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Extending Informix®
Beyond standard relational database objects, HCL Informix® can be extended to handle specialized data types, access methods, routines, and other objects. Informix includes many built-in extensions that are fully integrated in the database server. Informix also provides DataBlade® modules, which are packages of extended database objects for a particular purpose and that are installed separately from the database server. Alternatively, you can create your own user-defined objects for Informix.
Creating extensions
You can create user-defined data types, routines, access methods, and other database objects to suit your needs. You can use application programming interfaces to write user-defined routines and applications that access data in Informix® databases.
DataBlade® Developers Kit
The DataBlade® Developers Kit (DBDK) guides contain information about the tools you can use to develop and package DataBlade modules, which extend the functionality of HCL Informix® databases.
DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide
The HCL Informix® DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide describes how to use tools to develop and package DataBlade modules.
Programming DataBlade® module routines in C
This section contains information to help you edit and compile C language source code generated by DataBlade®.
Generated code
Tracing and error handling
BladeSmith adds tracing and error handling code throughout the generated source code if the tracing option is set to True when you generate source code in BladeSmith.
Enabling tracing in a database session
After you enable tracing in your DataBlade® module, enable tracing for the database session. By default, when you start a database server session, tracing is disabled.
Register tracing routines

Extending Informix®
Beyond standard relational database objects, HCL Informix® can be extended to handle specialized data types, access methods, routines, and other objects. Informix includes many built-in extensions that are fully integrated in the database server. Informix also provides DataBlade® modules, which are packages of extended database objects for a particular purpose and that are installed separately from the database server. Alternatively, you can create your own user-defined objects for Informix.
- Informix® extensions and DataBlade® modules
  These topics describe how to use built-in database extensions and separately installed DataBlade® modules.
- Creating extensions
  You can create user-defined data types, routines, access methods, and other database objects to suit your needs. You can use application programming interfaces to write user-defined routines and applications that access data in Informix® databases.
  - DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide
    The Informix® DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide describes information about the DataBlade API, the C-language application programming interface (API) provided with HCL Informix.
  - DataBlade® API Function Reference
    The Informix® DataBlade® API Function Reference describes the DataBlade API functions and the subset of Informix ESQL/C functions that the DataBlade API supports.
  - DataBlade® Developers Kit
    The DataBlade® Developers Kit (DBDK) guides contain information about the tools you can use to develop and package DataBlade modules, which extend the functionality of HCL Informix® databases.
    - DataBlade® Module Development Overview
      The HCL Informix® DataBlade® module overview serves as an overview of the HCL Informix DataBlade module development process.
    - DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide
      The HCL Informix® DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide describes how to use tools to develop and package DataBlade modules.
      - Getting started with DataBlade® module development
        This section provides an overview of DataBlade® module development and describes the resources and tools the HCL Informix® database server provides to facilitate development.
      - Design DataBlade® modules
        This section describes the DataBlade® module SQL design issues.
      - Programming guidelines
        Use this section to help you when you write the design specification for your DataBlade® module.
      - Create DataBlade® objects by using BladeSmith
        Use BladeSmith to create DataBlade® modules.
      - Programming DataBlade® module routines in C
        This section contains information to help you edit and compile C language source code generated by DataBlade®.
        Prerequisite tasks
        C programming task overview
        Source files generated by BladeSmith
        When you create objects, BladeSmith generates the source files; some file names are prefixed with the name of the DataBlade® module (indicated by project). By default, BladeSmith creates the source files in the src and src\c subdirectories of the directory that contains the BladeSmith project file.
        Generated code
        Identify the source of generated code
        When BladeSmith generates source code for your DataBlade® module, it uses routines and data structures from various libraries.
        Comments in generated code
        BladeSmith adds comments to the code it generates. Each routine begins with a prologue that describes the purpose of the routine, its arguments, and its return value. Comments throughout the code describe variable declarations and the results of generated C statements and routine calls.
        The MI_FPARAM function argument
        BladeSmith adds an extra argument to all routines it generates: a pointer to an MI_FPARAM structure.
        Server connection handle
        BladeSmith calls mi_open() at the beginning of many of the routines it generates. The mi_open() call obtains a database server connection handle, which is a required argument in many DataBlade® API calls.
        Tracing and error handling
        BladeSmith adds tracing and error handling code throughout the generated source code if the tracing option is set to True when you generate source code in BladeSmith.
        How tracing works
        Tracing is the process of writing status messages for routines to a file. Use tracing for debugging; tracing can generate a high volume of output, which is not appropriate for production databases. By default, tracing is disabled whenever you start a new database session.
        Add tracing and error handling
        To add tracing and error handling to the generated source code, edit the generated source code file and insert DBDK_TRACE macro calls.
        Enabling tracing in a DataBlade® module
        After you generate code with tracing and compile your code, enable tracing in your DataBlade® module.
        Enabling tracing in a database session
        After you enable tracing in your DataBlade® module, enable tracing for the database session. By default, when you start a database server session, tracing is disabled.
        Set your locale
        The system only displays and writes messages to your session that match the locale specified in the session environment variables. Therefore, to see your trace messages, you must set the SERVER_LOCALE environment variable to the same locale you used when you created your messages in BladeSmith.
        Register tracing routines
        Set a trace output file and a trace threshold
        To set the trace output file and the trace threshold, use the TraceSet_project() procedure. The DBDK_TRACE_ENTER() and DBDK_TRACE_EXIT() macros provided by BladeSmith use the trace level 20.
        Standard error messages
        BladeSmith uses a standard set of messages in the code that it generates. These messages are shared by all DataBlade® modules created with BladeSmith and cannot be changed.
        Utility functions generated by BladeSmith
        BladeSmith generates utility functions that it calls from other generated code.
        Edit opaque type support routines in opaque.c
        The following subsections describe the code BladeSmith generates for each routine and modifications you might need to make to the generated code.
        Edit statistics routines in statistics.c
        Edit routines in udr.c
        Compile DataBlade® module code
        This section describes how to compile DataBlade® module code.
      - Create ActiveX value objects
        This section describes how to use the to create ActiveX value objects. This section describes the use of C++ to implement opaque type support routines.
      - The ActiveX value objects
        This section provides information for client application developers who are using ActiveX value objects.
      - Programming DataBlade® modules in Java™
        This section contains information to help you edit and compile Java™ language source code generated by BladeSmith.
      - Debugging and testing DataBlade® modules on UNIX™
        This section describes how to debug and perform functional tests for DataBlade® modules written in C for Informix® on UNIX™.
      - Debugging and testing DataBlade® modules on Windows™
        This section describes how to debug and perform functional tests for DataBlade® modules written in C and C++ for Informix® on Windows™.
      - BladePack
        BladePack creates installation packages for DataBlade® modules and other software products.
      - Appendixes
        This section contains additional reference information.
    - DBDK InfoShelf
      The DataBlade® Developers Kit InfoShelf is designed to help you work with BladeSmith.
  - J/Foundation Developer's Guide
    The J/Foundation Developer's Guide describes how to write user-defined routines (UDRs) in the Java™ programming language for Informix®.
  - R-Tree Index User's Guide
    The Informix® R-Tree Index User's Guide describes the HCL Informix R-tree secondary access method and how to access and use its components.
  - User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide
    The Informix® User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide describes how to define new data types and enable user-defined routines (UDRs) to extend HCL Informix.
  - Virtual-Table Interface Guide
    The Informix® Virtual-Table Interface Programmer's Guide explains how to create a primary access method with the Virtual-Table Interface (VTI) so that users have a single SQL interface to HCL Informix tables and to data that does not conform to the storage scheme of HCL Informix.
  - Virtual-Index Interface Guide
    The Informix® Virtual-Index Interface Programmer's Guide explains how to create a secondary access method with the Virtual-Index Interface (VII) to extend the built-in indexing schemes of HCL Informix typically with a DataBlade® module.

Register tracing routines

To register the tracing routines for a particular DataBlade® module in a database, specify the following syntax from the UNIX™ command line or MKS Korn Shell:

EnableTracing.sh database DataBlade [Project]

In this command, database is the name of the database in which you want to register the routines and DataBlade is the name of the DataBlade® module that contains the tracing routines. The square brackets [] indicate that Project name is an optional argument. Specify a path for Project if you have moved your DataBlade® module from its default directory. When you specify Project, specify only the part of the path that follows %INFORMIXDIR%/extend/.

After you have registered the tracing routines in the database, set the output trace file and tracing level as shown in Set a trace output file and a trace threshold. The file name and trace level settings must be reset if you change DB-Access sessions or restart the server.

To unregister the tracing routines for a particular DataBlade® module in a database, specify the following syntax from the UNIX™ command line or MKS Korn Shell:

DisableTracing.sh database DataBlade [Project]

In this command, database is the name of the database in which you want to register the routines and DataBlade is the name of the DataBlade® module that contains the tracing routines. The square brackets [] indicate that Project name is an optional argument. Specify a path for Project if you have moved your DataBlade® module from its default directory. When you specify Project, specify only the part of the path that follows %INFORMIXDIR%/extend/.

Important: Disable tracing in production DataBlade® modules because tracing can substantially decrease performance, and output trace files can use considerable space.