IIUG Insider (Issue #219) October 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 IIUG World 2018 – Editor’s Recap
4) RFE Corner
5) Informix Corner
  5.1 InformixHQ will be part of Informix vNext
  5.2 SmartAxiom-Building Scalable IoT Sercurity Solutions
6) Works for me
7) Informix Resources
  7.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis
  7.2 Social Media
  7.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines

1) Editorial

On Sunday October 28th there was a Customer Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting in Washington.

Representing IBM were:

Al Martin
Linda Hunt
Jessica Rockwood
Milind Tamaskar

Representing HCL (?) were:

Pradeep Muthalpuredathe
Marcelo Cabane
Shawn Moe
Karen Qualley
Pradeep Natarajan

Why the question mark after HCL? The reason is that I was confused if the HCL people are representing HCL or IBM.

The presentations were interesting. There was a good atmosphere. However there was no discussion.

We were told what the planed features are and that the decisions were made based on requests from other customers. So, if the CAC is not advising why is it called an advisory committee?

I do not know which customers were asked for input. The IIUG which represents the Informix Community did not take part.

But there were two important questions I asked that was not answered. I have been asked the same questions by many of you. So I am asking again.

  1. 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 vNext 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?

The whole relationship between IBM and HCL is unclear.

  1. Where is the IIUG in the picture?
  • We no longer receive content not from IBM and not from HCL.
  • We are referred by IBM to HCL but totally ignored by HCL.
  • HCL has an Informix community web page. What for? Why not work with the IIUG

If anyone who attended the conference can answer my questions please email me. I’ll be happy to publish your answers in the next Insider.

Help us understand.

A confused user is an unhappy user.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
gary@iiug.org

2) Highlights

2.1 Elections for the IIUG Board of Directors

Nominations open soon to run for the IIUG Board of Directors. If you want to take part becoming part of the IIUG stay tuned to our website and email blats.

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

Even if you don’t want to stand for elections please take part in the process and vote.

The planned timetable for the elections is:

Nov 12 2018 – Nomination opens

Nov 26 2018 – Nomination closes

Dec 10 2018 – Election starts

Dec 24 2018 – Election ends

Dec 31 2018 – Election Result Officially Declared

Jan 1 2019 – New board term starts

Gary Ben-Israel

3) Conference Corner

3.1 IIUG World 2018 – Editor’s Recap

IIUG World 2018 was a great event.

Excellent technical sessions, a large variety of topics and the best Informix speakers.

The only problem was the low attendance. I hope to see many more next year.

The IIUG Planning Committee and the IIUG Board of Directors are putting in a huge effort.

There is no doubt that this is an event worth attending.

We would really like to increase our attendance for IIUG World 2019. So, please let us know what we can do to help you get travel approval for next year’s event.

Email me gary@iiug.org or anyone on the IIUG Board or Conference Planning Committee.

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 +2
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
SQL interface to obtain the temporary space usage (tables, hash, sorts…)

Under Consideration 50 +31
Backup Individual database, not entire instance Submitted 43 +3
Informix should be able to change owner on tables and any other objects Submitted 42 +6
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 +1
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 Corner

5.1 InformixHQ will be part of Informix vNext

Informix HQ will be part of the next version of Informix. It will be included in the product. That means it will be supported and developed just as the rest of the product.

5.2 SmartAxiom-Building Scalable IoT Sercurity Solutions

SmartAxiom-Building scalable IoT security solutions from edge to cloud with blockchain & Informix technology. https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/smartaxiom

Gary Ben-Israel

6) Works for me

In this section I will write about things that help me in my day to day work. Most DBAs probably have their own ways 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.

We write SPL routines for many purposes. The problem is to keep track.

When you drop a view all views they are selecting from are dropped. Needless to say this is recursive. If the source for creating the view is outdated or even worse you don’t have it recreating the view it is not easy. But, even if you do you realize which views are affected only after they are dropped it may be too late.

We run the following stored procedure prior to dropping the view and save ourselves a lot of trouble.

create function view_in_view(v_nm varchar(128))
returning lvarchar(32000)

define v_str lvarchar(32000);
define v_nm1, v_nm2 varchar(128);
define p_match1, p_match2 varchar(255);
define tid integer;
define tf boolean;
define j int;

if (select count(*)
from systables
where tabtype = "V"
and tabname = v_nm) = 0 then
let v_str = v_nm||" - Not found";
return v_str;
end if

drop table if exists vv__temp;
create temp table vv__temp(ord smallint, view_name varchar(128), flg smallint);

insert into vv__temp(ord, view_name, flg) values(1, v_nm, 0);

let j = 1;
let tf = 't';
while tf
let tf = 'f';
foreach
select view_name
into v_nm1
from vv__temp
where flg = 0
let p_match1 = "*."||v_nm1||" *";
let p_match2 = "*."||v_nm1||",*";

foreach
select tabid, tabname
into tid, v_nm2
from systables
where tabtype = "V"
and tabname not in (select view_name
from vv__temp)
if (select count(*)
from sysviews
where tabid = tid
and viewtext matches p_match1 or viewtext matches p_match2) > 0 then
let j = j + 1;
insert into vv__temp(ord, view_name, flg) values(j, v_nm2, 0);
let tf = 't';
end if
end foreach
update vv__temp set flg = 1 where view_name = v_nm1;
end foreach
end while
foreach
select ord, view_name
into j, v_nm1
from vv__temp
order by 1
if j = 1 then
let v_str = v_nm1||":";
elif j = 2 then
let v_str = v_str||" "||v_nm1;
else
let v_str = v_str||", "||v_nm1;
end if
end foreach
drop table if exists vv__temp;
return v_str;
end function

7) Informix Resources

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

7.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis

Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month

More Blogs and Wikis

7.2 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

7.3 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.