Informix Client Software Development Kit components

You use the Client SDK to develop and run client applications. Client SDK includes APIs, programs, and database utilities.

Applications that run on client computers require Informix® Connect to access database servers. Informix Connect is a runtime connectivity product that is composed of runtime libraries that are included in Client SDK.

The following table describes the APIs and programs of Client SDK.

Table 1. Client SDK APIs and programs
Component Description
Informix .NET Provider (Windows™ only) The Informix .NET Provider is a .NET assembly that lets .NET applications access and manipulate data in Informix databases. It does this by implementing several interfaces in the Microsoft™ .NET Framework that are used to access data from a database. Using the Informix .NET Provider is more efficient than accessing the HCL Informix database through either of these methods:
  • Using the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC along with the Informix ODBC Driver
  • Using the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB along with the Informix ODBC Driver

For more information, see the Informix .NET Provider Guide.
IBM® Informix .NET Core Provider (Windows and Linux) The IBM Informix .NET Core Provider is a .NET assembly that lets .NET applications access and manipulate data in Informix databases. It does this by implementing several interfaces in .NET Core SDK/Runtime v3.1 which is shipped for Windows x64 and Linux x86_64 platforms.

Names of all the Interfaces/Methods in IBM Informix .NET Core Provider are same as Informix .NET Framework v4.x Provider.

IBM Informix .NET Core adds few more functionality in addition to IBM Informix .NET Framework v4.x Provider.

For more information, see the Informix .NET Core Provider
Informix ESQL/C with XA support An SQL embedded-language product that is used to create custom C applications.

For more information, see the ESQL/C Guide.
A C++ interface to develop object-oriented client applications for use with all HCL Informix database servers and client-side value objects for HCL Informix

For more information, see the Informix Object Interface for C++ Guide.
(Global Language Support) An interface that allows HCL Informix products to use different locales that have defined conventions for a particular language, culture, or code set.

For more information, see the ESQL/C Guide and the GLS User's Guide.
Informix ODBC Driver with MTS support The HCL Informix implementation of the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) 3.0 Level 1+ standard that supports Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). This driver contains extensibility support for HCL Informix.

For more information, see the Informix ODBC Driver Guide.
Informix OLE DB Provider (Windows only) A client-side, native OLE DB provider that implements full functionality for base-level providers and contains extensibility support for HCL Informix.

For more information, see the Informix OLE DB Provider Guide.
Data Server Driver Package The Data Server Driver Package includes drivers that are compatible with Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA®) protocols. For a list of the contents of the Data Server Driver Package, see IBM data server client and driver types.

You can use the Data Server JDBC Driver to develop JDBC applications with Informix software.

You can use the Data Server .NET Provider to develop .NET applications with Informix software. The Data Server .NET Provider includes support for web application development in Database Add-Ins for Visual Studio.

Data Server Driver Package installation does not affect an existing installation of the Informix .NET Provider or the Informix JDBC Driver. You can use either or both of the .NET Providers or JDBC drivers.

For more information about the differences between the Data Server .NET Provider and the Informix .NET Provider, see NEED

The following table describes the HCL Informix common database utilities in the Client SDK.

Table 2. HCL Informix common database utilities
Component Description
Documentation Viewer Use the viewer to see the release and machine notes in text format.
The finderr utility on UNIX™ systems and the Informix Error Messages utility on Windows systems Use these utilities to obtain information about error messages, including corrective actions, that are specific to HCL Informix.
The ILogin utility (Windows only) Use the ILogin Demo utility to quickly test the connection to Informix. Click File > Run then enter the HCL Informix connection parameters. You must create the target database before you connect to it.
Password CSM HCL Informix Password Communications Support Module for client applications. Password CSM must also be installed on the Informix database server to which the client connects.
For more information, see CSM configuration file.
Note: Support for Communication Support Module (CSM) is removed starting Informix Server 14.10.xC9 . You should use Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) instead.
Connection Manager The Connection Manager is a utility that can monitor the workload and status of database servers in high-availability clusters, Enterprise Replication domains, grids, and server sets.

Connection Managers can control failover for high-availability clusters, direct client connection requests to appropriate database servers, act as proxy servers to handle client/server communication, and prioritize connections between application servers and the primary server of a high-availability cluster.

For more information, see Connection management through the Connection Manager.
DB-Access The DB-Access utility is included in the HCL Informix Client SDK when the corresponding HCL Informix server version is available for the same operating system. When the DB-Access utility is included in the Client SDK, it is the same utility that is delivered with the Informix server. The utility provides a stand-alone client command-line tool that can directly access the HCL Informix database instance. This dbaccess client supports the same user interface and functionality as the dbaccess server utility.

For the setup requirements, see Requirements for the Informix Client Software Development Kit DB-Access utility.
The ConnectTest utility (Windows only) Use the ConnectTest utility to test the connection to the HCL Informix server. You can start the utility from the shortcut in the Start menu or from the $INFORMIX/bin directory. The utility populates the server details from the registry that is registered by the Setnet32 utility. You can manually edit the utility to connect to other servers not listed in the registry, which does not modify the registry entry. The utility shows the resulting data of the executed SQL query.
Setnet32 (Windows only) Use the Setnet32 utility for configuring client products. Each package might include online help, example programs, and support programs.