The Informix Zone - development

IBM strengthens Informix-Team with Young Professionals

eherber — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:04:51 +0200

IBM strengthens Informix-Team with Young Professionals

IBM reacts to the heavy demand for Informix Dynamic Server, which was voted the product with the highest customer satisfaction in a recent survey.

I am glad to introduce Jannis Dorlöchter on The Informix-Zone who will start, as of now, as a Technical Enablement Consultant. Jannis is assigned to the IBM Lab in Böblingen, Germany.

Jannis successfully graduated this year September with a German Diploma-Degree (Berufsakademie) in Applied Computer Science.
He wrote his final year thesis with the title Feedback Based Database Statistics for Informix Dynamic Server in North San José, California, where he was directly integrated into the Informix-Development Team.

Since October, he is dedicated to the Informix Business Partner Enablement for the corresponding regions of the IOTs NE, SW & CEEMEA. His responsibility is to support Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with their implementation and development of Informix based solutions.

Jannis extends the Data Management Business Partner Enablement Team from Dittmar Hägele. This team, which operates from Böblingen (Germany), already supports other Information Management products and is part of a worldwide Partner Support Organization that is directly attached to Development.

Through Jannis, the European partners will receive valuable support for the planning and enablement of their Informix-based solutions.

Jannis' Email-Address is: jannis.dorloechter@de.ibm.com

Use this new Informix-Resource for your business! INFORMIX is on the rise again!

(german content)

IBM verstärkt Informix-Team mit Nachwuchskräften

IBM reagiert auch hier in Deutschland auf die starke Nachfrage nach dem Informix Dynamic Server, der in einer aktuelle Umfrage die höchste Kundenzufriedenheit aller Produkte erzielte. Ich freue mich Jannis Dorlöchter, der ab sofort als Technical Enablement Consultant tätig ist, auf der Informix Zone vorstellen zu dürfen. Jannis ist dem IBM Labor in Böblingen zugeordnet.

Jannis hat im September diesen Jahres sein BA-Studium erfolgreich als Diplom-Informatiker (BA) in der Fachrichtung Angewandte Informatik abgeschlossen. Seine Diplomarbeit mit dem Titel Feedback Based Database Statistics for Informix Dynamic Server erstellte er in North San José, Kalifornien und war dort direkt in das Informix-Entwicklungsteam integriert.

Seit Oktober ist er für das Informix Business Partner Enablement im Bereich der IOTs NE, SW & CEEMEA zuständig.
Seine Aufgabe besteht darin, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) bei der Implementierung und Entwicklung von Informix basierten Lösungen zu unterstützen.

Jannis verstärkt das Data Management Business Partner Enablement Team von Dittmar Hägele. Neben Informix werden aus dem Böblinger Team auch wichtige Partner in anderen Produktfeldern unterstützt. Das Team in Böblingen ist Bestandteil einer weltweiten Partner Support Organisation und direkt dem Development zugeordnet.

Durch Jannis finden nun auch die für den europäischen Raum wichtigen Partner Unterstützung bei der Planung und beim Enablement ihrer Informix basierten Lösungen.

Jannis Email-Adresse lautet: jannis.dorloechter@de.ibm.com.

Nutzen Sie diese neue Informix-Ressource für Ihr Business, denn INFORMIX ist wieder angesagt !

Start Developing with the Linux/IDS Virtual Appliance

eherber — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:02:15 +0200

Start Developing with the Linux/IDS Virtual Appliance

Amazing news for developers ! The IBM/Informix team has created a virtual appliance based on VMWare and Suse Linux. The appliance allows developers to get familiar with INFORMIX technology and immediately start the development of applications that work with this superior IBM data server.

You can find more detailed information about the IDS Virtual Appliance at Guy's Blog:

Isn't it time for you to move to the world's most reliable data server that achieved the highest customer satisfaction from all products in a recent survey ?

IDS is among IBM's top selling products and the driving force behind the growth in IBM's database business. Convince yourself why INFORMIX is the best choice for database application development !

Why choose IDS?

Spokey — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:51:33 +0200

I discovered a new blogger today. This post was pointed out to me by another IBMer:

There are three main benefits adoption of one platform over another can offer a developer. These benefits are captured in the following "laws" of platform adoption

Developers adopt a platform when it offers differentiation from competitors: In competitive software markets, building an application that stands out from the crowd is important. Platforms or technologies that enable developers to provide features that are unique to the application, even just temporarily, are thus valuable to developers in such markets. Typically, if these features are truly valuable to end users this leads to a "keeping up with the Joneses" effect where the majority applications in that space eventually adopt this platform. Recent examples of this include Flash video, AJAX and the Flickr API.

Developers adopt a platform when it reduces the cost of software development: Building software is a labor intensive, complicated and error prone process which often results in failure. This makes software development an expensive undertaking. Platforms which reduce the cost of development are thus very valuable to developers. Platforms like Java and the .NET Framework reduced the cost of software development compared to building applications using C and C++. In recent years, platforms based on dynamic languages such as Ruby On Rails and Django have become increasingly popular for building Web applications as they offer simpler development options compared to using "enterprise" platforms like Java.

Developers adopt a platform when it provides reach and/or better distribution: Every platform choice places a limit on which users the developer can reach. Building a Facebook application limits you to building applications for Facebook users, building an iPhone application limits you to people running Apple's phone and building an AJAX application limits you to users of modern browsers who don't have JavaScript disabled. In all of the aforementioned cases, the reach of the application platform is in the millions of users. Additionally, in all of the aforementioned cases there are alternative platforms that developers could choose that do not as many addressable end users and thus have less reach.

Distribution is another value add that modern platforms have begun to offer which augments the reach of the platform. The Facebook platform offers several viral distribution mechanisms for applications which enables applications to get noticed by end users and spread organically among users without explicit action by the developer. The Apple iPhone has the App Store which is the single, well-integrated entry point for users to discover and purchase applications for the device. Thus even though the iPhone may have users than other smart phone platforms, targeting the iPhone platform may still be more attractive than targeting other platforms due to its superior distribution channel for applications built on its platform.

Sometimes developers adopt platforms due to external effects such as management mandate or peer pressure but even in these cases the underlying justification is usually one or more of the benefits above. These laws mean different things for the various participants in the software ecosystem.

For software vendors, they clarify that delivering a software platform isn't just about delivering a technology or a set of APIs. The value proposition to developers with regards to the three laws of adoption must be clearly shown to get developers to accept the platform. Smart platform vendors should pick one or more of these axes as the value proposition of their platform and hammer it home. Good examples of these approaches include how Google has been hammering home the 'reach' benefit of adopting OpenSocial or how Erlang evangelists have been pitching it as a solution to the multicore crises given that building concurrent applications is still an expensive endeavor in today's popular programming languages.

For developers, they explain how to evaluate a platform and why some platforms get traction among their peers while others do not. So if you are a fan of the Common Lisp or the Pownce API, these laws of platform adoption explain why developers have flocked to other platforms in their stead.

So, given that IDS can do things that no other database can, can reduce the TCO of a sale significantly by making much more efficient use of hardware and given that you can draw on IBM's massive reach to help sell your application, why aren't you using IDS yet?

Extending the Open Admin Tool (OAT)

eherber — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:57:05 +0200

Extending the Open Admin Tool (OAT)

If you like programming in PHP, you might be interested in developing new functionality for the OAT (Open Admin Tool). A new Plug-In Manager makes it now easier to develop and integrate your own OAT PHP modules. An interesting article from Erika Von Bargen, which describes this new functionality, has been recently published on IBM developerWorks:

Build plug-ins for IBM's OpenAdmin Tool for IDS

In the next Chat with the Lab webcast John Miller will present the new features of the OAT:

Webcast: What's New with the OAT ?

More information about the OAT can be found here:

IBM on Demand Webcasts

eherber — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:32:29 +0200

IBM on Demand Webcasts

New IBM on Demand Webcasts covering Informix Dynamic Server are available at the IBM website (registration required):

Carlton Doe - Developing IDS applications for Mac OS X
Jacques Roy - Developing and managing transaction intensive solutions for your industry

A whole bunch of new Informix articles

eherber — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:40:51 +0200

A whole bunch of new INFORMIX articles

During the last 3-4 weeks a whole bunch of interesting new articles about INFORMIX technology has been published on IBM developerWorks.

First of all I like to promote the article about IDS/Linux/Xen written by my friend Martin Fuerderer (IBM IDS development group Munich/Germany) and Nicole Neubuerger (student at the University of Applied Sciences Munich). The article provides a great overview about IDS running on Linux in a Xen virtual machine:

Running IDS on Linux in Xen hypervisor

The new Version 2.21 of the IDS OpenAdmin Tool is available for download. Several articles describe in great detail how to install, configure and use the OAT for your daily work with IDS 11.1 and 11.5:

Developers might take a look at the following article which describes the IBM Data Studio software for IDS and DB2:

IBM Data Studio software: The big picture

For those who prefer hardcore programming using Esql/C, there is an interesting article talking about optimizing cursor operations in your code. Esql/C is still a popular option when it comes to application development because it delivers great performance and efficient use of system resources due to the compiled code:

Optimize the cursor in IDS with ESQL/C

For the IDS 11.5 fans there is a new article about the sophisticate replication capabilities of INFORMIX:

Replication technologies in IDS

And another one talking about the dynamic SQL support in stored procedures available with IDS 11.5. This functionality is a great enhancement to the Informix SPL as it allows a lot more flexibility when writing stored procedure code:

Dynamic SQL support in IDS Stored Procedure Language

The newest updates in the various INFORMIX Blogosphere can always be monitored thru The Informix Zone:

Have fun !

Informix Code exchange at IBM developerWorks

eherber — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:37:18 +0200

Informix Code Exchange at IBM developerWorks

Share your clever scripts and code snippets on the the new Informix Code Exchange website at IBM developerWorks:

IBM developer Works - Informix Code Exchange

Another great place to look for existing scripts and programs around IDS is the Software Repository at IIUG:

IIUG - Informix Software Repository

Talking with Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby to IDS

eherber — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 09:04:49 +0100

Creating a Powerful Mixture

This article describes the database interfaces of popular script languages like Perl, PHP, Python or Ruby which provide direct access to data stored in Informix Dynamic Server.

Powerful Script Languages
Powerful IDS Capabilities
Best of Breed
Database Abstraction Layer
IDS and Perl
IDS and PHP
IDS and Python
IDS and Ruby

Powerful Script Languages

Script languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby are getting more and more popular. Beside rapid prototyping capabilities they also allow the development of complex software projects in a time-saving and efficient manner.

Powerful Informix Capabilities

Inormix Dynamic Server is a strategic data server inside the IBM Information Management Division that is well known for it's outstanding capabilities:

Impressive Transaction Performance
High Reliability and First Class Support
Rich, sophisticated Extensibility Features
Backward Compatibility and Painless Version Upgrades
Powerful Replication Solutions inside the DBMS Kernel
Hardware gentle, scalable Multithreading Architecture
Extremely low Administration Overhead

Script Languages + IDS = Powerful Mixture

Combining the advantages of Perl, PHP, Python or Ruby with IBM's cult database Informix Dynamic Server results in an extremly efficient software platform. A platform that is well primed for increasing data volumes and the most demanding high availability requirements.

Database Abstraction Layer

All four script languages offer a database abstraction layer which allows the programming of portable database applications:

The Informix specific implementations of those database abstraction layers are all programmed in Esql/C. In order to compile the driver you need beside a C compiler the free of charge Informix Client SDK software installed. The Client SDK can be downloaded from here:

Free Download of Client SDK

Perl has a long history and is still one of the most popular scripting languages available today. Beside the development of web based applications, Perl is heavily used in the area of system administration automation on Unix and Linux systems. Another prominent Perl area is the extraction and conversion of data due to it's outstanding text processing capabilities.

Perl provides a rich offering of additional modules for almost every task, just take a look at the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). The DBI (DataBase Interface) is the well established standard for accessing databases from Perl. It defines a set of abstract methods which are implemented by the underlaying DataBase Driver (DBD). The driver for accessing an Informix database is called DBD::Informix and it has been written by Jonathan Leffler, a superb Informix expert and architect of Informix@IBM. DBD::Informix is well-engineered and contains an excellent documentation.

Installation steps for DB-API DBD::Informix

Download DBD::Informix
gzcat <perl_ifx_archive> | tar xvf -
cd <perl_ifx_archive_dir>
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

Example Program

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;
use DBI;

# ------------------------------------
# open connection to database 'stores'
# ------------------------------------
my $dbh = DBI->connect
          (
             "DBI:Informix:stores",
             '',
             '',
             { PrintError => 0, RaiseError => 1, AutoCommit => 0 }
          );

# ----------------
# open transaction
# ----------------
$dbh->do("begin");

# --------------------------------------
# prepare and execute 'select' statement
# --------------------------------------
my $sth1 =$dbh->prepare("select code, sname from state");
$sth1->execute();

# --------------------------
# prepare 'delete' statement
# --------------------------
my $sth2 = $dbh->prepare("delete from state where code = ?");

# ---------------------
# fetch thru result set
# ---------------------
while (my $row = $sth1->fetchrow_hashref())
{

    # -------------------------------------------
    # delete row if column 'code' begins with 'C'
    # -------------------------------------------
   if ($row->{code} =~ /^C/)
   {
      $sth2->bind_param(1, $row->{code});
      $sth2->execute();
      print sprintf("DELETED: %-2s %-15s\n", $row->{code}, $row->{sname});
      next;
   }

   # --------
   # show row
   # --------
   print sprintf("%-2s %-15s\n", $row->{code}, $row->{sname});

}

# ---------------------------------------
# commit transaction and close connection
# ---------------------------------------
$dbh->do("commit");
$dbh->disconnect();

exit 0;

More Information on Perl and DBD::Informix

Resource	Location/URL
Perl Home	http://www.perl.org
Learning Perl	http://learn.perl.org
Download DBD::Informix	DBD::Informix
J. Leffler: IDS and Open Source	ids_opensource_jleffler.ppt
D. Priest: Using Perl & DBI	perl_dbi_dpriest.pdf

PHP is the language of the Web and contains an awesome function library in this area. It is the foundation for many commercial and non-commerical websites today. PHP offers a Perl like syntax, is easy to learn and allows newbies to be quickly productive. In contrast to Perl the PHP programming instructions are directly embedded in the HTML page which seems to be more intuitive to most developers. However beyond the Web, languages like Perl and Python are more dominant than PHP.

PHP 5 offers a database abstraction layer called PDO (PHP Data Objects) which is included in PHP 5.1. PDO_INFORMIX is the Informix specific implementation of this abstraction layer developed by Krishna Raman and Kellen Bombardier.

Installation steps for DB-API PDO_INFORMIX with PHP 5.1

Download PDO_INFORMIX
Create PHP with PDO as shared extension

configure -with-zlib -enable-pdo=shared

Install Informix PDO Modul
- pear install PDO_INFORMIX
Add entries to php.ini:
- extension=pdo.so
- extension=pdo_informix.so

More detailled instructions about installing and configuring PDO can be found here.

Example Program

<?php

# ------------------------------------
# open connection to database 'stores'
# ------------------------------------
$dbh = new PDO("informix:host=starship2; service=1753; database=stores; server=starship2; protocol=onsoctcp");

# ----------------
# open transaction
# ----------------
$dbh->beginTransaction();

# --------------------------------------
# prepare and execute 'select' statement
# --------------------------------------
$sth1 = $dbh->prepare("select code, sname from state");
$sth1->execute();

# --------------------------
# prepare 'delete' statement
# --------------------------
$sth2 = $dbh->prepare("delete from state where code = ?");

# ---------------------
# fetch thru result set
# ---------------------
while( $row = $sth1->fetch() )
{
    # -------------------------------------------
    # delete row if column 'code' begins with 'C'
    # -------------------------------------------
   if (strncmp($row['CODE'], "C", 1) == 0)
   {
      $sth2->BindParam(1, $row['CODE']);
      $sth2->execute();
      printf("DELETED: %-2s %-15s\n", $row['CODE'], $row['SNAME']);
      continue;
   }

    # --------
    # show row
    # --------
    printf("%-2s %-15s\n", $row['CODE'], $row['SNAME']);

}

# ---------------------------------------
# commit transaction and close connection
# ---------------------------------------
$dbh->commit();
$dbh = null;

?>

More Information on PHP and PDO_INFORMIX

Resource	Location/URL
PHP Home	http://www.php.net
Learning PHP	http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
Download PDO_INFORMIX	PDO_INFORMIX
J-G. Perrin: PHP Development with IDS	php_jpg.ppt
IBM Redbook about PHP Development with IDS	http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247218.html
How to install, configure Apache,PHP,IDS on Linux	IBM developerWorks article
Google Maps API and PHP/IDS on Linux	IBM developerWorks article

Python is getting more and more popular. It has a clean, object-oriented design. Scripts written in Python have a clean structure and easy to read and maintain. The basic version of Python already contains a whole bunch of useful modules. This is called the Python batteries included philosophy, an interesting analogy to IDS Enterprise Edition which is also delivered with batteries included (Fragmentation, HDR, ER, HPL...).

There is also an interesting second implementation of Python called Jython. Jython is a pure Java implementation of the Python language and allows the developer to use Java class libraries (for example JDBC) directly in their Jython code. Check it out.

Python has quite a wide range of use. It is perfectly suited for developing ambitious software projects. However in the Web environment Perl and particulary PHP are more dominant.

The standard for accessing databases from Python is the DB-API. Carsten Haese has developed the Informix specific implemenation of this abstraction layer called the InformixDB driver.

Installation steps for DB-API InformixDB

Download DB-API InformixDB
gzcat <python_ifx_archiv> | tar xvf -
cd <python_ifx_dir>
python setup.py build_ext
python setup.py install

Example Program

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys
import informixdb  # import the InformixDB module

# ------------------------------------
# open connection to database 'stores'
# ------------------------------------
conn = informixdb.connect("stores")

# ----------------------------------
# allocate cursor and execute select
# ----------------------------------
cursor1 = conn.cursor(rowformat = informixdb.ROW_AS_DICT)
cursor1.execute('select code, sname from state')

# --------------------------
# prepare 'delete' statement
# --------------------------
cursor2 = conn.cursor()

# ---------------------
# fetch thru result set
# ---------------------
for row in cursor1:

    # -------------------------------------------
    # delete row if column 'code' begins with 'C'
    # -------------------------------------------
    if row['code'][0] == 'C':
        cursor2.execute('delete from state where code = ?', (row['code'],))
        print "DELETED: %-2s %-15s" % (row['code'], row['sname'])
        continue

   # --------
   # show row
   # --------
   print "%-2s %-15s" % (row['code'], row['sname'])


# ---------------------------------------
# commit transaction and close connection
# ---------------------------------------
conn.commit()
conn.close()

sys.exit(0);

More Information on Python and InformixDB

Resource	Location/URL
Python Home	http://www.python.org
Learning Python	http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html
Download DB-API InformixDB	DB-API InformixDB
C. Haese: The Python InformixDB API	python_dbi_khaese.pdf

Ruby seems to be an interesting alternative to the well established script languages like Perl, PHP and Python. With the Ruby on Rails web framework, Ruby is getting more and more important in the professional web development space.

Ruby does also provide a database independent API called DBI. The actual Ruby/Informix driver written by Gerardo Santana Gomez Garrido does currently not use the DBI. Ruby/Informix is a Ruby extension written in Esql/C. Even without the DBI/DBD wrapper, it can be perfectly used to access Informix databases from the Ruby programming language. An Informix adapter for Ruby on Rails is also available (check the link section below).

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to test Ruby myself, but Gerado was so kind to translate my example program to Ruby/Informix.

Installation steps for DB-API Ruby-Informix

Here are two documents that might help:

Example Program

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby -w

require 'informix'

# ------------------------------------
# open connection to database 'stores'
# ------------------------------------
db = Informix.connect('stores')

# ----------------
# open transaction
# ----------------
db.transaction {

# --------------------------------------
# prepare cursor for 'select' statement
# --------------------------------------
  cursor = db.cursor("select code, sname from state")

# --------------------------
# prepare 'delete' statement
# --------------------------
  stmt_delete = db.prepare("delete from state where code = ?")

# ---------------------
# open cursor and fetch thru result set
# ---------------------
  cursor.open.each_hash {|row|
    # -------------------------------------------
    # delete row if column 'code' begins with 'C'
    # -------------------------------------------
    if row['code'][0].chr == 'C'
      stmt_delete.execute(row['code'])
      printf("DELETED: %-2s %-15s\n", row['code'], row['sname'])
      next
    end

    # --------
    # show row
    # --------
    printf("%-2s %-15s\n", row['code'], row['sname'])
  }.close

# ---------------------------------------
# commit transaction
# ---------------------------------------
}

# ---------------------------------------
# close connection
# ---------------------------------------
db.close

More Information on Ruby and InformixDB

Resource	Location/URL
Ruby Home	http://www.ruby-lang.org/en
Learning Ruby	http://sitekreator.com/satishtalim/toc.html
Download Ruby/Informix API	DB-API Ruby-Informix
Download Informix/Rails Adapter	Informix Adapter for Ruby Rails
Informix on Rails	Guy Bowerman's Summary