firebird-database

Firebird Database — Skill

Use this skill when working with Firebird database in Delphi projects via FireDAC.

When to Use

• When configuring FireDAC connection with Firebird
• When creating tables, generators, stored procedures, triggers, domains and views
• When implementing Repositories with FireDAC + Firebird
• When working with transactions, isolation levels and concurrency
• When planning schema migrations (versioned scripts)
• When optimizing queries and indexes for Firebird

Quick Reference

Minimum connection:

FConnection.DriverName := 'FB';
FConnection.Params.Values['CharacterSet'] := 'UTF8';    //ALWAYS UTF8
FConnection.Params.Values['SQLDialect'] := '3';          //NEVER Dialect 1
FConnection.Params.Values['Protocol'] := 'TCPIP';        //Or 'Local' for embedded
FConnection.Params.Values['PageSize'] := '16384';         // 16KB recomendado
FConnection.TxOptions.Isolation := xiReadCommitted;       //Standard isolation

Golden rules: Dialect 3 always (never 1), RETURNING always needs Open (never ExecSQL), CharacterSet UTF8 always, parameterized queries only, CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS does not exist (check RDB$RELATIONS instead). Full details and code for each are in the reference files below — read the one that matches the task at hand rather than guessing.

references/

Read only the file(s) relevant to the current task — this skill file is intentionally short; the depth lives in these files.

• connection-and-types.md — supported versions, FireDAC connection setup (driver link, pooling), dialect 1 vs 3, Firebird ↔ Delphi data type mapping.
• schema-and-migrations.md — generators/sequences, IDENTITY columns, RETURNING in Delphi, domains, triggers, migration scripts, runtime schema-existence checks, and gbak backup/restore.
• querying.md — selectable vs executable stored procedures, EXECUTE BLOCK, and Packages (Firebird 3+).
• transactions-and-ops.md — transactions/isolation levels, event alerter (POST_EVENT), anti-patterns, Firebird Embedded integration testing, and the pre-flight checklist.