Looking for help migrating LibreOffice embedded HSQLDB to Firebird

[Charles Austin Mills]

Level set: I am very technical and have a ton of C++ and other coding experience but almost no RDBMS or SQL experience.

I am a volunteer for a small nonprofit. I am maintaining their database, which I did not set up, I inherited. I am the only halfway technical person here. No one else here could spell SQL.

The database uses one significant table with 261 rows and 25 columns in embedded HyperSQL DB. It is critical to the organization. I fear that we are outgrowing HSQLDB V#1.8 (the only embedded version).

Do people here think it would be practical for me to migrate the database from embedded HSQLDB to Firebird? Can anyone point me to some guidance?

Thanks much,

Charles

[Mark Rotteveel]

On 31/01/2026 00:10, Charles Austin Mills wrote:
> The database uses one significant table with 261 rows and 25 columns in
> embedded HyperSQL DB. It is critical to the organization. I fear that we
> are outgrowing HSQLDB V#1.8 (the only embedded version).

The latest HSQLDB (version 2.7.4) also supports to be embedded. I assume
you mean that is the HSQLDB version that LibreOffice Base uses?

In any case, one table with 25 columns and 261 rows is tiny for any
database engine. What do you mean with outgrowing?

> Do people here think it would be practical for me to migrate the
> database from embedded HSQLDB to Firebird? Can anyone point me to some
> guidance?

If it is a single table, and assuming there are equivalent datatypes in
Firebird. From the perspective of the database, it is a matter of
creating a new Firebird database, creating that table, and pumping the
data from the HSQLDB database to the Firebird database.

However, given you're talking about using it from LibreOffice (I assume
LibreOffice Base), it might be more involved than that, because I'm not
sure how easy it is to transfer the data in that situation, and I know
that LibreOffice Base tries to maintain some form of syntax
compatibility with HSQLDB by means of a translation layer, and I've seen
a few times that generates "wrong" queries when used with Firebird.

There was some talk about an auto-migration (see
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/FirebirdMigration),
but as far I'm aware, that feature never landed (or was retracted?), and
Firebird Embedded support in Base is still (maybe, again?) experimental.

Also, even if you do want to migrate to Firebird, you may want to
consider not using the Firebird Embedded support in LibreOffice, but use
a Firebird server, with a "Firebird (External)" connection.

That said, I don't think I have enough information (nor enough "real"
experience with LibreOffice Base) to give good advice here.

Mark
--
Mark Rotteveel

[liviuslivius]

From LibreOffice 6.2 Firebird is default and non experimental anymore.

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.2/pl

And yes, there should be migration option in LibreOffice

Regards,

Karol Bieniaszewski

-------- Oryginalna wiadomość --------

Od: 'Mark Rotteveel' via firebird-support <firebird...@googlegroups.com>

Data: 31.01.2026 09:58 (GMT+01:00)

Do: firebird...@googlegroups.com

Temat: Re: [firebird-support] Looking for help migrating LibreOffice embedded HSQLDB to Firebird

--
Support the ongoing development of Firebird! Consider donating to the Firebird Foundation and help ensure its future. Every contribution makes a difference. Learn more and donate here:
https://www.firebirdsql.org/donate
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "firebird-support" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to firebird-suppo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/firebird-support/47611ac1-46f9-48c3-b4e6-a754dfafedb6%40lawinegevaar.nl.

[Mark Rotteveel]

On 31/01/2026 11:04, 'liviuslivius' via firebird-support wrote:
> From LibreOffice 6.2 Firebird is default and non experimental anymore.
>
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.2/pl
>
> And yes, there should be migration option in LibreOffice

They reverted that with LibreOffice 6.4 as the LibreOffice support for
Firebird is actually buggy and incomplete and caused too many problems,
see https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.4#Base:

"""
Firebird embedded database creation put back experimental considering
the number of bugs.
"""

At this time, LibreOffice 25.8, it is still experimental, and there
doesn't seem to be much movement in that regard.

Mark
--
Mark Rotteveel

[Dimitry Sibiryakov]

'Mark Rotteveel' via firebird-support wrote 31.01.2026 11:16:
> Firebird embedded database creation put back experimental considering the number
> of bugs.

Firebird is better with Libre Office as a stand-alone server via ODBC.

But answering the original question: it never practical to migrate from one
thing you don't know to other thing you don't know.

--
WBR, SD.

[Charles Austin Mills]

Thank you all!

But answering the original question: it never practical to migrate from one
thing you don't know to other thing you don't know.

LOL!

I am learning as I go.

By "significant table" I did not mean it was significantly big, just that only one DB table is really significant to the organization.

By "outgrowing" I meant that there is at least one thing that the other folks want that I cannot do in HSQLDB embedded, which is to say HSQLDB v1.8. Also people in the LO formu keep saying to me "you should never use embedded for production" and so in that sense I guess we are outgrowing HSQLDB embedded.

It looks like the easiest first step for us would be to move to HSQLDB external. I think I understand the path to get there and will attempt that this coming week.

Thanks again for your patience and help.

Charles

--
Support the ongoing development of Firebird! Consider donating to the Firebird Foundation and help ensure its future. Every contribution makes a difference. Learn more and donate here:
https://www.firebirdsql.org/donate
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "firebird-support" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to firebird-suppo...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/firebird-support/63652613-532a-44f0-b4cb-5212eddf136b%40ibphoenix.com.