IIUG Insider (Issue #178) April 2015

Highlights: Presenting the 2015 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:

 

Editorial Back to top

The April Insider is a little late. I had a busy week at the IIUG conference in San Diego and then a long and tiresome flight home.

The IIUG 2015 was outstanding as usual. 85 high quality technical sessions, 10 half-day tutorials, Ask the Experts panel, two keynotes, free certification, demos and more. There is no other matching event for an Informix technical professional. I learned a lot, but my greatest pleasure was meeting old friends and making new ones.

Gary Ben-Israel

Highlights Back to top

Presenting the 2015 IIUG Board of Directors

The IIUG membership has elected a new board.

The 2015 board members are (in alphabetical order);

  • Thomas Beebe
  • Gary Ben-Israel
  • Miguel Carbone
  • Art Kagel
  • Cindy Lichtenauer
  • Stuart Litel
  • Jean Georges Perrin
  • Vicente Salvador
  • Kate Tomchik
  • Eric Vercelletto

The IBM representative is Chetan Chaturvedi.

Conference corner Back to top

IoT World, May 12-13, Moscone Center, San Francisco

Join the world’s largest and most comprehensive premier event for the Internet of Things at IoT World. This event hosts more than 4000 attendees, including a high level VIP track and leading edge exhibitors. IBM is a platinum sponsor and highlighting our IoT solutions, including Informix, so don’t miss this opportunity to bring your customers and key partners to this premier IoT event.

Support corner Back to top

“It” is OVER…?

OLAP (On-line Analytical Processing) is available as new SQL functionality in Informix Dynamic Server 12.10. It is done using an OVER() function to examine subsets of rows in the result set of a query or subquery. These subsets are known as OLAP Windows expressions. The results can reveal patterns, trends, or exceptions in the data.

A simple way to understand this SQL functionality is to visualize it like a clear window on an envelope — you can see a block or range of data by looking through the window at the subset returned under the window. The functionality allows application developers to compose analytic business queries such as moving averages, moving calculations, or moving sums over an interval. Aggregations and ranks can also be reset as column values change, and ratios can be expressed in simple terms.

The syntax occurs as three variations of the over() function, which are provided by way of OLAP numbering, OLAP ranking, or OLAP aggregation. For more information on OLAP windows check the online documentation.

David Jay

RFE Corner Back to top

Just in case you are not aware, some time ago 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 interesting thing is that any request, including your request, if you place one, are submitted to be voted on. This means the RFEs that receive more votes have a greater chance to be considered by the architecture and development teams for further consideration. In other words, this IS the opportunity to provide enhancement ideas even if you are not the biggest IBM customer on the planet Earth.

Some RFEs will be of great interest, others will not seem useful to you. This is why your opinion is important. Do not hesitate to vote and place comments!

The idea of the RFE corner is to provide a digest on new Informix RFEs and make those RFEs more visible and accessible for the community, so that you can vote for them in a faster and easier way. By participating actively 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 keep registered, due to the value of the information delivered.

Register here.

Annual IIUG features survey

Before checking this month’s list, do not forget to complete the annual IIUG Features Survey that we have created for you. This survey is a summary of this past year’s most significant new features requests from the RFE website for Informix products.

By casting your vote for your favorite Informix new features, you will give extra momentum to those RFEs and contribute to turning them into actual Informix features.

This survey should not take you more than 10 min. The IBM Lab wants to hear from you, don’t miss this opportunity!

Visit the survey here.

New RFEs for April 2015

The month has been rather productive in terms of new RFEs let’s take a look at them:

(Login at DeveloperWorks to see the RFEs.)

Change serial rowid type to serial8 avoiding to reach its limit?
Votes:1
Serial rowids are fields in a table and are assigned to tables created with the WITH ROWID option. Serial type has a smaller value scope than serial 8, it forces customer to re-create the tables when the limit is reached.
Request to change column datatype to serial8 to avoid this limit for big tables.

Alter table / table schema change timestamp in systables (or sysmaster)
Votes: 1
systables shows the creation date of a table.    It would be useful to DBA’s if alter date/time were shown also, especially on larger systems where multiple parties may be making database schema changes, knowing when a table was last altered would be useful.
Request to have the last table schema modification presented as a datetime year to second in systables.

Add COALESCE function
Votes: 1
The COALESCE function’s purpose is to return the first non-null value out of a list of SELECTED columns in a query statement. This function exists in other DBMS, and can be pretty handy in some cases.
Request to implement COALESCE as a native function.

Ability to integrate backups to the cloud from Informix like TSM
Votes: 2
IBM needs to provide the ability to backup informix databases to the cloud, using an integrated method similar to TSM. Having to first backup to file system then backup the files on the cloud is not an acceptable solution, because too complex and unsage to administrate.
This solution will allow customer to have Informix on prem, and backup on the cloud.
Request to backup/restore dbspaces AND logical logs directly to the cloud, and provide a backup/restore interface. Data transmission must be done on a secure basis.

IBM Informix 4GL 7.51.xC1 certification on RedHat Linux version 7 and 7.1
Votes: 1
Request to certify IBM Informix Tools (4GL & SQL) on RedHat Linux version 7.1.

Keep ISQL, C4GL, and R4GL installation and run time compatible with bein
Votes: 1
installed with all products in same INFORMIXDIR
Changing this functionality will DRASTICALLY impact our environment in a NEGATIVE manner. Breaking from this 30 year old convention will severely compromise our entire environment.
Request to keep ISQL, C4GL, and R4GL installation and run time compatible with being installed in the same INFORMIXDIR with all currently supported Informix Dynamic Server database server software and CSDK releases.

Do not forget to vote for one or several of those RFE’s if they fit your requirements. The more vote, the more chances that the Dev Team will seriously consider the request.

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, taking into consideration the general interest.

Take some time to examine the full list and vote for the enhancements you would like to see implemented.

Eric Vercelletto

Calendar of events Back to top
May – 2015
Date Event Location
12-13 Internet of Things World Moscone Center, San Francisco

 

Informix resources Back to top

IBM Informix home page

http://www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/

Informix blogs and wikis

Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month

More Blogs and Wikis

Forums, groups, videos, and magazines

  • The IIUG forums
  • Informix Marketing channel on YouTube
  • IBM Data Magazine
  • Credentials, the IBM Certification Newsletter
  • The Informix Zone
  • 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.
Useful links Back to top

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Closing and credits Back to top

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 Data 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.
Editors: 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.