The Dunstan Thomas website has, since 1998, listed an Interbase replication server and manager including source code. This project was a working protoype designed to demonstrate how simple it can be to setup replication with the Interbase SQL engine. Meta dressed this code up a little and implemented it in a 4 server (2-way) or 12 direction replication arrangement. It has been working faultlessly since 1998.

Since this time, Interbase and now Firebird has taken on a new dialect and datatypes e.g. Int64 and Datestamp fields, and the need for a minor overhaul has been long overdue. Thanks to the work of Kevin Gardeck, Stan Dorcey and Paul Beach, Meta has extended the prototype to include these new datatypes and is proud to re-release the application and source code for general use.

More Information:

The reliance on the BDE has been removed and replaced with IBODataset components, a TrayIcon has been introduced to remove the application from the task bar and several small bugs have been fixed in the Replication Manager. The Replication Server remains unchanged apart from a face lift and the introduction of new datatypes to the scheme.

There are still minor limitations in the overall scheme, e.g. it is still required that integer data types be used for primary keys but the server can now be resident on a PC other than the host of the source database (e.g. a third party PC or the target machine)

•  Replication Manager detects and sets up your source database,
•  INI file used for startup configuration, then a replicate.gdb database is used for SQL definitions, source locations and target lists,
•  Template trigger code can be edited before implementation. Special user can be installed to avoid circularity of replication,
•  TrayIcon displays current state of replication server - standby, running, error,
•  IBO is required for continued work on the source, or you may like to convert the app to another component set. The replication is done by direct API calls using DSQL, the component queries are only used for startup,
•  Currently only interval running is enabled but event based replication can be activated - your choice of event component.