I have been looking at using Delphi for a particular project I have been working on that requires access to an remote database. This should be a fairly simple task but unless you have a high end version of Delphi you cannot use the built in database drivers supplied with the IDE.
Annoyingly the professional version of Delphi only allows local access to MySQL or Interbase databases via their dbExpress drivers which is no good for this project. To get access to remote databases, which I think is a pretty basic need, or even local access to the other databases available I would need to shell out well over £1000!
Luckily there are other options out there but they vary in maturity, stability and cost so finding the right solution may take a bit of research. Whichever one I choose I will lose some of the functionality as the dbExpress drivers are built into the development environment and do look very useful. Unfortunately, due to the cost, I am unlikely to ever get to use them…
I could stick with Firebird as that is what I have used in the past but the Delphi drivers provided are meant for Interbase and so have a few quirks when used with Firebird. Going forward this may not even be an option as Firebird is likely to change in the not too distant future and could break the compatibility with Interbase…
I have had success with Zeos database drivers in the past but when I recently tried the the latest version using Delphi 2010 they were far from stable. I would almost go as far as saying far from usable!
Another database that sounds ideal for some simpler applications is SQLite. This appears to be the simplest database out there with no need to install a full database server like MySQL or Firebird. I am yet to find a decent way of accessing it from Delphi though…