Helen,

>> > but a backup can be run under embedded with no username and password at
>> all.
>>
>>wrong. I get the aforementioned error if I try do.

H> Wrong? I think you meant to say "I couldn't reproduce it." Given that I'm
H> running under the Administrator credentials AND have ISC_USER and
H> ISC_PASSWORD set as user-specific env. vars, I think that's probably how it
H> can go with blank username and password with embedded (where the server
H> process is owned by the logged-in system user).

As I said before I don't think so: I have those vars as well and the
command line tools (and the BDE - a little known feature) use it.
Nothing else is documented to use those vars, including the services
API. Since it goes as expected and documented on my system, it's you
who needs to figure out why it works differently for you. I don't have
any additional clue. :-(

>>wrong. If I put a suitable aliases.conf in the directory where Project1.exe
>>is located I can backup through an alias. I have made sure that it's not using
>>some other aliases file on the system. Again, this is as expected.

H> It doesn't work on my system. I've tried altering the aliases as well. In
H> all cases, the component returns the exception "Path to file [whatever] not
H> found" (the "whatever" part is the alias name, not the filename of the backup).

This is a Firebird message. For whatever reason fbembed thinks it's
homeless. You could try to alter some default in firebird.conf to see
whether it just can't find aliases.conf or that applies to
firebird.conf as well. I suspect it won't find firebird.conf as well,
or firebird.conf points to a different home dir. That's about all that
comes to mind. I have fbembed deployed on hundreds of systems and
growing with no such problems.

>>BTW the example is misleading in that it doesn't connect to the
>>database and with the user name and passwords you put in the edit
>>boxes

H> Huh, I don't get that point.

That's a pity. Try to read between the lines, my english writing can
either be quick or clear, not both at the same time. ;-)

H> the developer knows you don't need username and password to log onto a
H> database under embedded.

Does the developer also know that when he puts a database name in the
edit box and clicks the Connect menu item the program connects to a
hardcoded database name specified in the dfm instead? If so I must be
a dumber-than-average developer, because I had to look at the code to
find out. :-)

>> - it just used those for the backup. Plus, it would be useful if
>>it gave some backup feedback, like
>>
>> while not IBOBackupService1.EOF do
>> Memo1.Lines.Add
>> (StringReplace(IBOBackupService1.GetNextChunk, #10,
>> #13#10, [rfReplaceAll]));

H> Duh. Why?

Well, at least tell the user something when the backup is finished,
possibly telling also what's the backup file name to look for, since
it's random!

H> Anyway, thanks for testing the blank username/password thing.

You're welcome.
Ciao
--
Nando Dessena
http://www.flamerobin.org