Hello.
Since LibreOffice version 7.0, when the username/password step was
added, there is the possibility to connect to a Firebird server from Base.
To do this in the Database Wizard you can select "Connect to an existing
database" and "Firebird file".
On step 2, on "Data source URL" you can write something like
"server1:databaseName" or "server1:/datadir/datafile.fdb".
On step 3, you should provide a username and password that are allowed
to connect to the database provided in step 2.
In this way (I think) a "direct" connection is established, through the
Firebird internal driver.
According to the document in
https://www.ibphoenix.com/files/Embedded_fb3.pdf, the Engine12.dll
library (or libengine12.so), allow the three "providers" (Remote,
Engine12 and Loopback) and the selection of the necessary one is done
depending on the connection string, so that if you use "server:database"
you should be connected by "Remote".
But, as it seems from the tests I have done, somehow, the internal
driver is modifying this behavior, because the "server:database"
connection should be multi-user, however, although the connection is
correctly established, the database is locked (as if an embedded
connection had been established instead of Remote) and does not allow
editing of the data by multiple users simultaneously.
I don't know if this behavior has been implemented this way
intentionally or it is a bug, but in any case, it would be convenient to
be able to establish a direct connection (with the internal driver) in
Remote mode (and also in loopback mode) which would be an undeniable
benefit for the user who could easily scale from a Firebird data file to
a server and multiuser one, without having to establish the cumbersome
JDBC or ODBC connections.
Are my assumptions correct?, should I report a bug?
Regards
--
*Juan C. Sanz*