DataBlade® Developers Kit Tutorial

The Tutorial is a set of exercises that demonstrate how to create extensions to HCL Informix® and package them as DataBlade® modules by using DBDK. Support for DataBlade Developers Kit (DBDK) is removed starting Informix Server 14.10.xC6.

You must have a basic understanding of extensibility before you start this tutorial. The focus of this tutorial is on creating extensions, not on defining them. To learn about extensibility, read the Informix® DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide.

The consists of the following tools:
  • BladeSmith. For defining the objects that your DataBlade® module creates and generating code templates for them
  • DBDK Visual C++ Add-In and IfxQuery. For debugging your DataBlade® module on Windows™
  • BladePack. For packaging a final installable version of your DataBlade® module
  • BladeManager. For registering DataBlade® modules in your databases

In the first exercise, Creating a Simple User-Defined Routine, you learn how to use BladeSmith and the DBDK Visual C++ Add-In by creating a simple DataBlade® module and debugging it. All tutorial users must start with Exercise 1.

The rest of the exercises demonstrate how to create DataBlade® modules that are increasingly complex. You can choose to either work through the exercises sequentially or pick just the ones that interest you.

To use this tutorial, you need the following HCL Informix® software:
  • The , Version 4.2
  • HCL Informix®, Version 9.4, or later
  • The HCL Informix® Client Software Development Kit, Version 3.0 or later
  • Microsoft™ Visual C++, Version 6.0

See the Read Me First for the for system requirements.

Before you start the tutorial, load the DBDK Visual C++ Add-In into your Microsoft™ Visual C++ program.

Throughout each exercise, you can use a drop-down list that gives you access to any of the other exercises. You can also click buttons to go to the InfoShelf home page, to this page, or to print this tutorial.

Sample code is shown in Courier font, like the following fragment:

Gen_RetVal = Int1 + Int2;

When you add code to your source files, you can copy and paste the code from this tutorial.

This tutorial has links to C source code files (.c) and text files (.txt) containing SQL statements. How these files are displayed depends on your setting in Windows™ Explorer. For example, if you have .c files set to open in Microsoft™ Visual C++, when you click a link to a .c file in the tutorial, the file opens in Microsoft™ Visual C++. If you do not have .c and .txt files configured to be opened by another application, the files open in your browser. In that case, you can use the Back button on your browser to return to the tutorial.

For an introduction to the HCL Informix® database server and the DataBlade® module development process, see the Informix® DataBlade® Module Development Overview.