Highlights: It is not too late to register for IIUG 2016
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
- Highlights
- Conference corner
- Works for me
- Informix news
- RFE corner
- Informix corner
- Calendar of events
- Informix resources
- Useful links
- Closing and credits
Editorial | Back to top |
I have a challenge for you guys. In MacTech printed magazine IBM posted the following cool ad.
But does it exist on the web. I followed the link in the ad and all I found was Watson IoT. I tried to search IBM site and found a couple of PDFs:
- Informix — The Intelligent Database for IoT – IBM
- Raspberry Pi 2 + Watson IoT Platform + Bluemix + Informix…
I even managed to find the following on TechRepublic:
However the printed ad above is nowhere to be found. If you can find it on the web please send me the link.
Now for something completely different. Frustrated by not receiving any technical content from you I decided to add a section to the Insider called “Works for me”. In it I will write about Informix stuff I find useful in my daily work. It would be nice if you can send me things that work for you.
Gary Ben-Israel
Highlights | Back to top |
It is not too late to register for IIUG 2016
It is not too late to register for the IIUG 2016, as a matter of fact you can just show up and register on site. Unfortunately, the IIUG special room rate has expired and you may not receive the guaranteed IIUG rate. You will also have to contact the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa directly to book your room.
Gary Ben-Israel
Conference corner | Back to top |
IIUG 2016 Starts Wednesday May 4th — Important Attendee Details
We are looking forward to another great Informix event and seeing you all in beautiful Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA.
IIUG 2016 begins with the Welcome Reception May 4th starting at 7:00 pm on the Cascades Deck. Join us for a fun evening of catching up with old friends and making new friends. You will also have the opportunity to mingle with many of the IBM architects, support and management staff. Oh, and we must mention the great food and drink that will be available for you to enjoy.
For those of you coming to the conference we have some important information to share with you:
- Hotel Parking. If you drove a car to the hotel — you have two parking options: Valet Parking is $24.00 a day or you can use the self-parking option with a special rate of only $8.00 a day for IIUG attendees staying in the hotel. We prepared the GOOGLE map for you:
- From Jacksonville, www.iiug2016.org/jax
- From Orlando airport, www.iiug2016.org/mco
- Taxi. If you take a taxi, we suggest finding another person to share the ride. Please ask your taxi driver if credit cards are accepted for payment before you accept the ride. You don’t want to be surprised when you reach the hotel and they don’t accept credit cards. We also checked into the SHARED van or shuttle service but, this option does not appear to be a big savings.
- Hotel sleep room Internet. In the hotel rooms the internet is included with your room rate. The hotel does have two speeds and ONLY the lower speed is included.
- Registration opens Wednesday at 3:00 at the Master’s Registration Desk.
- You MUST wear you badge at all times while in the Conference area and to attend the evening events.
- If you are a speaker, there is a speaker meeting scheduled May 4th at 6:30 in Players D.
- The complete conference guide can be found at www.iiug2016.org/guide.pdf.
- The complete session schedule can be found at www.iiug.org/mobile.
It is not too late to register for the IIUG 2016, as a matter of fact you can just show up and register on site. Unfortunately, the IIUG special room rate has expired and you may not receive the guaranteed IIUG rate. You will also have to contact the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa directly to book your room.
Safe travels — looking forward to seeing you at IIUG 2016.
Works for me | Back to top |
In this section I will write about things that help me in my day to day work.
Most DBAs probably have their own way to perform these tasks which may be different than the way I do them. So, if you find an error or can think of a better way, please let me know. If not feel free to use these tips as is or modify them to fit your needs.
Today’s topic is a view my developers use when they want to find which tables are referencing the table they are dealing with. Some SQL editors can display this information but even when they do it is not always intuitive or easy.
In DBACCESS for instance it takes you six steps. At least that’s what it takes me. Needless to say my developers are not familiar with DBACCESS and are not logged into an Informix server.
Performing this with a simple select statement can be helpful. We are using the following view:
create view back_ref_view
(referenced_table, referenced_column, referencing_table, referencing_column,
cascading_delete, constraint_name, back_ref_view_ik) as
SELECT a.tabname
d.colname,
g.tabname,
i.colname,
CASE
WHEN e.delrule = "C" THEN
"Yes"
ELSE
"No"
END cascaing_delete,
f.constrname,
f.constrid
FROM systables a, sysconstraints b, sysindexes c, syscolumns d,
sysreferences e, sysconstraints f, systables g, sysindexes h,
syscolumns i
WHERE b.tabid = a.tabid
AND b.constrtype = "P"
AND c.idxname = b.idxname
AND d.tabid = c.tabid
AND d.colno = c.part1
AND e.primary = b.constrid
AND f.constrid = e.constrid
AND g.tabid = f.tabid
AND h.idxname = f.idxname
AND i.tabid = h.tabid
AND i.colno = h.part1;
grant select on back_ref_view to "public";
Gary Ben-Israel
Informix News | Back to top |
Port Authority to spend $2.8b on BPO
The Gleaner
Apr 21
…
Newly released government documents indicate that the investment will include $1.1 billion of capital expenditure on a 63,000-square foot building at the Montego Free Zone and $1.7 billion at the Portmore Informix Centre in St Catherine.
…
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20160420/port-authority-spend-28b-bpo
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 a few days ago and will definitely keep registered, due to the value of the information delivered.
(Login at DeveloperWorks to see the RFEs.)
New RFEs for April 2016
Slow activity for April in terms of new RFEs, but the vote activity has been consistent in April, see TOP 14 in next section.
BSON_UPDATE array enhancements Currently BSON_UPDATE supports only set, unset, inc operators. It is insufficient for purposes of constructing json arrays incrementally, like adding wihthin SPL foreach array element one at a time. Request to implement $push operator, other array operators also would be useful. Stick closer to MongoDB syntax. |
Votes: 2 |
Make ifxcollect dump location configurable The directory used by ifxcollect is hardcoded to $INFORMIXDIR/isa/data. Not a good practice, can lead to file system full. Request to implement a new ONCONFIG parameter to set directory at most relevant location. |
Votes: 3 |
Top 14 RFEs
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
Informix corner | Back to top |
Demo of a cool Internet-of-things application powered by IBM analytics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0D3acmXAjo
Calendar of events | Back to top |
May – 2016 | |||
Date | Event | Location | Contact |
4-8 | IIUG 2016 | Ponte Vedra Beach. Florida | mailto:cindy@iiug.org |
August – 2016 | |||
Date | Event | Location | Contact |
2 | Washington Area Users Group Meeting | McLean, Virginia | www.waiug.org |
Informix resources | Back to top |
IBM Informix home page
http://www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month
- PlanetIDS: Blogs, Videos, News and more *** Up to date feeds from many blogs ***
- Fernando Nunes
More Blogs and Wikis
- YouTube
- Informix IoT Channel
Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
- The IIUG forums
- Informix Marketing channel on YouTube
- IBM DATABASE 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 |
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. |
|
Editor: | Gary Ben-Israel |
For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org.