Firebird
Enterprise
SQL RDBMS
Dec 2004
Firebird wins
Newsforge poll
Nov 2004
Firebird wins
O'Reilly poll
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Firebird
The *only* true open-source enterprise
database
Firebird 1.5 is a full-featured SQL database engine. It
is powerful, yet lightweight, with minimal
configuration and administration needs. It's easily
scalable from single-user, single-database usage up to
company-wide enterprise purposes. A single Firebird
server can handle multiple independent databases, each
with multiple client connections. And best of all:
it's true Open Source, thus free of any
license fees even for commercial use.
- A.C.I.D. compliance: The concept of
"Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and
Durability" is what Firebird is built for.
- MGA: A special feature of Firebird
is it's "Multi- Generational
Architecture", that allows the engine to
handle various versions of the same physical
record at any time, so any transaction can have
it's own version regardless of other
concurrent transactions ("readers
don't block writers and writers don't
block readers"). This ensures OLTP as well
as OLAP operation.
- Stored Procedures: Using
Firebird's PSQL (Procedural SQL), one can
easily create powerful Stored Procedures for
processing data entirely on the server side. A
special flavour are "selectable Stored
Procedures" that can calculate data row by
row in the server and can be used like a View
or a "virtual table" from the client
side, which is especially useful for reporting
tasks.
- Events: Stored Procedures and
Triggers can fire Events that can be monitored
from a client on a configurable TCP/IP port for
"active databases".
- Generators: The concept of
Generators (a.k.a. Sequences) allows the easy
implementation of "AutoInc" columns,
but goes far beyond that. Generators are
non-volatile Int64 counters that are
independant of transactions and can be used in
many ways.
- Read-Only databases: For
distribution of databases on e.g. a CD-ROM.
Esp. when used in combination with the Embedded
version of the engine, this gives unbeatable
ease of deployment.
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- Full transaction control: A single
client application can have multiple,
concurrent transactions. The various available
isolation levels can be fully controlled by the
client on a per- transaction basis. The
Two-Phase-Commit protocol allows guaranteed
consistency across databases. Optimistic
locking is also supported as well as multiple
Transaction Savepoints.
- Online Backups: There is no need to
shut down a database to back it up. A backup
process takes a snapshot of the state of the
database at the moment it starts, so users can
continue working while a backup runs, allowing
24x7 operation.
- Triggers: Each table can have many
separate row- level triggers that fire Before
or After Inserts, Updates or Deletes. Inside a
trigger, the full wealth of PSQL can be used to
apply default values, ensure data integrity,
raise Exceptions etc. New in Firebird 1.5 are
"universal triggers": Here you can
have one single trigger to handle Inserts,
Updates and/or Deletes in a table all at once.
- External Functions: User Defined
Function libraries (UDFs) can be written in
languages like C, C++ or Delphi and can easily
be plugged in to the engine itself via DLLs /
SOs, enabling you to extend the functionality
of Firebird "inside" the server.
- Declarative Cascading Referential
Integrity: Ensures consistency and validity
of n-level deep parent-child relationships
between tables.
- Character Sets: Firebird implements
many international Character Sets including
Unicode with a variety of collations.
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