sqlalchemy-firebird-async

Asynchronous Firebird dialect for SQLAlchemy.

This library provides proper asyncio support for Firebird databases in SQLAlchemy 2.0+, allowing you to write fully asynchronous code using modern Python patterns.

It supports three underlying drivers:

1. fdb (Legacy) - Runs the official C-based driver in a thread pool. Fast and stable.
2. firebird-driver (Modern) - Official driver for Firebird 3+. Also threaded (run_in_executor).
3. firebirdsql - Pure Python asyncio driver. Currently experimental due to upstream issues.

📦 Installation

Install using pip:

# Install with the FDB driver (Legacy, Stable)
pip install "sqlalchemy-firebird-async[fdb]"

# Install with the Firebird Driver (Modern, FB 3.0+)
pip install "sqlalchemy-firebird-async[firebird-driver]"

# Install with pure python driver (Experimental)
pip install "sqlalchemy-firebird-async[firebirdsql]"
# Note: For correct async behavior with firebirdsql, you might need a patched version:
# pip install git+https://github.com/attid/pyfirebirdsql.git

🚀 Quick Start

1. Using FDB Driver (Legacy)

This dialect runs the legacy fdb driver in a thread pool.

URL Scheme: firebird+fdb_async://

import asyncio
from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import create_async_engine, async_sessionmaker
from sqlalchemy import text

async def main():
    # Format: firebird+fdb_async://user:password@host:port/path/to/db
    dsn = "firebird+fdb_async://sysdba:masterkey@localhost:3050//firebird/data/employee.fdb"
    
    engine = create_async_engine(dsn, echo=True)
    # ... usage is identical for all drivers

2. Using Firebird Driver (Modern)

This dialect uses the modern firebird-driver package (the official driver for Firebird 3.0+), running in a thread pool. It requires Firebird 3.0 or higher.

URL Scheme: firebird+firebird_async://

engine = create_async_engine(
    "firebird+firebird_async://sysdba:masterkey@localhost:3050//firebird/data/employee.fdb?charset=UTF8"
)

3. Using Native Async Driver (firebirdsql)

Warning: The upstream firebirdsql driver currently has issues with asyncio compatibility (bugs causing crashes or incorrect behavior). A patched fork is available at attid/pyfirebirdsql, which fixes the async logic but currently exhibits significantly lower performance (approx. 4x slower than fdb).

URL Scheme: firebird+firebirdsql_async://

engine = create_async_engine(
    "firebird+firebirdsql_async://sysdba:masterkey@localhost:3050//firebird/data/employee.fdb"
)

📊 Performance Comparison

We compared both drivers executing 5000 queries in 8 concurrent tasks (4 raw SQL + 4 ORM).

Benchmark details: 8 concurrent workers, 5000 rows each, total 40k rows.

As seen above, fdb in a thread pool is significantly faster for high-load scenarios.

🔌 Connection String Guide

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.