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Oracle to IBM Informix Dynamic Server porting guide

A discussion of application porting issues

Sam Marino (smarino@us.ibm.com), Advisory Software Engineer, IBM
Sam Marino photo
Sam Marino is an Advisory Software Engineer with IBM Data Services' Business Partner Technical Enablement organization. He consults business partners porting database applications from competitor products to DB2 and Informix. Sam is an IBM Certified Solutions Expert in both DB2 and Informix.

Summary:  This article describes the differences between Oracle and IDS functionality and syntax. In addition to DDL, DML and overall SQL syntax, you'll explore the differences between Oracle and Informix with regards to the use of large objects, user defined types, user defined routines, and table partitioning. The author discusses what needs to be changed to make an application running on an Oracle database run on an Informix database, and gives alternatives.

Date:  03 Aug 2006
Level:  Intermediate

Activity:  5526 views
Comments:  

This article describes the differences between Oracle and Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) functionality and syntax. In addition to DDL, DML and overall SQL syntax, you'll explore the differences between Oracle and Informix with regards to the use of large objects, user defined types, user defined routines, and table partitioning. The author discusses what needs to be changed to make an application running on an Oracle database run on an Informix database, and gives alternatives.

In this article

  • DDL comparisons
  • DML comparisons
  • Embedded SQL
  • Application architecture issues
  • Using Bladelets
  • Migration toolkit
  • Planning guide
  • Syntax comparison
  • Database concepts
  • Sample code

Introduction

Develop skills on this topic

This content is part of a progressive knowledge path for advancing your skills. See Introduction to IBM Informix database software

This document is a technical document describing the differences between Oracle and Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) functionality and syntax. This porting guide details differences between Oracle’s 10g release 1 (10.1) and 10g release 2 (10.2) and Informix Dynamic Server (version 10.00). In addition, it can be a useful reference for all migrations between the two database servers regardless of version. In addition to DDL, DML and overall SQL syntax, this document explores the differences between Oracle and Informix with regards to object technology through the use of large objects, user defined types, and user defined routines. It also looks at the differences between Oracle’s table partitioning and Informix’s table fragmentation. Part of the explanation is a discussion on what needs to be changed to make an application running on an Oracle database run on an Informix database. If there is more than one way to port some piece of functionality, alternatives and recommendations are also discussed.

This document is intended to be a living document. Missing items, better ways of implementing Oracle functionality in Informix other than what is documented here, examples to better illustrate a point, and other suggestions should be sent to Sam Marino (smarino@us.ibm.com) so they may be included with future revisions.

Purpose

This document should be used as a guide to assist in porting applications that run on an Oracle database server to run on an Informix Dynamic Server database server. Regardless of whether a porting effort will be completely manual or if tools will be utilized, this document can provide value. Obviously, if the port is performed manually, this guide will provide the most value. If the port will utilize tools, then analysis can be performed using this guide to determine how much of the application the tools will convert, and how much must be converted manually. In any case, this guide is intended to be used to both visualize the scope of a porting effort and to aid in the porting effort by addressing the technical issues.


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Biography

Sam Marino photo

Sam Marino is an Advisory Software Engineer with IBM Data Services' Business Partner Technical Enablement organization. He consults business partners porting database applications from competitor products to DB2 and Informix. Sam is an IBM Certified Solutions Expert in both DB2 and Informix.

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