Home
Designing databases
The first step in creating a relational database is to construct a data model, which is a precise, complete definition of the data you want to store. After you prepare your data model, you must implement it as a database and tables. To implement your data model, you first select a data type for each column and then you create a database and tables and populate the tables with data. You can also implement fragmentation strategies and control access to your data.
Designing and Implementing a Database
The Informix® Database Design and Implementation Guide provides information to help you design, implement, and manage your Informix databases. It includes data models that illustrate different approaches to database design and shows you how to use structured query language (SQL) to implement and manage your databases.
Managing databases
Grant and limit access to your database
Use SQL to restrict access to data

Designing databases
The first step in creating a relational database is to construct a data model, which is a precise, complete definition of the data you want to store. After you prepare your data model, you must implement it as a database and tables. To implement your data model, you first select a data type for each column and then you create a database and tables and populate the tables with data. You can also implement fragmentation strategies and control access to your data.
- Designing and Implementing a Database
  The Informix® Database Design and Implementation Guide provides information to help you design, implement, and manage your Informix databases. It includes data models that illustrate different approaches to database design and shows you how to use structured query language (SQL) to implement and manage your databases.

Use SQL to restrict access to data

You can restrict access to data at the following levels:

You can use the GRANT and REVOKE statements to give or deny access to the database or to specific tables, and you can control the kinds of uses that people can make of the database.
You can use the CREATE PROCEDURE or CREATE FUNCTION statement to write and compile a user-defined routine, which controls and monitors the users who can read, modify, or create database tables.
You can use the CREATE VIEW statement to prepare a restricted or modified view of the data. The restriction can be vertical, which excludes certain columns, or horizontal, which excludes certain rows, or both.
You can combine GRANT and CREATE VIEW statements to achieve precise control over the parts of a table that a user can modify and with what data.
You can use the SET ENCRYPTION PASSWORD statement and built-in encryption and decryption functions of SQL to implement column-level encryption of sensitive data. Unauthorized users who succeed in viewing an encrypted character, BLOB, or CLOB column value cannot recover the plain text of your data without the DES or triple-DES encryption key, which is not stored in the database.