Basic concepts > BDE Objects > Database drivers

Each driver is implicitly loaded by the system when an application first requests a service from that driver. At that time, any configurable settings found in the Windows Registry or the Borland Database Engine (BDE) configuration file (IDAPI.CFG) related to this driver are used to initialize it. Examples of configurable settings are the default table level and the language driver to be used when the table is created.

Drivers are owned by the client or the system; once a driver is loaded, all other clients registered with BDE have access to it.

The application developer can also inquire about driver capabilities, such as whether or not the driver supports transactions.

dBASE, Paradox, Access, FoxPro, and text drivers

The standard drivers for Paradox, dBASE, Access, FoxPro, and text databases are shipped with BDE.

SQL drivers

For server-based SQL database systems such as Informix, DB2, InterBase, Oracle, and Sybase separate native BDE SQL drivers are available.

ODBC drivers

Any ODBC driver can be used with BDE, because BDE has an ODBC connectivity socket. The rich features of BDE, such as navigational access to data, bi-directional cursors, and cross-database operations, are also automatically enabled even when an ODBC driver is in use. Enhanced ODBC connectivity. BDE functions like DbiAddAlias and DbiOpenDatabase automatically add ODBC drivers and data sources as BDE aliases to the active session when they aren't currently stored in the configuration file. The BDE also supports ODBC 3 drivers.