Firebird client installation

Question

I'm trying to deploy my Application that uses a Firebird v2.5 database to a client machine.

I am trying to use a minimum installation, without the need to run any other installers. From what I gather, all I need to do is copy the "FBClient.dll" to the target application folder (which includes firebird database file). I have tried this and it still reports an error about not being able to find the correct .net data provider.

eg

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApp\myApp.exe 
C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApp\fbDatabase.fdb 
C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApp\fbclient.dll 

The error produced is:

Failed to find or load the registered .Net Framework Data Provider.

Also have copied, renamed and included fbclient.dll as fbembed.dll

I have also tried to copy a bunch of other files to the app directory, as well as placing fbclient.dll into the c:\, c:\windows, c:\windows\system.

I also tried installing the client installation, with no joy too.

Is there a way, that I can use the firebird database, without manually editing the machine.config files or using the gac and going through the hell that I went through to install firebird on the dev machine? I want an application that a user can install, not requiring that it be installed by a developer.

Please note, the application that I am writing is for a single machine, single user environment, who knows how to double click the install button, with the attention span of a gnat, that if required to do more than double click install and then press GO, will simply get bored and press the cancel, forget it button.

I add the file "FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll" to the application folder and I no longer get the Data provider error, instead I get the following

"Unable to complete network request to host \"DevMachine\"."

at FirebirdSql.Data.Client.Managed.Version10.GdsConnection.Connect()
at FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.ClientFactory.CreateManagedDatabase(FbConnectionString options)
at FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.ClientFactory.CreateDatabase(FbConnectionString options)
at FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.FbConnectionInternal.Connect()

I am trying to connect with the following

string file = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApp\Test.FDB;";
FbConnection con = new FbConnection("User=SYSDBA;" + "Password=masterkey;" + "Database=" + file + "DataSource=Dev-VS-W7VM;" + "Port3050;" + "Dialect=3;" + "Charset=ISO8859_1;");
        try
        {
            con.Open();
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(e.ToString());
        }

I have included FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient in my project and installation folder (..\MyApp) Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You have to grap a zip and copy FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient.dll to bin folder.

I wonder how you wrote your application that it works without the file (probably installed .msi) :)

Answer 2

You needed to install .net provider http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/net-provider/