Connecting OpenOffice and LibreOffice to Firebird via ODBC Driver

Connecting to Firebird from OpenOffice and LibreOffice using ODBC Driver for Firebird

The article describes how to use Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice to access ODBC data sources using the respective driver. You can access Firebird data from Open Office Base or LibreOffice Base — desktop database management systems. Note that the Windows version of OpenOffice is 32-bit, and you may get the error “The specified DSN contains an architecture mismatch between the Driver and Application” when trying to access a data source through a 64-bit ODBC Driver. To get rid of the error message, set up the 32-bit version of the driver.

To connect to an ODBC data source from OpenOffice or LibreOffice using our driver for Firebird, perform the steps below:

1. Start OpenOffice or LibreOffice, click Database to open the Database Wizard.



Alternatively, you can launch the Database Wizard from OpenOffice or LibreOffice Calc, Writer or any other tool by choosing File > New > Database.



2. In the Database Wizard dialog box, click Connect to an existing database, select ODBC from the drop-down list, and click Next.



3. Specify the name of the data source you want to connect to. You can either type the name of your data source into the field, e.g. ODBC Driver for Firebird, or you can click Browse, double-click the data source you need, and then click Next.







4. If your database requires a user name, type it into the User name field. If you are connecting to a password protected database, check the Password required field. Alternatively, you can specify these parameters in the data source settings of your ODBC Driver for Firebird and leave these fields empty in Database Wizard.



To test the connection to your data source, click Test Connection, input your credentials and click OK.



If you have entered valid credentials, you will see a success message. Click Next to proceed to the final step.

5. You can keep the default selection in this dialog box and click Finish.



You will be prompted to give a name to your new database and select the directory where you want to store it.



6. When the database opens, you will see the list of tables from your data source diplayed in OpenOffice or LibreOffice Base workspace. To view the data from a specific table, double-click the table name.





7. To create an SQL query, click Queries in the Database pane, then click Create Query in SQL View…



Enter your query in the query text box and click Run Query (F5). The date will be fetched from the database and displayed in Open Office or LibreOffice, respectively.