Using Firebird 2.5.6 in Visual Studio 2015 Community

Question

I require some assistance in getting Visual Studio 2015 Community connected to firebird.

I am new to Visual Studio 2015 (used to program in Delphi/C++ builder), and I am now learning C# and want to use a firebird database.

Could anyone please assist or point me in the right direction in how to accomplish this?

I have installed the DDEX and ADO.net drivers as provided on the Firebird, page but so far no luck.

I don't have any code as of yet, as Visual Studio does not even see the Firebird drivers in the database connection dialogs.

Any assistance would be welcome.

Answer 1

I figured it out.

Perform the following steps:

Install Firebird 2.5.6.

Following packages needed:

1. EntityFramework (v6.1.3 at time of writing)
2. FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient (v5.1.1 at time of writing)
3. EntityFramework.Firebird (v5.1.1 at time of writing)
4. DDEXProvider (v3.0.2 at time of writing)

in visual studio 2015 Open a solution. Then click on Tools->NuGet Package Manager->Package Manager Console execute following commands in the Package manager console:

Install-Package EntityFramework
Install-Package FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient
Install-Package EntityFramework.Firebird

Then download and install the DDEXProvider from http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/additional-downloads/ via normal windows setup.

In Microsoft Visual Studio Click Tools->Connect to Database:

Under data source the Firebird Data Source should now be listed. Select it and the Data Provide should now list .NET Framework Data Provider for Firebird.

click Next and follow prompts to setup for your database. Data Source should be server name where database is hosted or localhost. Database connection should now show under the Server Explorer.