Recently, we received an enquiry from a client, which we would like to explain in more detail here, as the topic seems to be becoming increasingly important for our clients in general:

"You have the Database Comparer function in IBExpert. Do you possibly also have an API or even an integration option in your own Delphi code?
We are looking for a component or an external interface that can be used to install update packages for our product."

Technically, such a component is always possible as an API, provided the customer has an IBExpert Developer Studio Edition or an IBExpert Server Tools Edition installed on the computer on which it is to run, or, offering much more flexibility: the IBExpert OEM version, which allows the customer to freely distribute the API together with his software.

This OEM edition is optionally available as IBEScript.dll (32-bit Windows-only) or as IBEScript.exe, but both also run under Linux with Wine, for example, as well as under all Windows versions that have been released since the Stone Age in the last 10 years. https://www.ibexpert.net/ibe/pmwiki.php?n=Main.IBEDistributionOEM

If this is done using IBEScript.exe, it is very easy to pass such a script as command-line parameters. This is also very straightforward with IBEScript.dll. IBEScript.dll is located in the IBExpert Developer Studio Edition's main directory, where there is also a minimal demo program using Delphi source code to integrate it: C:\Program Files (x86)\HK-Software\IBExpert\IBEScriptDll\DemoApp .

With the integration of the IBExpert OEM, the customer has virtually the complete range of IBExpert functions at their disposal, i.e. if, for example, the customer opens the Tools/Database Comparer menu item in the IBExpert IDE, then compiles the sample configuration (Source DB, Target DB, Options, etc.), a script appears on the IBEBlock page which performs the same function without the IDE.

If the customer compiles the content of the script from his own application, and then for example, adapts the connection string, etc. accordingly, he then only needs to save this as a file for IBEScript.exe and call it as a parameter. With IBEScript.dll, this is also possible directly as a call in the code without a file (see above example).

All functions are described here https://www.ibexpert.net/ibe/pmwiki.php?n=Doc.IBEBlock

It takes just a few lines of code run as an automatic batch file, to implement many customizations (reading or writing access to ODBC data sources, special reports, etc.).

Important for internet-independent fields of application: no internet-dependent activation is required with the OEM. We provide a process to activate the OEM on the customers’ computers with their own setup, or an initial programme start via a key in the registry, which must be calculated according to specific criteria.