ZeosLib and Turbo Delphi Explorer

ZeosLib: a set of of database components for MySQL, PostgreSQL, Interbase, Firebird, MS SQL, Sybase, Oracle and SQLite for Delphi, FreePascal/Lazarus, Kylix.

Turbo Delphi Explorer: a free (downloadable) version of Turbo Delphi with some limitations. One of known limititations is inability to install third party components.

Since we can't install ZeosLib design time components within Turbo Delphi Explorer, we can do this approach to use ZeosLib with Turbo Delphi Explorer:

Prepare ZConnection object at runtime, as shown in the following code:

FConnection := TZConnection.Create(Self);
FConnection.Protocol := 'postgresql-8';
FConnection.HostName := '127.0.0.1';
FConnection.Port := 5432;
FConnection.Database := 'yourdatabase';
FConnection.User := 'yourusername';
FConnection.Password := 'yourpassword';
FConnection.Connect;

Prepare one of ZeosLib dataset compatible component, e.g. TZQuery:

FQuery := TZQuery.Create(Self);
FQuery.Connection := FConnection;
FQuery.SQL.Add('select * from yourtable');
FQuery.Open;

We can than do any usual thing, connecting TZQuery object with provided data access component. This is one possible example:

DataSetProvider1.Dataset := FQuery;
ClientDataset1.Open;

Done.