When developing applications with Xojo, choosing the right backend is crucial for managing data efficiently. Traditionally, Xojo developers rely on SQL databases such as SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL for their desktop, web, and mobile applications. However, there is an alternative that provides a more flexible and modern approach to backend development: PocketBase.

PocketBase is an open-source backend perfect for your multi-platform Xojo application. It offers a simple-to-use API and a built-in admin panel to manage the data from any web browser. No other tool such as MySQL, Workbench, or SQL Studio is needed. In this post, I will explain how it compares to traditional SQL databases and demonstrate how to integrate it into a Xojo project.

Why Choose PocketBase for Your Xojo App Backend?

PocketBase is a lightweight, self-hosted backend designed for simplicity and flexibility. Unlike traditional SQL databases that require a separate backend service or API layer, PocketBase is an all-in-one solution that combines the database and API.

Key Features:

Embedded Database – Powered by SQLite, eliminating the need for a separate database server.

Built-in User Authentication – Supports email/password logins, OAuth2 sign-ups, and one-time password (OTP) with minimal setup.

File Storage – Store and retrieve files locally or via S3.

Cross-Platform Compatibility – Runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Can communicate via URLConnection making it ideal for Xojo’s desktop, web, and mobile platforms.

Easy Deployment – A single binary file that can be self-hosted or deployed anywhere with minimal configuration.

Setting Up PocketBase for a Xojo App

To get started, I have simplified some steps below. If you get stuck or want more in-depth instructions take a look at the documentation.

• Download PocketBase
  • Visit PocketBase and download the latest release for your operating system.
  • Extract the files to your project directory.
• Run PocketBase
  • Start the PocketBase server by navigating to the extracted folder in the command prompt/terminal.
  • Run the command: ./pocketbase serve to start the server.
• Access the Admin Panel
  • Open http://127.0.0.1:8090/_/ in a web browser and set up an admin account.
• Add a User
  • In the PocketBase admin panel, create a new record in the users collection. (Collections are the equivalent of a table in SQL.)

Connect Xojo to PocketBase

Now that your PocketBase server is running, integrate authentication into your Xojo desktop app. In this example, we will handle authentication in the open event of the main window. This will demonstrate how Xojo interacts with PocketBase’s authentication API.

Implement the Login Request

Add the following code to the open event of your main window:

Var userEmail As String = "email@email.com"
Var userPassword As String = "MyPassword!"
Var loginURL As String = "http://127.0.0.1:8090" + "/api/collections/users/auth-with-password"
Var conn As New URLConnection
conn.RequestHeader("Content-Type") = "application/json"
 
Var loginPayload As New JSONItem
loginPayload.Value("identity" ) = userEmail
loginPayload.Value("password") = userPassword
conn.SetRequestContent(loginPayload.ToString, "application/json")
 
Var loginResponse As String = conn.SendSync("POST", loginURL)
Var jsonResponse As New JSONItem(loginResponse)
Var userInfo As JSONItem = jsonResponse.Lookup("record", New JSONItem)
Var userID As String = userInfo.Lookup("id", "")
Var authToken As String = jsonResponse.Lookup("token", "")
 
If authToken.Length > 0 Then
  MessageBox("Login successful! Welcome, User ID: " + userID)
Else
  MessageBox("Login failed. Please check your credentials.")
End If

Update Your Credentials and URL

Replace userEmail and userPassword with the credentials you used to create a user in PocketBase. Also, ensure the loginURL matches your PocketBase instance (without /_/ at the end).

Run The App

Launch your Xojo app. If authentication is successful, a message box will display the user’s ID. Otherwise, you will see an error message indicating that the credentials are incorrect.

Wrapping Up

In this article, you have successfully set up a PocketBase server, created a record, and integrated authentication into your Xojo app. PocketBase simplifies backend development by handling authentication and data storage—all without the need for a traditional SQL database.

With PocketBase, there is no need to set up complex user tables, hash passwords, or build a custom API. Collections can be easily managed directly from the web via the admin panel. This means you can spend less time managing infrastructure and more time focusing on bringing your app to market.

To help you get started, I’ve created a collection of example projects, which you can find here:

Xojo-Pocketbase-Examples

If you’d like to discuss how Iron Elephant Solutions has used Xojo and PocketBase in real-world applications, feel free to reach out through our website or add me on LinkedIn.

Ezekiel Burke is the founder of Iron Elephant Solutions. He focuses on building custom, scalable, and affordable software that helps businesses work smarter. With 15+ years of experience, he specializes in full-stack development, process automation and systems integration, creating solutions that simplify complex workflows.

iOS Notifications

Xojo Cloud can function as an Apple Push Notification system (APNs) for handling iOS push notifications. This works with Xojo and non-Xojo iOS apps. All Xojo Cloud servers are pre-configured to send remote notifications. Unlike many other cloud hosts, there is no extra charge for this feature nor is there any limit as to how many notifications you can send.

To send remote notifications from your iOS app you’ll need to go to the Apple Developer website to do these tasks:

1. Add the Push Notifications feature to the App ID.
2. Generate an Apple Push Services certificate.

In Xojo you need to enable the Remote Notifications entitlement for your app in the Capabilities section of the iOS Build Settings Advanced tab.

The final step is to upload your Push Services certificate using the Xojo Cloud control panel.

With super-easy access and no limits for notifications, Xojo Cloud can serve as a great APNs for handling your iOS notification needs.

Database Servers

Most desktop apps use a database of some kind and many are client/server database apps that talk directly to the database server. With Xojo Cloud you can host PostgreSQL or MariaDB/MySQL database servers and connect to them using an SSH tunnel for security purposes.

Setting up a database server on your Xojo Cloud is as easy as checking a box in the control panel.

You can turn on PostgreSQL or MySQL/MariaDB. If your Xojo Cloud server is large enough you could even do both.

If you want to access a database on Xojo Cloud from a desktop app, you will have to enable the SSH Tunnel and then connect to the tunnel from the computer. An SSH tunnel is a secure connection between your computer and another (in this case your Xojo Cloud server) which is used for transmitting data on a specific port. In essence, it creates a private connection through the internet which allows you to see into your server on the other end and connect to a particular service there.

To create a tunnel between a computer and your Xojo Cloud server, you first need to turn on the tunnel capability on your Xojo Cloud server. Go to your control panel and click the “SSH Tunnel” checkbox. You will be presented with a generated username and a password which you will use later for establishing the connection.

On macOS and Linux, you can use a terminal command to access the tunnel (replace username and ipaddress as appropriate; you’ll be prompted for the password).

Use this command to tunnel to PostgreSQL:

ssh -L 5432:localhost:5432 username@ipaddress -N

Use this command to tunnel to MySQL:

ssh -L 3306:localhost:3306 username@ipaddress -N

If you are using Windows, you will need to use an external app such as PuTTY. There are a number of tutorials available on the internet, just put “putty ssh tunnel” into your favorite search engine.

With the tunnel in place you connect to the database as if it were local to the computer. This works with anything, not just Xojo apps.

SFTP

Xojo Cloud offers SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) for file transfer. SFTP is a secure variant of FTP which transmits files over the internet using strong encryption. That way you don’t have to worry about anyone intercepting your username and password or your files as they’re sent to or from your server.

When choosing a client, keep in mind that SFTP is different than FTPS or FTP w/ SSL. They are not interchangeable with one another.

Once you enable SFTP in the Control Panel, you’ll be presented with a dialog showing a generated username and password.

You can now connect using your favorite SFTP client. If you don’t have one, there are a number of free and paid options available including:

• ForkLift
• Transmit
• FileZilla
• CyberDuck

Having a place to store files online is always handy and can be useful when needing to share files with others without having to rely on services such as DropBox.

Web Services

OK, a web service is technically a Xojo web app but it is really an API that is meant to be used by other apps, often desktop or mobile apps. Since a web service doesn’t have any actual UI, you don’t really need to learn how to use the majority of the Xojo Web framework.

Instead you basically add code to the App.HandleURL event to route web service API calls to do specific tasks and then return the results, usually as JSON for the client app to handle.

A web service can be a great way to consolidate code that will be used by desktop and mobile apps, for example.

For example, you could create a Web Service that talks to a database server (such as one of the ones available in Xojo Cloud itself). Your Desktop and Mobile apps can use the same web service to work with the database. All your database-specific code lives in the web service and the client apps make requests and display results.

This is a very common design pattern these days and is a necessary one if you want a mobile app to talk to a database server.

If you want to learn more about web services, here’s a fun webinar to check out:

Learn more about Xojo Cloud today. Xojo Cloud servers start at $49/month, custom servers with more RAM, storage, and virtual CPUs are available. The best way to host your Xojo web apps is so much more than just hosting web apps!

Paul learned to program in BASIC at age 13 and has programmed in more languages than he remembers, with Xojo being an obvious favorite. When not working on Xojo, you can find him talking about retrocomputing at Goto 10 and on Mastodon @lefebvre@hachyderm.io.

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Out With The Old

The old database connections were quite limiting, requiring you to create a new connection and re-enter all the parameters whenever one changed. With our new Database Connection items, you can now easily update specific connection parameters directly in the inspector.

Additionally, you can now choose whether the item will auto-connect or if you prefer to connect to it later in your code.

Connecting to a Specific Database

There are times when you need to connect to a database for debugging and testing, but for the final builds, you want to connect to your production database/server. Setting this up correctly with the old database connection method required creating two separate connection items—one for debug and one for release. With the new Database Connection items, this process is much simpler and fits more easily into the build process. You now have several new Database Connection subitems that can be customized based on the stage of your build. These subitems are linked to the Stage Code in your Shared Build Settings, ensuring that when you build a final release, your database connection uses the correct settings automatically.

Additional Database Features

In addition to this change, there are two new database APIs that may be useful to you:

1. A new method, IsConnected, has been added to the SQLiteDatabase, ODBCDatabase, PostgreSQLDatabase, and MySQLCommunityServer classes. This method returns true if the connection is still active, and false if it is not.
2. We’ve enhanced Database.AddRow with a new signature that returns the unique ID of the newly inserted row. This feature is supported for SQLiteDatabase, ODBCDatabase, PostgreSQLDatabase, and MySQLCommunityServer classes. It is recommended to use this new API instead of the deprecated SQLiteDatabase.LastRowID and MySQLCommunityServer.LastInsertedRowID

Let’s explore how the new Database.AddRow feature can assist you. Previously, only SQLiteDatabase and MySQLCommunityServer had APIs to retrieve the unique ID of the last inserted row. Now, PostgreSQLDatabase and ODBCDatabase also have this capability by using the new Database.AddRow(tableName As String, row As DatabaseRow, idColumnName As String = "") As Integer

The new aspect of this signature is the idColumnName parameter and the return value. For databases that support the SQL RETURNING clause, the idColumnName specifies the column whose value will be returned. For databases that do not support the RETURNING clause, we will use the suitable method for each specific database to return a unique value.

We recognize the significance of databases in your Xojo apps. So with these updates to database connectivity for your desktop, web and console apps, and the addition of new features, we aim to make your database programming easier and more efficient.

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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This paper probably explains the biggest issue regarding SQL that persists to this day: its pronunciation.

I always flip between saying “sequel” and “ess cue ell” depending on context. The authors used SEQUEL as an acronym of Structured English QUEry Language. Over time this was referred to as Structured Query Language and the initialism of SQL took hold. Still, the pronunciation of sequel seems to have also stuck. Anyway, pronounce it how you want — I won’t judge.

I’ve sometimes seen people claim that SQL stands for Standard Query Language. As the above clearly shows, that is not true. And if you’ve used SQL at all with more than one database, you also have empirical evidence that there is not much standard about it beyond the main keywords.

The paper itself is only about 15 pages, so not long at all. I found this surprising as I expected it to be some lengthy and detailed specification written for academics.

But it’s not.

It starts by talking about the relational model of data, a somewhat new concept at the time (first described in 1969), and the predicate calculus, introducing a sublanguage called SQUARE, which strikes me a somewhat functional way of querying relational data. Math nerds do love their functional languages.

The authors then go on to introduce SEQUEL as a substitute for SQUARE and it’s here where we see the first syntax that you might recognize:

SELECT NAME
FROM   EMP
WHERE  DEPT = ’TOY’

Boolean expressions in the WHERE clause are also covered along with functions in the SELECT clause. These are all things still being used to this day.

The main justification the authors use for SEQUEL is that the concepts of predicate calculus and SQUARE require “too much sophistication for the ordinary user”. I won’t argue with that!

They drive that point home by showing how to get data results using some example queries, first by using SQUARE and then comparing to the SEQUEL equivalents. Their first query is this:

Find the names of managers who manage more than ten employees.

Note that for this example, there is a previously defined database with one of the tables as follows:

EMP (NAME, DEPT, MGR, SAL, COMM)

The SQUARE example looks like this:

I’m not going to even try to explain this. Read the paper if you’re curious.

Here’s the SEQUEL version:

SELECT   MGR
FROM     EMP
GROUP BY MGR
WHERE    COUNT (NAME) > 10

Well, now. That certainly makes more sense to me. I’ll bet that everyone reading this knows exactly how to parse out the SEQUEL command. It would actually work as-is in a database such as SQLite today!

There are other examples in the paper as well. Like I said, it’s somewhat short so you might find it to be an interesting read.

Happy 50th Birthday, SEQUEL (SQL)!!

Paul learned to program in BASIC at age 13 and has programmed in more languages than he remembers, with Xojo being an obvious favorite. When not working on Xojo, you can find him talking about retrocomputing at Goto 10 and on Mastodon @lefebvre@hachyderm.io.

Xojo Cloud is optimized for Xojo applications. It is specifically designed to provide the best possible performance and stability for Xojo web applications. We optimize Xojo Cloud for performance, so your web apps will run smoothly and seamlessly. You can even monitor server stats from within the Xojo IDE.

Xojo Cloud is focused on simplicity and ease of use and requires zero configuration. Designed with the Xojo developer in mind, Xojo Cloud’s Control Panel makes it easy to deploy and manage web applications. Purchase a server, open a web project in Xojo and click Deploy to upload and install to Xojo Cloud. Not just for web apps, Xojo Cloud includes Apple Push Notification server (APNs) support for your iOS apps. Set up SSL, PostrgeSQL, MySQL, SFTP and a SSH Tunnel with a click in the Xojo Cloud Control Panel (the Control Panel itself is a Xojo web app). The administration of a web server is a significant and constant task; Xojo Cloud allows you to leave that behind and focus on your projects.

We take security very seriously. Xojo Cloud offers advanced security features to protect your data from cyberthreats, including a smart firewall, intrusion and hacking detection and Security-Enhanced Linux. Unlike most hosting solutions that provide little to no security, each Xojo Cloud server is built with our state-of-the-art, industrial-strength, multi-tiered security system woven into its very core. 

Additional features and benefits include daily automatic backups, load balancing and support from the Xojo team. With nine global hosting locations, you are able to host your Xojo web applications close to your users, for speed and an ideal overall experience.

In addition to the standard options, Xojo Cloud servers with more RAM, storage and Virtual CPUs are available. Contact customer support for details about personalized plans. 

Whether you are a seasoned Xojo developer or just getting started, Xojo Cloud provides an intuitive and user-friendly hosting solution for Xojo web applications. Today is a good day to start using Xojo Cloud, visit our website to learn more or see the Xojo Store to pick your package and location.

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Database Support

Xojo works with a wide variety of databases. SQLite is bundled with your Xojo license and is a great beginner database for desktop, web and mobile apps. Xojo includes direct support for SQLite, PostgreSQL and MySQL. Plus, you can use ODBC to connect to just about anything else, such as Oracle, MS-SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Firebird or even IBM iSeries.

Examples

To help you get started, there are many examples in the Examples/Databases folder included with the Xojo Download, including examples that connect to each of the supported databases. You can find a breakdown of the examples included in the Examples folder in the Xojo Programming Language Documentation.

Additionally, you can check out the Eddie’s Electronics sample app (located in Examples/Sample Applications/EddiesElectronics) to see how to share database code between Xojo desktop and Xojo web apps.

DBKit is an example project designed to make it easier to build desktop and web applications that are front-ends to databases. Specifically, DBKit makes it easy to connect a database table to the user interface controls on a layout. DBKit also handles a lot of the interface for you. You can read more about DBKit in the Xojo Documentation.

Read: Documentation

After you have reviewed the examples, the Database Overview in the Xojo Documentation will help with next steps. Remember, Xojo comes bundled with SQLite which is an excellent database for desktop, web and mobile apps. Read more about using SQLite in the Xojo Documentation and check out this SQLite Tutorial for more detail.

Watch: Videos

The Xojo YouTube channel has hundreds of videos on all things Xojo. Here are the most recent Xojo Database videos and playlists:

• Video: Connecting to a Database from Xojo
• Video: Updating a Database from Xojo
• Video: Querying a Database from Xojo
• Video: Managing the UI when Updating a Database
• Video: Using DBKit to easily connect databases to Xojo applications
• Playlist: Using Databases with Xojo – A growing, catch-all playlist for videos related to Xojo and databases.
• Playlist: Xojo and SQLite – SQLite comes bundled with Xojo and is a great database for beginners building desktop, web and mobile apps with Xojo.

Vendor Documentation

Lastly, you should always refer to the vendor-specific documentation for the database you are using to learn the specifics about how that database works, including SQL syntax.

• SQLite
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Oracle Database
• Microsoft SQL Server

Xojo simplifies the development process, reduces complexity and empowers developers to create efficient and functional database applications with relative ease. The Xojo IDE is free to use for development and testing – design, develop, run and debug your app all without a license. Purchase a license when you are ready to compile your apps, licenses start at $149. Visit the Xojo Store to find the license right for your project.

If you have questions after you have reviewed these materials, the Xojo Forum is an accessible and essential resource for Xojo users of all levels. You can also contact Xojo directly with your questions.

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Multiple Databases Supported

Xojo supports a wide variety of databases, including: SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.

In addition, you can use ODBC to connect to other databases such as Access (JET), FoxPro, FileMaker, Firebird and even IBM iSeries (DB2). You’ll always have access to your data using Xojo, read more about connectivity between Xojo and your preferred database.

Flexible Form Design

Xojo includes dozens of controls available for desktop, web and mobile apps. You can use these controls to design any type of user interface that you can imagine. You’ll find controls for buttons, check boxes, popup menus, text fields, text areas, graphics, tabs, progress, lists, HTML, images and more.

Simple and Powerful Programming Language

How can a language be both simple and powerful? Xojo is simple because its language is small, focused and object-oriented. It is powerful because its framework, which is also object-oriented, includes robust capabilities you can start using right away, including: native user interface controls, file management, graphics, text processing, networking, threading and more.

Database Binding for Security

Xojo has built-in support for SQL binding so that you can avoid the security risks that can occur with SQL injection, a type of security vulnerability that can occur when you create SQL statements using simple string manipulation.

Reporting

What good is data without a way to report on it? Xojo desktop apps can use the built-in reporting tool to help you design and display simple reports. And there are also many 3rd party reporting products available for those with more advanced needs or for other platforms.

Documentation

If you are new to this, read about how to get started on database apps in this earlier post. Xojo has an in-depth User Guide, a complete Language Reference, and a playlist of videos about using databases with Xojo. The User Guide even has sections on migrating from Microsoft Access, Visual FoxPro and FileMaker!

Try Xojo Free

Xojo is free to use for learning and development. Download and try it today and see for yourself!

Free
PostgreSQL is completely free to use. It has a license similar to BSD and MIT which means you can use it with no restrictions whatsoever, unlike other open-source databases such as MySQL.

Easy to setup
Want to test PostgreSQL on macOS? You can use Postgres.app to get a working PostgreSQL database just by running a single app with no installation required at all.

Even if you need to install PostgreSQL, easy installers are also available with pre-built binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux.

If you need more support you can turn to EnterpriseDB, which offers PostgreSQL with support.

Often you don’t even have to bother with installing PostgreSQL because many server hosts automatically provide it as an option that you can easily turn on or configure. For example, with Xojo Cloud, you can enable PostgreSQL with a single click in the Control Panel.

With other hosting companies you may have to install PostgreSQL yourself, but steps are often provided. For example, Digital Ocean provides these steps for installing PostgreSQL in CentOS 7.

Powerful
PostgreSQL has all the professional-grade features you expect in a server database. You can have multiple users, multiple databases, stored procedures, robust types for your tables, views, full SQL, backups and more.

Secure
PostgreSQL has SSL for secure connections. It is updated regularly and is used by many, many organizations ensuring that it is kept up-to-date with security updates as necessary. You can find the full PostgreSQL security report here.

Flexible

You can use PostgreSQL with any programming language. Because PostgreSQL is so ubiquitous, nearly any programming language easily connects to it. In Xojo, your code would look like this:

Dim pg As New PostgreSQLDatabase
pg.Host = “sheep”
pg.DatabaseName = “Mary”
pg.Port = 5432
pg.UserName = “lamb”
pg.Password = “foo”
If pg.Connect Then
  // Connected
End If

In PHP, your code looks like this:

$dbconn3 = pg_connect("host=sheep port=5432 dbname=mary user=lamb password=foo");

Lots of Tools
Working with PostgreSQL is much easier when you use a GUI tool. There are many, many tools available such a pgAdmin, Navicat and SQLPro. For a complete list, refer to the PostgreSQL tool wiki page.

Documentation
If you do happen to get stumped while working with PostgreSQL, you’ll find there is lot of information and documentation available. The official documentation is available online here.

There are also dozens of books and information that you can easily find on how to use PostgreSQL, many of which are listed here.

Want to learn even more? Watch this PostgreSQL video.

As the PostgreSQL site says, it is “the world’s most advanced open source database”. Once you give it a try, you will most definitely agree!

One reason that SQL might rank so high is that it is not really a single language. Although the term SQL is used to refer to the default language used with every relational database, each version is different. SQL actually means Structured Query Language, not Standard Query Language as I often hear people refer to it. Every database that uses SQL also uses its own variant of SQL and these variants differ by just enough to be annoying, although the core commands are mostly the same. It reminds me of how BASIC was in the 1970s and 80s with different versions for each computer with nothing but the most basic (pun intended) compatibility between them.

Even though SQL is a programming language, it is not like languages you are likely most familiar with. You use SQL to write database queries that return sets of data so it works differently than just about any other language you might be familiar with (although some versions add some procedural commands).

For example if you wanted to process a bunch of rows in a typical language you might write code like this to loop through all the data:

For Each i As Integer = 0 To row.Ubound
 row(i) = row(i) * 2
Next

In SQL that data would be in a table and you would change the values of all the rows by using an UPDATE command:

UPDATE data SET value = value * 2;

Both effectively do a loop, but they don’t look all that similar.

Another interesting thing about SQL is that it really is a companion to any programming language you use to make apps. Since no one would ever make an actual app using just SQL, but most apps need a database of some kind, SQL becomes the 2nd language that you have to know alongside your primary language.

Xojo works with SQL by using one of its database classes to send SQL directly to the database you are using. For example, to work with a SQLite database you would use the SQLiteDatabase class for desktop, web or console app or the iOSSQLiteDatabase class for iOS apps. Those classes each have two methods to send SQL commands to the database: SQLSelect and SQLExecute. Essentially SQLSelect is used for SQL commands that return sets of data and SQLExecute is used for commands that do an action (such as create a table).

Like other programming languages, Xojo does not care what database you use nor does it care what SQL you are sending to it.

You can learn about some common SQL commands in the Database Operations topic of the User Guide at the Xojo Dev Center.

Sometimes you hear that PostgreSQL is case-insensitive, but it isn’t really. What it actually does is convert your SQL to lowercase by default. So take a look at this SQL:

SELECT FullName FROM Person

This gets converted to:

SELECT fullname FROM person

That is nice if you happen to like to write your queries with mixed casing.

But you’ll start to run into a problem if you’ve actually created the table with case-sensitive names, which happens when you use quotes around the names. For example, consider these SQL CREATE statements:

CREATE TABLE person (fullname VARCHAR(100), address VARCHAR(100))

CREATE TABLE Person (FullName VARCHAR(100), Address VARCHAR(100))

CREATE TABLE "Person" ("FullName" VARCHAR(100), "Address" VARCHAR(100))

In the first two examples, you get a table called “person” with two columns called “fullname” and “address”. That may not be obvious in the second example since the names are not lowercase, but remember that PostgreSQL converts your SQL to lowercase for you.

In the last example, the names are in quotes so their case is maintained. This means you’ll get a table called “Person” with two columns called “FullName” and “Address”. Now what happens if you try to run a query with a table called “Person”? Well, using SQL like this:

SELECT FullName FROM Person

you’ll get a syntax error:

ERROR: relation “person” does not exist
LINE 1: SELECT FullName FROM Person

This is because PostgreSQL is converting “Person” to “person”, but there is no table called “person”. It is actually called “Person”.

To avoid this error you instead have to write the SQL with quotes like this:

SELECT "FullName" FROM "Person"

Obviously that can start to become a bit of a pain, so the moral of the story is don’t use quotes when creating tables or writing SQL queries so that everything is created as lowercase and things will work like you probably expect. You’ll especially want to pay attention to any tools you use to create SQL for you. If you use a tool’s UI to create a table and have a habit of typing in mixed case, the tool might generate SQL (or even the table itself) for you using quotes, which as you can see could mess you up later.

Learn more about PostgreSQL in the Xojo Dev Center.

Xojo Cloud has always taken the headaches out of setting up, securing, maintaining and deploying servers for web apps. Now Xojo Cloud servers are better, stronger and faster- all for the same great price!

This week we made available our new Xojo Cloud servers which are better in just about every way. First, we doubled the amount of RAM in each server. For the Small servers, this means they now have enough RAM to run MySQL and Postgres. Second, we increased the pipe size (which controls how much traffic a server can handle at the same time) by 10 times. Third, we switched the servers from fixed hard disks to faster SSD drives. Finally, for the Medium and Large servers we doubled the number of virtual CPUs to give you more computing power. We did all of this without changing the price of Xojo Cloud.

The change from fixed hard disks to SSDs is important to note because it means these servers no longer use virtual memory. SSDs are more expensive and virtual memory does a lot of writing to disk so virtual memory is no longer available. This means that if your app runs out of memory, it’s going to crash. If you start hearing from users that they have to log back in more often, it could be that your app is running out of memory either because you have a memory leak in your code or because your app simply needs more RAM.

In case of the former, you’ll want to look for places where you create large objects but perhaps never get rid of them. It may also be that your app simply needs more memory than your server has. The good news in this last case (which is more common) is that you can upgrade to a bigger server anytime.  Just contact Customer Service to help you upgrade.

Xojo Cloud servers already save you money by saving you time. Now they give you even more bang for your buck. If you’re building a web app, check out Xojo Cloud today.

Adding a Database

Adding a database server to your Xojo Cloud server is easy! Just go to your Xojo Cloud control panel and click “Enable MySQL” or “Enable PgSQL.” In a moment, you will be presented with a username and password. That’s it!

Connecting to a Database from a Xojo Cloud app:

Connecting to the database server is just as easy:

Dim db as new PostgreSQLDatabase // (or MySQLDatabase)
db.username = "username"
db.password = "password"
db.host = "localhost" // Use "127.0.0.1" for MySQLDatabase
db.port = 5432 // 3306 for MySQL
db.databasename = "your database name"
if db.connect then
  // You're connected!
end if

Note the entry for Host. Your database is only accessible from the server itself. Even if you open a port in the firewall, neither of the database engines (MySQL or PostgreSQL) are listening on the addresses for the server’s IP addresses.

Connecting to a Database from Somewhere Else

Up to now, everything’s been very straightforward, but what happens if you need to access the database from your local machine for testing? What if you want to use a database management tool like pgAdmin, MySQL Workbench or any of the many commercial management tools out there? This is where the power of SSH tunnels come into play.

Before I show you how to make an SSH tunnel, lets talk a little about what they are. An SSH tunnel is a secure connection, between your computer and another (in this case your Xojo Cloud server) which is used for transmitting data on a particular port. In essence, it allows us to create a private connection through the internet which allows you to see into your server on the other end and connect to a particular service there.

To create a tunnel between your computer and your Xojo Cloud server, you first need to turn on the tunnel capability on your server. Go to your control panel and click the “Enable Tunnel” button. You will be presented with a username and a password which you will use later for establishing the connection.

Connecting a Database Management Tool

Most of the database server management tools have the capability to connect using an SSH tunnel. In the dialog used to set up the connection, look for something that says SSH or SSH Tunnel. In most cases, you will need to fill out four fields:

• Host Name or IP Address – Enter the IP address for your Xojo Cloud server
• Port – Enter 22. This is the SSH port number.
• User Name – Enter the user name that was provided to you in the Xojo Cloud control panel when setting up the tunnel.
• Password – Enter the password that was provided to you in the Xojo Cloud control panel when setting up the tunnel.

Now, as far as setting up the connection to the database itself, you will have another set of fields to fill out:

• Host Name or IP Address – Enter “localhost”*
• Port – 5432 for PostgreSQL, 3306 for MySQL
• Database – Enter the user name that was provided to you in the Xojo Cloud control panel when setting up the database server.
• User Name – Enter the user name that was provided to you in the Xojo Cloud control panel when setting up the database server.
• Password – Enter the password that was provided to you in the Xojo Cloud control panel when setting up the database server.

* The reason you enter localhost for the server name is that you want to connect to your side of the tunnel. SSH will do the job of hooking things up on the other end for you.

Voila! You can now connect to your database server to create and edit users, databases, tables, etc.

Manually Creating a Tunnel

Sometimes you need to create a tunnel outside of a management app. This is a great way of testing your app locally while still having it connected to the actual database server. If you are using OS X or Linux, you can just open a Terminal window:

On OS X and Linux the command is quite simple:

ssh -L 5432:localhost:5432 dbadmin@ipaddress -N

If you want to see more information about the tunnel and when it is in use, add -v at the end of that command to use it in verbose mode.

If you are using Windows, I suggest using a program like PuTTY. There are a number of tutorials available on the internet, just put putty ssh tunnel into your favorite search engine. [Xojo Blog Post: Setting up puTTY to create a SSH tunnel from Windows to Xojo Cloud]

That’s it! Connecting a web app to a database server has never been easier and we hope this will encourage you to build bigger and better web apps!

For more information, you can also refer to the Xojo Cloud Databases topic in the docs.

SQLite

SQLite is built-in to Xojo. As of 2015r4, Xojo uses SQLite 3.9.2 (SQLite 3.8.8 is used on iOS). To use SQLite with Xojo, you use the SQLiteDatabase class A similar SQLiteDatabase class is also used for iOS. SQLite is referred to as an “embedded” database because the database engine is embedded into your application. SQLite is a great choice for local databases used by your desktop apps. SQLite is so useful that it is sometimes used to save app preferences and even as a custom file format for some apps! SQLite also works well with web apps that primarily display data and have a low volume of concurrent database writes.

Connecting to a SQLite database is easy:

Dim dbFile As FolderItem = GetFolderItem("MyDatabase.sqlite")
Dim db As New SQLiteDatabase
db.DatabaseFile = dbFile
If db.Connect Then
  MsgBox("Connected!")
Else
  MsgBox("Error: " + db.ErrorMessage)
End If

For more information on using SQLite, refer to its entries in the Reference Guide and User Guide:

• SQLiteDatabase (Desktop, Web, Console)
• SQLiteDatabase (iOS)
• SQLite in User Guide

Or watch one of our webinars:

• SQLite
• Using SQLite

Database Servers

The other database options are fall under the “server” category. For Xojo, this means two things:

1. You’ll need to make sure the appropriate plugin is coped to your Plugins folder.
2. You’ll need a Desktop, Web, Pro or Enterprise version of Xojo.

A database server is much more powerful than SQLite, but also more complicated. The big advantage of a database server is that they are designed for multiple concurrent users. Xojo has built-in support for these database servers: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

Although you need to have a database server installed somewhere that is accessible to your app, connecting to one is just as easy as it is with SQLite. This example connects to a PostgreSQL database server:

Dim db As New PostgreSQLDatabase
db.Host = "192.168.1.172"
db.Port = 5432
db.DatabaseName = "myDatabase"
db.Username = "Bob"
db.Password = "fdf#$uy@"
If db.Connect Then
  //proceed with database operations
Else
  MsgBox("The connection failed.")
End If

Connecting to other database servers is similar. For more information refer to the topics in the Reference Guide, User Guide and our webinars:

• PostgreSQLDatabase
• MySQLCommunityServer
• OracleDatabase
• MSSQLServerDatabase
• Databases in User Guide
• PostgreSQL webinar

ODBC

ODBC is not really a database. It is a database connection protocol. It can be used to connect to database servers for which we do not provide a plugin, such an IBM iSeries (AS/400) database or Microsoft Access. In order to use ODBC to connect to a database you first have to make sure the ODBC driver is installed on your system. Then you usually need to configure it using the ODBC Control Panel or ODBC Adminitrator Tool for your system.

This example prompts you to choose a previously configured ODBC connection (called a DataSourceName or DSN) and attempts to connect to it:

Dim db As New ODBCDatabase
db.DataSource = ""
 // Force user to choose a DSN
If db.Connect Then
 //proceed with database operations
Else
 MsgBox("The connection failed.")
End If

View ODBC in the Reference Guide, User Guide and the ODBC webinar for more information:

• ODBCDatabase
• ODBC in User Guide
• Using ODBC webinar

Data Access

Regardless of how you connected to the database, accessing the data is achieved the same way. You use the SQLSelect method to query the data and the SQLExecute method to run commands. When you query data, the results are stored in a RecordSet. You can interate through the RecordSet to get the data to display or modify it. These and other database topics are covered in the User Guide.

Working with database using Xojo is easy and consistent. So if you are coming from another tool or are simply looking to make your next great app using Xojo, rest assurred that you can connect to the database you need.

(Updated March 10, 2016)