Rajesh Nair & Chris Golledge Kansas City, MO January 30, 2004 IDS and.NET

Rajesh Nair & Chris Golledge

Kansas City, MO January 30, 2004

IDS and .NET

IBM Corporation 2003

IBM Corporation 2003 Kansas City Informix User's Group

Agenda

• Overview of .NET

• .NET Framework Architecture

• ADO.NET Architecture

• Features of the IDS .NET Provider

• Roadmap of IDS .NET Support


Overview of .NET

• .NET is a new framework for developing enterprise applications– Actively in use on Microsoft Windows platforms– No single language required for development

• .NET is a response to industry trends:– Distributed Computing– Componentization– Enterprise Services – Web paradigm shifts– Maturity


Overview of .NET

• Requires a new API (provider) for access to data sources– API is exposed as a set of .NET interfaces

• Object-Oriented Architecture

• “Namespaces” used to organize classes into related groups

• Managed vs. Unmanaged code


.NET Framework Architecture

Web Services ASP.NET Win Forms

ADO.NET / XML Classes

Framework Base Classes

CLR

VS.

N

E

T


.NET Framework Architecture


.NET Framework Architecture• Common Language Runtime (CLR)

– runtime environment that manages memory, garbage collection, code access security

– managed code

• Framework Base Classes– provide I/O, collections, and threading functionality

• ADO.NET– provides data access API

• ASP.NET, Web Services & Forms– focuses on specific aspects of application development


ADO .NET Architecture

• .NET framework’s data management capabilities are encapsulated into a single component : ADO.NET

• ADO.NET contains:– Data Provider API which interacts with the

actual data source– Content class, DataSet, which provides

application program level abstraction for the data to/from the data source


What is a .NET Provider?• Runtime class library that encapsulates a

data access API for use by Microsoft .NET applications

• Set of specialized classes that implement standard ADO.NET interfaces and serve as a bridge between a data source and .NET applications



Clie

nt

Ap

plic

atio

n

DataRelation

DataSet

DataTable

DataColumn DataColumn DataColumn DataColumn

DataReader DataAdapter

Command

Transaction

Connection

.NET Provider Classes



• System.Data namespace – Microsoft class library for general data access functionality

• Default “bridge” providers for use with System.Data class and either an OLEDB provider or an ODBC driver– Provide IDS connectivity via Informix OLEDB or

ODBC driver

• IBM.Data.Informix – Informix namespace which defines a class library implementing .NET interfaces for IBM Informix data access


ADO .NET Data Retrieval

• Two Models– Connected

• similar to typical client/server model• obtains and maintains a connection with which to work

– Disconnected• by default, data is disconnected in .NET• DataSet supports this model by presenting an in-memory view

of a data source• after data is retrieved, connection can be discarded• changes performed on DataSet can be applied to the database

with a new connection


Classes defined by the IDS .NET Provider

• IfxConnection – manages a connection to an Informix database

• IfxTransaction – represents a database transaction• IfxCommand – manages execution of SQL commands• IfxCommandBuilder – automatically generates

commands, given a SELECT statement• IfxParameter – represents a parameter to a Command

object• IfxParameterCollection – represents a collection of all

parameters relevant to a Command object


Classes defined by the IDS .NET Provider

• IfxDataReader – provides forward-only, read-only access to data

• IfxDataAdapter– boundary between .NET provider and non-provider

content classes

– builds the DataSet objects (DataTable, DataColumn, DataRow etc), given a query and a DataSet instance

• IfxError, IfxException, IfxErrorCollection - for error and exception processing


IfxConnection Details

• Can be established:– programmatically using ConnectionString

property of IfxConnection class– user environment – using SetNet to update the system registry

database

• Order of precedence is ConnectionString, user environment, and then SetNet


Connection Attributes

• User and Password• INFORMIXSERVER• Database Name• Service• CLIENT_LOCALE• DB_LOCALE• Fetch Buffer Size • Enlist (in a distributed

transaction)

• Connection Pooling• Connection Time Out• Connection Lifetime• Minimum Pool Size• Maximum Pool Size • Persist Security Info


Data Types in the IDS .Net ProviderInformix Database Type .Net Framework Type .Net Typed Accessor Informix Typed

Accessorboolean Boolean GetBoolean()

sm allint Int16 GetInt16()

integer Int32 GetInt32()

serial Int32 GetInt32()

int8 Int64 GetInt64()

serial8 Int64 GetInt64()

decim al (p<=28), fixed scale Decim al GetDecim al () GetIfxDecim al()

decim al (p<=28), floating point

Double GetDouble() GetIfxDecim al ()

decim al (p>28) String GetString() GetIfxDecim al()

m oney sam e as decim al with sam e precis ion

sam e as decim al with sam e precis ion

GetIfxMoney ()

sm allfloat, real Float GetFloat()

float, double Double GetDouble()

date DateTim e GetDateTim e()

datetim e DateTim e GetDateTim e() GetIfxDateTim e()

interval, year-m onth String GetString() GetIfxMonthSpan()

Interval, day-fraction Tim eSpan GetTim eSpan () GetIfxTim eSpan()

char(1) Char GetChar() GetChars()

char String GetString() GetChars()

lvarchar String GetString() GetChars()


Data Types in the IDS .Net ProviderInformix Database Type .Net Framework Type .Net Typed Accessor Informix Typed Accessornchar String GetString() GetChars ()

varchar String GetString() GetChars ()

byte Byte[] GetBytes()

text String GetString() GetChars ()

blob Byte[] GetBytes() GetIfxBlob()

clob String GetString() GetChars () GetIfxClob()

lis t String GetString() GetIfxLis t()

m ultiset String GetString() GetIfxMultiset()

set String GetString() GetIfxSet()

nam ed row type String GetString() GetIfxRow()

unnam ed row type String GetString()

dis tinct As the underlying type As the underlying type


Classes for Informix Data Types

• IfxDecimal • IfxDateTime • IfxTimeSpan • IfxMonthSpan • IfxRow • IfxComplexLiteral • IfxBlob • IfxClob


Using MTS with the IDS .Net Provider

• Using CLR to implement COM+ configured classes is easier than implementing them with COM

• System.EnterpriseServices Namespace – provides the .NET classes, interfaces, structures,

delegates, and enumerations with access to COM+ services

• ServicedComponent Class– base class for all COM+ services

• ContextUtil Class – wraps the CoGetObjectContext, the COM+ API for

retrieving object context


Using MTS with the IDS .Net Provider

• Connection can be enlisted in distributed transaction – manually

• Set IfxConnection class Enlist property to false• Application calls EnlistDistributedTransaction() method to enlist into

the distributed transaction

– automatically • Set IfxConnection class Enlist property to true• Application sets TransactionOption attribute to Required or RequiresNew

• MS DTC is still unmanaged code– New “plumbing” minimizes some data type conversions– Explicit resource deallocation may be required


API Tracing with the IDS .Net Provider

• IFXDOTNETTRACE – sets the level of tracing to be reported– Trace levels

• 0 = no tracing

• 1 = reports API calls entry & exit

• 2 = level 1 + function parameter values

• IFXDOTNETTRACEFILE- sets the log file where trace information is to be written


Integration with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net

• Emphasis on improving Visual Studio.NET development experience when using IBM (DB2 and IDS) DBMS

• IBM connections and database projects are depicted within Visual Studio:– Data Connections folder– Server Explorer tab– Solution Explorer shows IBM database projects

• Future release will add support for:– IDS SQL Editor– IDS Query Builder– Content and dynamic help


Installation and Deployment

• IDS .Net Provider requires .NET framework version 1.1

• IDS .Net Provider will be included with CSDK (development) and I-Connect (runtime) distributions

• Requires a stored procedure to be installed in sysmaster database of each server instance


Roadmap of IDS .NET Support

• IDS .NET Provider completed technology preview in Q4 ‘03

• IDS .NET Provider is currently available in the CSDK 2.81.TC3 release

• Subsequent releases of the provider will add additional functionality– Release mechanism will remain via CSDK and I-

Connect products


Questions ?


Where to Get More Information

• IBM developerWorks Informix zone page: (www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/zones/informix/)

• Microsoft .NET Framework home page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework

• IBM Informix .NET Provider product documentation

• Contact us! – [email protected]– [email protected]

Documents

Rajesh Nair & Chris Golledge Kansas City, MO January 30, 2004 IDS and.NET