On Jun 8, 2007, at 17:00, Adam wrote:

> That doesn't really make sense to me. You say you write client
> software making no assumptions about the server, yet in your original
> post, you presume that every Firebird database within aliases.conf is
> yours to make public and offer a connection to at the decision of a
> client computer rather than the DBA. I would check that assumption.

I don't make that assumption at all - right now we require users to
type in paths or aliases. We write custom connection dialogues for
each database we support - partly because of differences like this.

As I mentioned, there are some database engines (e.g. SQL Server,
MySQL) that will in fact do this (subject to the login credentials.)
For example, you can log in to MySQL with NO current database and ask
it to enumerate the databases you have access to with your current
credentials. SQL Server has similar functionality (heck, it will
even list SERVERS on the network using your domain credentials).

Firebird requires you to specify a database as part of the
connection, and I was just wondering if there was any MySQL-like
functionality at least for enumerating the aliases by connecting to
the server without specifying a database. It appears that the answer
is no, which is fine, but other engines have this functionality.
Whether or not it is advisable, customers may be used to such
niceties and get cranky if they are not provided when the underlying
db supports them...
________________________________________________________
Richard Wesley Senior Software Developer Tableau
Software
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