Welcome
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
These topics describe the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in HCL® Informix® products.
GLS fundamentals
The Global Language Support (GLS) feature lets HCL® Informix® products handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets for Asian, African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
GLS locales with HCL Informix® products
HCL Informix® products use GLS locales for several tasks.
Support for non-ASCII characters
HCL Informix® products obtain the code set from its GLS locale. Locales are available for both single-byte and multibyte code sets.

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.
- Change Data Capture API Programmer's Guide
- Embedded SQLJ for HCL Informix®
- ESQL/C Guide
- GLS User's Guide
  These topics describe the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in HCL® Informix® products.
  - GLS fundamentals
    The Global Language Support (GLS) feature lets HCL® Informix® products handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets for Asian, African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
    - Character-representation conventions
      The examples in this documentation use ASCII characters to represent both single-byte and multibyte characters. Multibyte characters are usually ideographic (such as Chinese characters). Multibyte and single-byte characters are represented abstractly.
    - The GLS feature
      In a database application, some of the tasks that the database server and the client application perform depend on the language and culture conventions of the data that they handle.
    - A GLS locale
      In a client/server environment, both the database server and the client application must know which language the data is in to be able to process the application data correctly.
    - Set a GLS locale
      For the database server and the client application to communicate successfully, you must establish the appropriate GLS locales for your environment.
    - GLS locales with HCL Informix® products
      HCL Informix® products use GLS locales for several tasks.
      - Support for non-ASCII characters
        HCL Informix® products obtain the code set from its GLS locale. Locales are available for both single-byte and multibyte code sets.
      - Establish a database connection
        To establish a database connection, the GLS locales performs a series of steps.
      - Perform code-set conversion
        In a client/server environment, character data might need to be converted from one code set to another if the client or server computer uses different code sets to represent the same characters. The conversion of character data from one code set (the source code set) to another (the target code set) is called code-set conversion.
      - Locate message files
        HCL Informix® products use GLS locales to locate product-specific message files. By default, HCL Informix products automatically search a subdirectory that is associated with the client locale for the product-specific message files.
    - Customize display formats
      You can override some display formats in the client locale.
  - 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 HCL® 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 HCL Informix® Client Software Development Kit.
  - IBM® Informix® ESQL/C features
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects IBM® Informix® ESQL/C, an SQL application programming interface (API).
  - Appendix
    This section contains additional reference information.
- Informix GLS API
- Informix® Object Interface for C++ Guide
- Informix® ODBC Driver Guide
- Informix .NET Core Provider
  Starting with CSDK 4.50.xC4, Informix .NET Core Provider built with .NET Core SDK/Runtime v3.1 is shipped for Windows x64 and Linux x86_64 platforms.
- Informix® .NET EF Core Provider Guide
- Informix 4GL/SQL
  These topics include information about HCL Informix®4GL and SQL.
- AI and Agent Connectivity
  The Actian MCP (Model Context Protocol) server provides a standardized interface to connect Large Language Model (LLM) agents and AI applications directly to your HCL Informix database.
- Informix® JDBC Driver Guide
- 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
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.
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.

Support for non-ASCII characters

HCL Informix® products obtain the code set from its GLS locale. Locales are available for both single-byte and multibyte code sets.

All supported code sets define the ASCII characters. Most also support additional non-ASCII characters (8-bit or multibyte characters). For more information about code sets and non-ASCII characters, see Code sets for character data.

The following types of GLS locales are examples of locales that contain non-ASCII characters in their code sets:

The default locale supports the default code set, which contains 8-bit characters for non-English characters such as é, ñ, and .
The name of the default code set depends on the platform on which your HCL Informix® product is installed. For more information about the default code set, The default code set.
Many nondefault locales support the default code set.
Nondefault locales that support the UNIX™ default code set, ISO8859-1, include British English (en_gb.8859-1), French (fr_fr.8859-1), Spanish (es_es.8859-1), and German (de_de.8859-1).
Other nondefault locales, such as Japanese SJIS (ja_jp.sjis), Korean (ko_kr.ksc), and Chinese (zh_cn.gb), contain multibyte code sets. (The unified Chinese code set is GB18030-2000.)

For the contexts in which you can use non-ASCII characters, including multibyte characters, see SQL features, Database server features, and General SQL API features (ESQL/C).

For the HCL Informix® product to support non-ASCII characters, however, it must use a locale that supports a code set with the same non-ASCII characters.