you have no security.

But I disagree with your point on database corruption.

You state that "netheir my client nor his clients understands anything
about computers. i will not be "technical support" of anybody". If you
expect to not offer any support, then you are going to need to so all
you can to prevent corruption. The precautions to prevent corruption
are really not hard to follow at all, just don't file copy an active
database, leave forced writes on and don't try and access your
database over a network share or simultaneously from two different
server instances.

> 3) a firebird server can already be installed on the
> server. i wish to firebird let me install to
> different instances of it, the already installed
> and mine.
>
> i mean, because i wont have access to the
> machines where the system will be installed
> (the instalation will be done by my client to
> his clients) i prefer to individualize my system
> (clients-apps and server-app) with the rest of
> the server´s programs.
>
> because i am developing the solution in delphi,
> i also research on flashfiler, to create my
> own server(rdbms)-application (by this way i
> can warranty to my self that no other instalation
> of my own server will be installed in the server)
> but i finally select firebird.
>
> i think it is clear why i cant use embedded
> version: i need to install firebird on the server
> (or update it if it is already installed)
> create my alias and restore my "empty" db
> of 40.000 records (that is compressed inside my
> installer.exe) into it.
>
> if the way to do that is unpacking the backup
> file (from installer.exe) and then execute gbak,
> ok, i will hear your recommendation.
>
> my questions about that was the following:
>
> - i will use gbak not to avoid corrumption of
> possible opened files, but to restore the
> already-done file.bak
>
> so, will the gbak restore the users of the
> tables, the grants, the roles, and all the
> things ? or i also must execute some
> queries ?

Users belong to the server, not the database. Authenticated users of
the server are granted roles, and those roles are granted various
rights to the different entities within the database. Restoring a
database restores the permissions in the database, but does not create
users on the server itself.

Adam