IBM Software

IBM INFORMIX V.14.10.XC4 -

CSDK V.4.50.XC4

v.1a

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Agenda
• The new .NET Core provider

• Enhancements to ODBC connection pooling

• Enhanced support for CLIENT_LABEL

• Smart trigger support in the Informix Python driver

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.Net core

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.Net Core
• The CSDK and JDBC connectivity packages provide the libraries for applications to
connect to and communicate with the Informix engine
• Informix has supported a wide range of application interfaces to the engines through these packages
• C/C++, C#, VB, VS, XA, Tuxedo, Tableau, SQL Linked Server, MS Excel access, .Net provider and
many more

• Microsoft has expanded on its .Net platform to provide two different sets of connectivity
APIs
• The .Net provider — Informix has supported this for years
• The .Net Core — new support in Informix v.14.10.xC4

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.Net Core
• Wants the difference between .Net provider and .Net Core?
• According to Microsoft (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/choosing-core-framework-
server)
• Both Provider and Core share many components and are, in many cases, code compatible

• .Net Provider / Framework

• The legacy driver, used with an existing application infrastructure
• No need to migrate off, just extend future application functionality by using .Net Core
• No new development or enhancement is occurring with this product
• You’re using third-party libraries or other libraries not supported by .Net Core
• Your application platform is not supported by .Net Core
• For example, some Azure services don’t support .Net Core . . . . . yet
• Incompatible application O/S
• .Net core only supports Windows, MacOS and Linux based applications

• Informix supports .Net Provider v.4x in its most recent CSDK releases

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.Net Core
• Wants the difference between .Net provider and .Net Core?
• According to Microsoft (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/choosing-core-framework-
server)
• Both Provider and Core share many components and are, in many cases, code compatible

• .Net Core
• Your apps or app services need cross-platform support
• .Net Core supports Windows, Linux and MacOS
• You intend to deploy applications and other services in a microservices architecture, such as RH OpenShift or
Azure
• You are “containerizing” your applications or data processing infrastructure using Kubernetes / Docker or other
container services
• .Net provider only works for Windows containers
• Need greater application performance or scalability than that provided by the .Net provider
• You need greater flexibility with .Net versions
• .Net Core supports the installation and simultaneous use of different .Net Core versions
• Applications can migrate to newer versions as they are ready rather than waiting for all to migrate at once

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.Net Core
• Conceptually, this is .Net Core
• Borrowed from https://www.debuggershub.com/net-core-the-asp-net-core-architecture/

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.Net Core
• With Informix v.14.10.xC4, the .Net platform is replaced with .Net Core
• We are using .Net Core v.3.1.1, the current stable release version
• The v.5 release is still in development and testing

• .Net Core is released on the Windows and Linux CSDK ports now

• The name of the provider, located in $INFORMIXDIR/bin is Informix.Net.Core.dll

• This is built on top of the Informix ODBC driver for full compatibility with the Informix engine

• Apparently, the Informix .Net Core provider will be available on NuGet.org in the near
future

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.Net Core
• For those who want to know the internals of what went into the Informix .Net Core provider,
it was created with these packages and libraries:
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard — v10.0.14393
• .NET Core SDK — v3.1.201
• CMake — v3.13.0-rc3
• Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 — v15.8.6

• The driver was created on Windows for both release platforms

• It was fully tested on Linux

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.Net Core
• With the .Net Core
• We provide the basic Informix compatible infrastructure
• You may need to add additional libraries from the .Net runtime or SDK
• These will come from Microsoft or other providers

• All the existing .Net Framework components (v.4x) will work in .Net Core
• However you get additional functionality with the new driver

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.Net Core
• New functionality
• Connection pooling
• Max pool size
• A global maximum connection value for all connections across all connection pools for an application
• Range of values between 5 and 2,000
• You can use this to limit connections to the instance by an application

• Minimum pool size

• When a new connection is initialized, the minimum number of connections to the database
• Range of values between 2 and 1,000
• For example, if the value is set to 10 and a new connection is made requiring 2 connections, the other 8 are
put in an idle state to support future connection requests from other application users

• GetIdleConnectionsCount
• The ability to get a count, at a global level, of the number of open idle connections

• GetActiveConnectionsCount
• The ability to get a count, at a global level, of the number of active connections

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.Net Core
• New functionality
• The ability to create and use an ODBC Data Service Name (DSN) in the connection string itself
• Syntax:
• DSN=my_dsn_name

• All other .Net functionality, including data type support and tracing, is still available as
documented

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.Net Core
• An answer to a basic FAQ
• Can I run a .Net framework application on .Net Core? If so, how?

• Answer: Yes!
• The names of all the Informix .NET Framework v4.x provider interfaces and methods are the same
in the Informix .NET Core provider
• However you need to
• Change the assembly name from IBM.Data.Informix to Informix.Net.Core
• Recompile the application referencing Informix.Net.Core.dll from $INFORMIXDIR\bin

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ODBC connection pool

enhancements

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ODBC connection pool

• Starting with the CSDK v.4.50.xC2, the Informix ODBC drivers supports native connection
level pooling

• In v.4.50.xC4 the MinPoolSize and MaxConnLimit functionality is added to support

the .Net Core provider
• Note — if a connection is idle, that connection goes into an “idle” state in the connection pool
• If the connection is in an idle state for 10 seconds, it is closed and disconnected from the instance

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ODBC connection pool

• How do you set these parameters?
• On Unix
• In the odbc.ini file, in the DSN definition block
my_dsn_name
.
.
MinPoolSize=2
MaxConnLimit=1000
.

• Within the application, use the SQLSetConnectAttr() function to set the API parameters before
attempting to connect to the instance
• For example:
SQLSetConnectAttr(SQL_INFX_ATTR_MIN_CONN_POOL_SIZE=10)
SQLSetConnectAttr(SQL_INFX_ATTR_MAX_CONN_POOL_SIZE=100)

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ODBC connection pool

• How do you set these parameters?
• Within the application by using the connection string

DSN=my_dsn_name;MinPoolSize=5;MaxConnLimit=20

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Client label support in ODBC and

SetNet32

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• Client label support was introduced in Informix v.14.10.xC1
• It allows you to label sessions to track users and / or operations

• A label is created via the CLIENT_LABEL functionality

• Can be set either in the O/S shell as an environment variable or in the application session

• O/S shell or at program invocation

• export CLIENT_LABEL=“My name is Steven, using my_hr_app”

java myjdbc “jdbc:informix-sqli://myhost:52220:CLIENT_LABEL=jdbc_client1”

• Application session
• set environment CLIENT_LABEL “Susan, using payroll_12”

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• To see the labels you can
• Use the onstat utility

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• To see the labels you can
• Query the sysmaster :
sysenvses table
• The sysenvses table
contains eight data elements
which can be viewed by a
onstat -g env operation
• For example:

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• The new client label is the eighth element
• With this information, you can “tag” an application, use the tag to identify the sessions from that app,
then investigate their operations

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• With v.4.50.xC4, you can also set a label through the ODBC driver and the SetNet32
application
• As part of the connection string

DSN=my_dsn_name;CLIENT_LABEL=my_label

• Through the the SQLSetConnectAttr() function

SQLSetConnectAttr(SQL_INFX_ATTR_CLIENT_LABEL=my_label)

• In the odbc.ini — Unix / Linux only!

my_dsn_name
.
CLIENT_LABEL=my_label
.

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Client label support in ODBC/SetNet32

• Setting the client label
• Using the SetNet32 application and the CLIENT_LABEL variable

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Smart trigger feature in the

Informix Python driver

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Smart trigger support

• Smart triggers were introduced in Informix v.12.10.xC9
• Was created to work around conditions where an application must constantly ping the instance to see
if specific data conditions exist so the application can do some work
• For example, was data inserted into a table that must be picked up and sent to another application
or target

• Using Java and JDBC, you can create a “smart trigger” that monitor changes to data and when a
“triggering condition” occurs, send an alert and the data to the application to work on

• In Informix 12.10.xC10 additional enhancements were made including support for

receiving triggering events after the application reconnects to the instance

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Smart trigger support

• In Informix v.14.10.xC4, smart trigger support is expanded to include support for Python
applications
• 6 new functions were added to support this functionality
• IfxPy.open_smart_trigger() - open a smart trigger session
• IfxPy.get_smart_trigger_session_id - get the session IDs of existing smart trigger
sessions
• IfxPy.join_smart_trigger_session - join an existing smart trigger session ID
• IfxPy.register_smart_trigger_loop - open a smart trigger session with a loop handled by
Informix Python driver
• The session will wait and loop inside the Python driver
• IfxPy.register_smart_trigger_no_loop - open a smart trigger session without a loop
handled by Informix Python application
• The session will wait and loop inside the application
• IfxPy.delete_smart_trigger_session - delete a specific smart trigger session

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Smart trigger support

• Please note, this functionality is NOT in the general release of the product
• Customers must make a special request to receive it

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Questions

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