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 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® Module Development Overview
These topics serve as an overview of the HCL Informix® DataBlade® module development process.The HCL Informix DataBlade module overview serves as an overview of the HCL Informix DataBlade module development process.
Appendixes
This section contains additional reference information.
Informix® DataBlade® modules
HCL Informix® DataBlade® modules serve as examples of the type of functionality DataBlade modules can provide.
IBM® Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module
The IBM® Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module enables you to store, manage, and manipulate video data and metadata in the same system in which you store more traditional data. Such a system is called a media management system.
Extensions to Informix®

HCL Informix® V15.0 documentation
Welcome to the documentation for HCL Informix® 15.0 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 DataBlade® 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 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 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
    These topics describe information about the DataBlade® API, the C-language application programming interface (API) provided with HCL Informix®.
  - DataBlade® API Function Reference
    These topics describe the DataBlade® API functions and the subset of IBM® 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
      These topics serve as an overview of the HCL Informix® DataBlade® module development process.The HCL Informix DataBlade module overview serves as an overview of the HCL Informix DataBlade module development process.
      - DataBlade® module concepts
      - Build a DataBlade® module
      - Appendixes
        This section contains additional reference information.
        DataBlade® module documentation
        This section is a reference to current HCL Informix® documentation pertaining to DataBlade® modules.
        Informix® DataBlade® modules
        HCL Informix® DataBlade® modules serve as examples of the type of functionality DataBlade modules can provide.
        Informix® Excalibur Text Search DataBlade® Module
        The Informix® Excalibur Text Search DataBlade®Module enables you to search your data in ways that are faster and more sophisticated than the keyword matching that SQL provides.
        IBM® Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module
        The IBM® Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module enables you to store, manage, and manipulate video data and metadata in the same system in which you store more traditional data. Such a system is called a media management system.
        Extensions to Informix®
        HCL® Informix Web DataBlade Module
        The HCL® Informix Web DataBlade Module enables you to create web applications that incorporate data retrieved dynamically from an HCL Informix® database.
    - DataBlade® Developers Kit User's Guide
      These topics describe how to use Informix® DataBlade® Developers Kit (DBDK) tools to develop and package DataBlade modules.
    - DBDK InfoShelf
      The DataBlade® Developers Kit InfoShelf is designed to help you work with BladeSmith.
  - J/Foundation Developer's Guide
    These topics describe how to write user-defined routines (UDRs) in the Java™ programming language for Informix®.
  - R-Tree Index User's Guide
    These topics describe 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
    These topics describe how to define new data types and enable user-defined routines (UDRs) to extend HCL Informix®.
  - Virtual-Table Interface Guide
    These topics explain 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
    These topics explain 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.
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.

Extensions to Informix®

The IBM® Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module consists of the following components:

Temporal component

This component consists of the data types and functions that provide a format-independent interface between your HCL Informix® database server and video data. This interface enables the server to reference specific points in time (media points and timecodes) and intervals (media chunks) within video data, regardless of the data format (AVI, MPEG, and other formats).

Storage component

This component consists of the data types and functions that provide a device- and format-independent interface between your HCL Informix® database server, video data, and the storage servers on which that data is located.

Video database schema

This schema is a set of database tables that connect the data of the temporal and storage components; it is a repository for video metadata.

Client API

This API provides the opaque types of the Video Foundation DataBlade® module as value objects for application developers who use the HCL Informix® C++ client interface. It also provides a subset of the DataBlade® module server functions as client-side functions for application developers who use any of the following client APIs:

IBM® Informix® ESQL/C API
HCL Informix® DataBlade® API
HCL Informix® Object Interface for C++

For more information, see the Informix® Video Foundation DataBlade® Module User's Guide.