Welcome
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 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.
Developers Kit
The Developers Kit (DBDK) guides contain information about the tools you can use to develop and package modules, which extend the functionality of HCL Informix® databases.
Module Development Overview
The HCL Informix® module overview serves as an overview of the HCL Informix module development process.
module concepts
What are modules?
A DataBlade module is a software package that extends the functionality of HCL Informix®.
Why use the Developers Kit?
Although you can create a module manually, you can reduce development time considerably if you use the Developers Kit.

HCL Informix® V15.0.0 documentation
Welcome to the documentation for HCL Informix® 15.0.0 and related client tools and products.
Product overview
HCL Informix® is a fast and scalable database server that manages traditional relational, object-relational, and dimensional databases. Its small footprint and self-managing capabilities are suited to embedded data-management solutions.
Installing
These topics describe how to install HCL Informix® database servers, client products, and modules.
Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
Migrating and upgrading
You can upgrade to the 15.0.0 release of HCL Informix® or migrate from other database servers to Informix. Upgrading is an in-place migration method that uses your existing hardware and operating system software. Some changes to the Informix database server can affect upgrading from a previous release.
Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
Embedding Informix®
When you embed HCL Informix®, you can use enterprise-class high-availability and high performance with embeddability features such as easy programmability, a small disk and memory footprint, and silent deployment.
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 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 modules
  These topics describe how to use built-in database extensions and separately installed 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.
  - Programmer's Guide
    The HCL® Informix® DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide describes information about the , the C-language application programming interface (API) provided with HCL Informix.
  - Function Reference
    The IBM® Informix® DataBlade® API Function Reference describes the functions and the subset of functions that the supports.
  - Developers Kit
    The Developers Kit (DBDK) guides contain information about the tools you can use to develop and package modules, which extend the functionality of HCL Informix® databases.
    - Module Development Overview
      The HCL Informix® module overview serves as an overview of the HCL Informix module development process.
      - module concepts
        What are modules?
        A DataBlade module is a software package that extends the functionality of HCL Informix®.
        Why extend your Informix® database server?
        The primary advantages of using the extensibility of HCL Informix® over using traditional relational databases and applications are better performance, simpler applications, transaction control, and scalability.
        Why create a module?
        You can extend your HCL Informix® database server without creating a module by executing the SQL statements to create each object individually. However, the advantages of packaging extended database objects in a module are control and code reuse.
        Why use the Developers Kit?
        Although you can create a module manually, you can reduce development time considerably if you use the Developers Kit.
        modules and the database server
        This section describes the overall architecture of the HCL Informix® database server, how modules affect database server processes, and the application programming interfaces you can use in your modules and client applications.
        module components
      - Build a module
      - Appendixes
        This section contains additional reference information.
    - Developers Kit User's Guide
      The HCL Informix® Developers Kit User's Guide describes how to use tools to develop and package modules.
    - DBDK InfoShelf
      The Developers Kit InfoShelf is designed to help you work with BladeSmith.
  - J/Foundation Developer's Guide
    The HCL® 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 HCL® 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 HCL® 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 IBM® 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 IBM® 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 module.
Data warehousing
In addition to designing and implementing Informix® dimensional databases, you can use tools to create data warehouse applications and optimize your data warehouse queries.
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.
JSON compatibility
You can use the popular JSON-oriented query language created by MongoDB to interact with data stored in HCL Informix®.
Security
You can secure your Informix® database server and the data that is stored in your Informix databases. You can encrypt data, secure connections, control user privileges and access, and audit data security.
SQL programming
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of the SQL language to develop applications for Informix database servers.
Troubleshooting HCL Informix®
Several troubleshooting techniques, tools, and resources are available for resolving problems that you encounter in your HCL Informix® database server environment.

Why use the Developers Kit?

Although you can create a module manually, you can reduce development time considerably if you use the Developers Kit.

Three graphical user interfaces are provided for module development:

BladeSmith: Creates your module
BladePack: Packages your module
BladeManager: Makes your module available in a database

In addition, the Developers Kit provides the following tools for debugging your module on Windows™:

DBDK Visual C++ Add-In: Debugs your module within Microsoft™ Visual C++
IfxQuery: Executes SQL debugging tests from within Microsoft™ Visual C++

The Developers Kit reduces development time because it:

uses wizards to guide you through complex SQL object creation options
generates the following types of files:
- Complete SQL definitions for your database objects
- Complete code, or code entry points for C, C++, and Java™ source code
- Unit tests for debugging user-defined routines, opaque data type support routines, and cast support functions
- Functional tests for validating user-defined routines, opaque data type support routines, and cast support functions
automates creating an interactive installation program for UNIX™ and Windows™ operating systems

The source code generated by the Developers Kit follows good coding practices for your HCL Informix® database server and ensures consistency among your user-defined routines.