Migrating from MySQL to Firebird in Java Applications

January 02, 2026

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Migrating from MySQL to Firebird can help reduce licensing costs and simplify deployment. This guide shows how to migrate schema, data, and application code.

Step 1: Analyze Schema Differences

Firebird and MySQL have different data types and constraints. Map types carefully:

• VARCHAR maps directly.
• AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL should be replaced with GENERATOR + TRIGGER in Firebird.
• BOOLEAN in MySQL can be mapped to SMALLINT in Firebird.

Step 2: Export and Import Data

Export data from MySQL using mysqldump:

mysqldump -u root -p mydb > mydb.sql

Transform the dump into Firebird-compatible SQL. Tools like FBMigrator or scripts can help with data type conversions. Import into Firebird using isql:

isql -user sysdba -password masterkey localhost:/path/to/yourdb.fdb -i converted.sql

Step 3: Update Java Application Dependencies

Replace MySQL driver with Firebird Jaybird in pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.firebirdsql.jdbc</groupId>
  <artifactId>jaybird-jdk18</artifactId>
  <version>5.0.3.java18</version>
</dependency>

Remove the MySQL driver dependency.

Step 4: Update JDBC Configuration

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost:3050/yourdb
spring.datasource.username=sysdba
spring.datasource.password=masterkey
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver

Step 5: Test Application Queries

• Replace MySQL-specific SQL features (like LIMIT) with Firebird equivalents (FIRST n SKIP m).
• Check for differences in functions such as string concatenation (|| instead of CONCAT).