IIUG Insider (Issue #220) November 2018

Highlights: Elections for the IIUG Board of Directors

Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community.

Contents:

1) Editorial
2) Highlights
2.1 Elections for the IIUG Board of Directors
3) Conference Corner
3.1 Think 2019 | Feb 12-15 | IBM Flagship Technology Conference
4) RFE Corner
5) Informix Resources
5.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis
5.2 Social Media
5.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines

1) Editorial

In my last editorial I raised the following questions:

Can you solve the confusion between IBM Informix and HCL Informix?

Are there two different products HCL Informix and IBM Informix?

Who is in charge of marketing?

Who is in charge of product management?

Who decides what features go into v-next and what are the plans for future releases?

As IBM customers where do we go if we have issues with support?

Is the HCL website approved by IBM?

I promised that if I get answers they will be published.

In a meeting with Linda Hunt, Director, Strategic Partnerships, IBM Analytics, Business Development, Linda clarified the confusion we had at the CAC.

IBM continues to be responsible for IBM Informix go to Market including Sales and Marketing. This includes IBM client relationships and processes such as IBM client contracts, Passport Advantage, IBM Informix client feedback sessions, etc.

HCL is in charge of Informix development and support. In addition, HCL has its own sales offerings mainly in the cloud.

The answers to the questions above are:

  • There is one Informix product in terms of code. But there are IBM and HCL packaging.
  • IBM is responsible for marketing. Product management is a collaboration between IBM and HCL. Karen Qualley from HCL and Milind Tamaskar from IBM work together defining the Informix roadmap including features in the next versions and other joint product offerings.
  • Support calls are handled by HCH Informix support team. If we have support issues we can contact IBM as we have done in the past.
  • HCL has an HCL Informix community managed by HCL. IBM has an Informix community in IBM knowledge center. And of course there is the IIUG website.

Correction:

At the CAC Pradeep Muthalpuredathe, Marcelo Cabane, Shawn Moe, Karen Qualley and Pradeep Natarajan were representing Engineering and Support for IBM Informix.

The only remaining issue is lack of communication between HCL and the IIUG. We are working on it and I hope it will improve.

Gary Ben-Israel

IIUG Insider Editor

IIUG Board of Directors

gary@iiug.org

2) Highlights

2.1 Elections for the IIUG Board of Directors

The IIUG is electing a new Board of Directors. If you want to take part leading the IIUG stay tuned and follow our website and email blasts.

If you did not serve on the Board before, bear in mind it requires more than just a monthly call and 3 board meetings. I have always found the hard work rewarding and would like to see new people join us.

II you do not want to become a member of Board please remember to vote.

Due to technical difficulties the timetable for the elections has been modified. The new timetable is:

Jan 7 2019 – Nominations open

Jan 21 2019 – Nominations close

Feb 11 2019 – Election starts

Feb 25 2019 – Election ends

Mar 11 2019 – Election Result Officially Declared

Mar 12 2019 – New Board term starts

Look for future emails with more details.

Gary Ben-Israel

3) Conference Corner

3.1 Think 2019 | Feb 12-15 | IBM Flagship Technology Conference

Community Day February 11, 2019.

If you are attending Think 2019 join the community of cloud, data, and security enthusiasts as they discuss the technology of today and ideas for tomorrow. All Think 2019 attendees are welcome join the community of cloud, data, and security enthusiasts.

Gary Ben-Israel

4) RFE Corner

IBM created a public website to collect the requests for new features directly from users. The RFE (Requests For Enhancements) website is included in developerWorks. You can access it here.

Once you logged in with your usual IBM ID, choose “Information Management” in the Brand dropdown box and “Informix Servers” or “Client Products” in the Products dropdown box.

The idea of the RFE corner is to provide a digest on new Informix RFEs and make those RFEs more visible and accessible to the community, so you can vote on those that are also important to you. By actively participating in this website, IBM will have solid and useful elements from the customer base to introduce new functionality to Informix product.

Also in the area of IBM website, a new functionality has been released: MyNotifications. You will want to register this webpage in order to receive the notifications of your choice (new product defects, new patch release, new versions etc…, on the frequency of your choice (daily, weekly). I have registered and will definitely remain registered, due to the value of the information delivered.

Check at this place.

TOP 15 RFE’s

Abstract Status Votes Progr.
In-Place Alter for varchar, lvarchar and boolean Under Consideration 65 0
Backup from RSS or HDR Secondaries using ontape, onunload, onbar, dbexport Under Consideration 65 0
SQL interface to obtain the temporary space usage (tables, hash, sorts…) Under Consideration 50 0
Obtain the query plan of a running query Under Consideration 50 0
Backup Individual database, not entire instance Submitted 43 0
Informix should be able to change owner on tables and any other objects Submitted 43 +1
Request to track and save a time stamp for last time an index was used. Nee… Delivered 40 0
Implement CREATE OR REPLACE option for stored procedures Under Consideration 33 0
ALTER owner of database objects after creation Submitted 29 0
New feature to have FORCE_DDL_EXEC functionality for all DDL changes Submitted 26 0
Implementation of regular expressions (adding to LIKE/MATCHES functions) Delivered 23 0
Ability to re-create views and procedures without dependent objects being dropped (34762 Under consideration 20 0
Need an onmode option to terminate orphaned, tightly coupled global transac… Under Consideration 20 0
allow repack of TBLSpace extents Under Consideration 19 0

You can access each RFE by clicking on the above links. At the bottom of each RFE page you will find a hyperlink to vote for it. You will see the request stats, including number of votes for this request, on the right side of the request page. The more votes, the greater the chance an enhancement will be addressed by the Development Team.

Gary Ben-Israel

5) Informix Resources

IBM Informix home page
www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/

IBM Informix community
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSGU8G_12.1.0/com.ibm.community.doc/community.htm

5.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis

Blogs and Wikis

5.2 Social Media

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25049
Twitter : https://twitter.com/iiug
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/IIUG.Informix
Informix IoT Channel : https://ibm.biz/BdH2nm

5.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines

  • The IIUG forums at /forums/technical.php
  • Informix Marketing channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/informixmarketing?feature=results_main
  • IBM DATABASE MAGAZINE at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com
  • Credentials, the IBM Certification Newsletter at http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/email/201307credentials.shtml
  • There is now an Informix group on LinkedIn. The group is called “Informix Supporter”, so anyone loving Informix can join, from current IBM employees, former Informix employees, to users. It will also be a good occasion to get in touch with others or long-time-no-seen friends. If you fancy showing the Informix logo on your profile, join. To join, simply go to: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/25049/5E4B2048E558

Closing and Credits

The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization designed to enhance communications between its worldwide user community and IBM. The IIUG’s membership database now exceeds 25,000 entries and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM’s Information Management division. Key programs include local user groups and special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch through growth.

Sources: IIUG Board of Directors
IBM Corp.

Editor: Gary Ben-Israel

For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org

Published
Categorized as Insider

By Vicente Salvador

Board member since 2014, a user since 1989 and Informix fan. I'am software architect which allow me to combine technical and business skills.