IIUG Insider (Issue #190) April 2016

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 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:

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.

Register here

(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

Abstract Status Votes Progr.
In-Place Alter for varchar, lvarchar and boolean Under Consideration 45 +2
Backup from RSS or HDR Secondaries using ontape, onunload, onbar, dbexport Under Consideration 40 +2
SQL interface to obtain the temporary space usage (tables, hash, sorts…) Submitted 38 +2
Request to track and save a time stamp for last time an index was used. Nee… Submitted 27 0
Obtain the query plan of a running query Under Consideration 26 0
New feature to have FORCE_DDL_EXEC functionality for all DDL changes Submitted 22 0
Implementation of regular expressions (adding to LIKE/MATCHES functions) Under Consideration 21 0
Implement CREATE OR REPLACE option for stored procedures Under Consideration 18 0
ALTER owner of database objects after creation Submitted 18 0
Backup Individual database, not entire instance Submitted 20 0
Need an onmode option to terminate orphaned, tightly coupled global transac… Under Consideration 16 0
Allow triggers install/updates without taking an outage for the box Under Consideration 17 0
Add constant to centralized Key of ER Consolidation Model Submitted 13 0
Ability to re-create views and procedures without dependent objects being d… Under Consideration 13 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, 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

Videos

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/

Informix blogs and wikis

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

Social Media

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

/quicklinks.html

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.

 

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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.