Borland Database Engine (BDE) Alternative Guide, corrections
Updates, with corrections.
Correction 1 - BDE and Delphi
BDE is installable but there is no TTable and TQuery in Delphi’s tool palette since Delphi XE7.
Delphi 7 users have a hard time to modernize the BDE. There’s a download in Embarcadero’s download page for Delphi 12, but only to run Delphi apps, not to edit and recompile existing source-code.
According to a StackOverflow post -
BDE, our oldest database solution, has reached the final stage of deprecation, and has been removed from RAD Studio. This includes the Bde.DBBdeWeb and Bde.DBTables units. Instead, use newer database technologies such as FireDAC. For migration, see Migrating BDE Applications to FireDAC. If you need to continue using BDE, an external installer is available on the Registered Users site.
For developers updating from Delphi 7 to Delphi 12.2 (latest as of December 2024) the migration path would entail:
Delphi 7 →Ensure code is compatible with Delphi 2009 (first version of Delphi with Unicode support) → Delphi XE7 (update source-code to Delphi XE7) Delphi XE12.2→ change to a BDE alternative.
Compare both apps side-by-side, using a Delphi XE12.2 BDE vs. Delphi XE12.2 non-BDE version.
You can skip Delphi 2009 - depending on component support. The last versions of many Delphi components were Delphi 2009 DCUs (as of torry.net) - where, from Delphi 2010, Delphi XE1 onwards, the great extinction of component vendors means for hapless users who didn’t buy source-code or have great difficulty upgrading from Delphi 7 to Delphi 2009 and above, due to extensive changes required to their source-code.
Correction 1A - Installing BDE to Delphi’s tool palette
The BDE installer has a bad habit of not installing the BPL file -
Step 1. Click on Component > Install Component.
Step 2. Click Add…
Step 3. Select the file c:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\23.0\bin\dclbde290.bpl (for Delphi 12.0, 12.1, 12.2)*
(* Use the wildcard dclbde*.bpl if using other Delphi versions)
Did you see it?
Step 4. The Embarcadero BDE DB Components is installed.
Now you have TTable, TQuery and other BDE related components.
Correction 2 - NexusDB Server not royalty-free
NexusDB server IS royalty free. This section is the part that is not royalty-free - AWE DLL usage, which is licensed per machine installation. If there was a confusion or misrepresentation the error was corrected.
The original article is at:
Borland Database Engine (BDE) Alternative Guide.