Installing the HCL Informix .NET Provider

You can install the Informix® .NET Provider with the Informix Client Software Development Kit (Client SDK) through a typical or custom installation.

The Informix .NET Provider installation registers strong-named assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). If your application is not running in a debugger, the application automatically finds the assembly that is registered in the GAC. If you are upgrading .NET applications on 64-bit Windows™, you must clear the GAC to load the new version of the Informix .NET Provider DLL. Clear the GAC with the gacutil utility using the following command: 
gacutil  /u IBM.Data.Informix
You can perform this operation before upgrading HCL Informix .NET Provider.

The locations of the HCL Informix .NET Framework assemblies are shown in the following table:

Table 1. Locations of the .NET Framework assemblies
Framework that the assembly implements Location
Informix .NET Provider 2.0 Framework %INFORMIXDIR%\bin\netf20
Informix .NET Provider 4.0 Framework %INFORMIXDIR%\bin\netf40

Use the Informix .NET Framework 2.0 Provider for .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5.

Use the Informix .NET Framework 4.0 Provider for .NET Framework 4.0 and 4.5.

Because of security functions in .NET, you must reference one of these versions instead of the GAC version when you run your application in a debugger. If you are using Microsoft™ Visual Studio .NET, complete the following steps to add the reference:
  1. In the Solution Explorer window, right-click References.
  2. Click Browse and go to the assembly. The file name of the assembly is IBM.Data.Informix.dll. Select the file from the folder for the version that you want to use.
    • %INFORMIXDIR%\bin\netf20
    • %INFORMIXDIR%\bin\netf40
  3. Select the assembly and click Open.
  4. Click OK.

To verify the version of the .NET assembly file, right-click the file and select Properties.