Announcing node-firebird v2.6.0: TypeScript 7, Query Cancellation, Firebird 6.0 Support, and More

We are thrilled to share the journey of our last 7 releases (from v2.3.3 to v2.6.0), which mark one of the most transformative periods in the history of the node-firebird driver.

With this series of releases, we’ve migrated the driver to native TypeScript 7, implemented native Promise & async/await APIs, added support for Firebird 5.0 and 6.0 features, and introduced robust query cancellation support.

Here is a comprehensive summary of what's new and why you should upgrade today!

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🌟 Key Highlights & Milestones

1. The TypeScript 7 Era

In v2.4.0, we successfully converted the entire project to native TypeScript 7. This ensures type safety across the driver, provides a better developer experience, and guarantees native compilation without overhead.

2. Modern Promises & async/await API

Beginning in v2.5.0 (TypeScript Phase B), we introduced a modern Promise-based API alongside the classic callback structure. You can now write clean, modern asynchronous code using async/await naturally.

3. Query Cancellation via AbortSignal

With the release of v2.6.0, we’ve added full query cancellation support. By using standard JavaScript AbortSignal, you can cancel long-running queries via op_cancel protocol interactions.

4. Firebird 6.0 & 5.0 Feature Parity

node-firebird now fully supports modern database engines:

• Firebird 6.0 Support: SQL Schemas, Tablespaces, Native JSON, Named Arguments mapping, ROW types, and Protocol Version List Limit (maxNegotiatedProtocols).
• Firebird 5.0 Support: Scrollable Cursors, RETURNING Multi-Rows, SKIP LOCKED operations, Parallel Workers, and Inline BLOBs.

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📅 Release-by-Release Breakdown

🚀 v2.6.0 — Query Cancellation

• Query Cancellation: Full implementation of op_cancel allowing you to pass an AbortSignal to cancel queries mid-flight.
• Release Page: v2.6.0 Release Notes

🚀 v2.5.0 — TypeScript Phase B & Safety

• Promises/async-await: Expanded TypeScript Phase B compiler improvements to support async/await structures.
• Security & Logging: SRP handshake logging is now gated strictly behind FIREBIRD_DEBUG, ensuring database credentials and secrets are never leaked in logs.
• Roadmap Updates: Added a comprehensive driver-parity comparison against popular database drivers (like pg and mysql2).
• Release Page: v2.5.0 Release Notes

🚀 v2.4.2 — Documentation Refresher

• Developer Resources: Added a complete table of contents, community/resources index, and a comprehensive contributing guide to encourage community participation.
• Release Page: v2.4.2 Release Notes

🚀 v2.4.1 — Clean Up & Refinement

• Modern Tooling: Refreshed README and ROADMAP for the TypeScript 7 era and tidied up the repository root.
• Release Page: v2.4.1 Release Notes

🚀 v2.4.0 — The Big Upgrade: TypeScript 7 & Firebird 6.0

Our largest release in recent history, packing major feature upgrades:

• TypeScript 7 Migration: Moved the compiler and codebases to native TS7.
• Firebird 6.0 Features: Added SQL Schemas, Tablespaces, Native JSON, ROW type, named argument mappings, and protocol negotiating limits.
• Firebird 5.0 Features: Scrollable Cursors, inline BLOBs, SKIP LOCKED support, and RETURNING clause enhancements.
• Authentication & Wire Encryption: Dynamic srp256/384/512 authentication and modern chacha/chacha64 wire encryption support.
• Stability Fixes: Corrected in-flight event notification duplications, fixed preparation hangs on Firebird 6.0, and prevented callbacks from hanging when a connection is abruptly lost mid-flight.
• Release Page: v2.4.0 Release Notes

🚀 v2.3.4 — Dependency Maintenance

• Lockfile Updates: Routine maintenance and package lock updates to ensure clean and secure builds.
• Release Page: v2.3.4 Release Notes

🚀 v2.3.3 — Protocol Adjustments & Stability

• Connection & Encoding: Connection-level character set mapping fixes, TCP keep-alive settings, and a new connectTimeout parameter.
• BLOB Enhancements: Implemented blobReadChunkSize and serialized blob reading internally to prevent deadlocks under Firebird's concurrent handle limits.
• Platform Support: Added a proxy trap to bind socket methods for seamless compatibility with Deno.
• Release Page: v2.3.3 Release Notes

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🛠️ Upgrading

Getting the latest improvements is as simple as upgrading via npm:

npm install node-firebird@latest

We want to thank all our contributors and the community for their feedback, bug reports, and pull requests that helped make this modern era of node-firebird possible!

Have questions or want to help contribute? Head over to the GitHub Repository and join the discussion.

Working on new Firebird VS code extension , still work in progress

Not bad for a few days of work , There are still lot's of bugs and UI inconsistencies 

ps: It's a fork of existing extension but using updated node drivers and updated roadmap (Firebird 6 support / Typescript 6.x)

pps: I need to recover my MFA Azure Developer account to publish it soon 

Going Native-Free: Introducing the Pure Node.js Wire Driver for Firebird

Published in Engineering • Pull Request #168 Summary

If you have ever built Node.js applications that communicate with a Firebird database, you are likely familiar with the standard setup routine. Traditionally, high-level drivers depended heavily on the native client library (fbclient).

While highly optimized, relying on a native dynamic link library (.dll, .so, or .dylib) frequently meant dealing with tedious cross-platform installation headaches, complex environment paths, and architecture mismatches.

That era is coming to a close. With the merging of Pull Request #168, the node-firebird-drivers ecosystem is taking a massive leap forward by introducing a completely native-free, pure TypeScript/JavaScript implementation: node-firebird-driver-wire.

The Problem: The Heavy Weight of Native Clients

Up until now, configuring Firebird in a modern Node.js environment usually required pointing your package to a local installation of the Firebird client. If you deployed your application inside a streamlined Docker container or onto a serverless environment (like AWS Lambda), getting those native client binaries to coordinate correctly could be a major chore.

The Solution: PR #168 and node-firebird-driver-wire

PR #168 fulfills a highly anticipated community request (tracked under Issue #166) to introduce a pure Node.js wire protocol driver.

Instead of wrapping around C++ bindings or hooking into a local fbclient library, this driver implements Firebird's native network protocol completely from scratch using standard Node.js TCP sockets (net.Socket).

What this means for developers:

• Zero Native Dependencies: You no longer need to ensure that fbclient is installed on your host system.
• Seamless Cross-Platform Portability: Written in pure JS/TS, the code runs identically on Windows, Linux, and macOS without local compilation.
• Streamlined Container Deployment: Building lightweight Docker containers (like Node-Alpine) is straightforward without OS-level database packages.

Architectural Overview

Under the hood, PR #168 establishes a modular separation within the monorepo:

1. node-firebird-driver: The shared interface layer containing universal definitions.
2. node-firebird-driver-native: The legacy client layer that directly talks to the native C++ API.
3. node-firebird-driver-wire (New!): The pure JS/TS layer that encodes and decodes the wire protocol over raw network sockets.

How to Use It

Switching to the wire driver mirrors the syntax of its native counterpart:

import { createWireClient } from 'node-firebird-driver-wire';

async function main() {
    const client = createWireClient();
    
    const attachment = await client.connect('localhost:3050/your-database.fdb', {
        username: 'SYSDBA',
        password: 'masterkey'
    });

    const transaction = await attachment.startTransaction();
    const resultSet = await attachment.execute(transaction, 'SELECT * FROM USERS');
    
    // ... process database logic ...

    await transaction.commit();
    await attachment.disconnect();
}

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Wrapping Up

PR #168 marks a significant milestone for the Node.js and Firebird developer communities. By shedding the requirement for native underlying libraries, node-firebird-driver-wire positions Firebird as a modern, nimble, and serverless-friendly option for JavaScript developers.

Practical Firebird Performance Diagnostics: A Structured Approach

IBPhoenix is pleased to announce the release of a new free ebook:

Practical Firebird Performance Diagnostics: A Structured Approach

Unlike traditional performance tuning guides, this ebook focuses on the reasoning behind successful diagnostics. It introduces a structured framework that helps Firebird professionals move from observed symptoms to defensible explanations by classifying problems, selecting appropriate investigation strategies, interpreting evidence correctly, and using diagnostic tools with purpose.

The book covers the complete diagnostic process, from understanding why investigations fail to interpreting monitoring tables, trace sessions, profiler output, gstat reports, operating system metrics, and modern hardware behavior in the context of Firebird performance.

Whether you’re a database administrator, developer, consultant, or support engineer, this ebook provides a practical methodology for approaching complex performance problems with greater confidence and consistency.

The book is available for free from IBPhoenix store.

Happy reading!