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 Installing the DriverConnecting to Firebird from Applications 

The configuration settings you make in an ODBC data source description (“DSN”) define the attributes for connecting to a specific database.On Windows, a dialog box captures parameters that correspond to the connection attributes.On Linux, the parameters are configured manually in text (.ini) files.

Configuring a DSN on Windows

First, find the applets in the Administrative Tools section of the machine where you are going to set up a “channel” through which your application program is going to connect with a Firebird database, either on the same machine or elsewhere in the local or wide-area network.

On a 64-bit machine, you will find two such applets:

fb odbc system dsn 001
Figure 1. Selecting a DSN setup applet on Windows

For the purpose of our example, we want to pick the item ODBC Data Sources (32-bit).Obviously, if we had installed the 64-bit driver with the intention of using it for a 64-bit application, we would pick the 64-bit item from this menu instead.

Important
Run as Administrator!

Don’t left-click the item: right-click and, from the context menu, select menu:Run as Administrator[].This is necessary because you are about to set up a System DSN.

Click on the tab labelled menu:System DSN[], where you will begin setting up your DSN.

fb odbc system dsn 002
Figure 2. Selecting the Firebird driver for the DSN

Click btn:[Add…​] on the first screen to bring up the list of drivers on the next.Select the Firebird/InterBase(r) driver, then click btn:[Finish].