Home
Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
GLS User's Guide
The Informix® GLS User's Guide describes the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in Informix products.
General SQL API features (ESQL/C)
These topics explain how the GLS feature affects applications that you develop with the Informix® Client Software Development Kit.
Globalize client applications
To globalize or localize a client application, use , an application programming interface (API) for applications that use a C-language interface.
Globalization
Globalization is the process of creating or modifying an application so that it can use the correct GLS locale to support different languages, territories, and code sets without changing or recompiling the code.

Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
- Change Data Capture API Programmer's Guide
  The Informix® Change Data Capture API Programmer's Guide describes how to program applications to process changed data from HCL Informix databases using the Informix Change Data Capture API.
- Embedded SQLJ for HCL Informix®
  The Informix® Embedded SQLJ User's Guide contains information about using Informix Embedded SQLJ.
- ESQL/C Guide
  The Informix® ESQL/C Programmer's Manual explains how to use Informix ESQL/C, the Informix implementation of Embedded Structured Query Language (SQL) for C (ESQL/C), to create client applications with database-management capabilities.
- GLS User's Guide
  The Informix® GLS User's Guide describes the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in Informix products.
  - GLS fundamentals
    The Global Language Support (GLS) feature lets Informix® products handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets for Asian, African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
  - GLS environment variables
    HCL Informix® products establish the client, database, and server locales with information from GLS-related environment variables and from data that is stored in the database.
  - SQL features
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects the Informix® implementation of SQL.
  - Database server features
    These topics describe how the GLS feature affects the database server.
  - General SQL API features (ESQL/C)
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects applications that you develop with the Informix® Client Software Development Kit.
    - Support for GLS in Informix® client applications
      To connect to a database, the Informix® ESQL/C client application requests a connection from the database server. The database server must verify that it can access the database and establish the connection between the client and the database.
    - Globalize client applications
      To globalize or localize a client application, use , an application programming interface (API) for applications that use a C-language interface.
      - Globalization
        Globalization is the process of creating or modifying an application so that it can use the correct GLS locale to support different languages, territories, and code sets without changing or recompiling the code.
      - Localization
        Localization is the process of adapting a product to a specific cultural environment.
    - Handle locale-specific data
      Each HCL Informix® SQL API product contains a processor to process Informix ESQL/C source files that have embedded SQL and preprocessor statements.
  - Informix® ESQL/C features
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects Informix® ESQL/C, an SQL application programming interface (API).
  - Appendix
    This section contains additional reference information.
- API
  The Informix® GLS API Programmer's Guide describes the global language support (GLS) application programming interface (API) available in Informix ESQL/C and HCL Informix DataBlade® modules.
- Informix® Object Interface for C++ Guide
  The Informix® Object Interface for C++ Programmer's Guide describes how to develop HCL Informix client applications by using the object-oriented C++ programming language.
- Informix® ODBC Driver Guide
  The Informix® ODBC Driver Programmer's Manual serves as a user guide and reference for Informix ODBC Driver, which is the Informix implementation of the Microsoft™ Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface, Version 3.0.
- .NET provider options
  The Data Server Provider for .NET DB2® provider option is the preferred Informix® provider for developing new applications.
- Informix® JDBC Driver Guide
  The Informix® JDBC Driver Programmer's Guide describes how to install, load, and use Informix JDBC Driver to connect to the Informix database from within a Java™ application or applet.
- Informix International Language Supplement (ILS) User Guide
  These topics include information about the translated user interface files for Informix® UNIX™ products, locales, and code set conversion tables
- Informix® OLE DB Provider Guide
  The Informix® OLE DB Provider Programmer's Guide describes the software requirements for using Informix OLE DB Provider, show how to install and configure the provider for your use, and explain how to use Informix OLE DB Provider to enable client applications, such as ActiveX Data Object (ADO) applications and web pages, to access data on the Informix server.

Globalization

Globalization is the process of creating or modifying an application so that it can use the correct GLS locale to support different languages, territories, and code sets without changing or recompiling the code.

This process makes HCL Informix® database applications easily adaptable to any culture and language. For a database application, you perform globalization on the application that accesses a database, not on the database. The data in a database that the application accesses should already be in a language that the user can understand.

To globalize a database application, design the application so that the tasks in the following table do not make any assumptions about the language, territory, and code set that the application uses at run time.


Application Task	Description
User interfaces	Includes any text that is visible to users, including menus, buttons, prompts, help text, status messages, error messages, and graphics
Character processing	Includes the following processing tasks: Character classification Character case conversion Collation and sorting Character versus byte processing String traversal Code-set conversion
Data formatting	Includes any culture-specific formats for numeric, monetary, date, and time values
Documentation	Includes any explanatory material such as printed manuals, online documentation, and readme files
Debugging via tracing (Informix®, DB API)	The DataBlade® API provides the application or DataBlade® developer the capability of using globalized trace messages. It uses in-line code working with system catalog tables: systracemsgs and systraceclasses. For more information, see the Informix® DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide.

A globalized application dynamically obtains language-specific information for these application tasks. Therefore, one executable file for the application can support multiple languages.