Skip to main content

By clicking Submit, you agree to the developerWorks terms of use.

The first time you sign into developerWorks, a profile is created for you. Select information in your developerWorks profile is displayed to the public, but you may edit the information at any time. Your first name, last name (unless you choose to hide them), and display name will accompany the content that you post.

All information submitted is secure.

  • Close [x]

The first time you sign in to developerWorks, a profile is created for you, so you need to choose a display name. Your display name accompanies the content you post on developerworks.

Please choose a display name between 3-31 characters. Your display name must be unique in the developerWorks community and should not be your email address for privacy reasons.

By clicking Submit, you agree to the developerWorks terms of use.

All information submitted is secure.

  • Close [x]

The DB2 business game

Test your DB2 querying skills

Pat Moffatt (pmoffatt@ca.ibm.com), Information Management Program Manager, IBM Academic Initiative, IBM
Pat Moffatt is the Information Management Program Manager for the IBM Academic Initiative. Through the Academic Initiative program, she ensures that appropriate Information Management resources are made available to help faculty integrate Information Management software into their curriculum. To learn more about this program, visit www.ibm.com/university/data.
Jessica Cao, Training Tools Developer, IBM
Jessica Cao is an Arts and Science and Computer Science student at McMaster University. She expects to complete her combined honours degree in April 2009. Jessica is working in IBM Toronto lab's DB2 Information Management Skills Channel Planning and Enablement Program to take advantage of her interest in programming, editing, and writing.

Summary:  If you're a beginner with IBM® DB2® and SQL, you may wonder how the technical skills you're learning are used in the "real world." Here is a chance for you to put your DB2 SQL skills into play in this interactive game! Jump into a "run your own business" scenario, where your company's future depends on a key report needed to secure funds for a critical upgrade. Use your relational database skills to build this report.

Date:  21 Sep 2006
Level:  Intermediate PDF:  A4 and Letter (105 KB | 23 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity:  9711 views
Comments:  

Before you start

About this tutorial

This game was developed to help you use the skills built with the "SQL and XQuery tutorial for IBM DB2" tutorial series.

The questions, topics, and prerequisites for each stage of the game are listed in this tutorial to serve as a reference. If you have difficulties with a particular stage in the game, you may find it helpful to review the related chapters in the tutorial series.

You can try and play the game without completing the tutorial series. If you find it difficult, this can help you determine where you may need to build up your database query skills.

System requirements

To play this game, you should have IBM DB2 9 installed and the DB2Game database loaded. If you have worked through the "SQL and XQuery tutorial for IBM DB2" tutorial series, you should already have DB2 9 installed on your computer, and you can skip down to "Installing the DB2 business game database."

Download DB2 Express-C 9

  1. Download DB2 9 from the product download Web page.
  2. Choose the appropriate image, depending on your workstation platform.
  3. Click on Download, and sign in with your IBM ID. If you do not have an IBM ID, you can register one for free.
  4. View your personal information and the product license. Click I confirm.
  5. Select a download method ("Download Director" or "HTTP"), and click Download now.

Install DB2 Express-C 9

  1. Once the download is complete, navigate to the folder containing the downloaded file.
  2. Unzip the file.
  3. Find setup.exe in the unzipped folder, and double-click on it. The DB2 Setup Launchpad will appear.
  4. Within the DB2 Setup Launchpad, click on Install a Product from the panel on the left.
  5. Click on Install New under DB2 Express.
  6. In the installer, click Next to view the "License Agreement." You will need to Accept the agreement to continue, and click Next.
  7. Choose a Typical installation, and click Next.
  8. Confirm that you plan to "Install DB2 Universal Database Express Edition on this computer and save my settings in a response file," then click Next.
  9. Verify the installation directory, and click Next.
  10. In the "User Information" screen, set the Domain to None -- use local user account, using the pull-down menu. Use db2admin as the user name, and set a password.
    (Optionally, you can select the LocalSystem account, but there are limitations introduced if this option is used -- press the Help button to learn more.)
  11. Make sure the checkbox "Use the Same User Name and Password for the remaining DB2 Services" is checked, and click Next.
  12. In the "Configure DB2 instances" screen, click Next.
  13. Click Finish to start the DB2 product installation when you reach the "Start copying files and create response file" screen.
  14. When the installation is complete, a window with the message "Setup is complete" appears. Click Finish to complete the installation procedure.
  15. A window entitled "DB2 First Steps" now appears. Click Create profile. Your Web browser will open a page called "DB2 First Steps." This page contains many useful links to information on DB2, but it will not be used during this tutorial.

Install the DB2 business game database

  1. Ensure DB2 Express-C 9 is installed.
  2. Download the DB2 business game database file from the Downloads section of this tutorial.
  3. Create a directory called db2game in drive C.
  4. Unzip the db2game.zip file to that directory.
  5. From the Windows Start menu, choose All Programs > IBM DB2 > General Administration Tools > Control Center.
  6. From the menu at the top of the interface, select Tools > Command Editor. A command editor window will pop up and allow you to enter SQL statements.
  7. From the menu, select Selected > Open. From the Look in drop-down menu, select C:\, and navigate to the db2game directory. From the file list, choose db2game.txt, and click OK.
  8. Click on the Execute icon (the icon looks like a "Play" button).

Run the DB2 business game

In order to run the db2game.jar file, it has to be set up to open with Java Virtual Machine (JVM) software (javaw.exe, for example). To set this up:

  1. Right-click on the db2game.jar file.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Select the General tab.
  4. Specify "Type of file" to be "Executable Jar File."
  5. "Opens with" should reflect a JVM that you have locally installed on your machine. If this is not the case, click Change....
  6. From the "Open With" pop-up window, locate and select your JVM software (javaw.exe, for example).
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click Apply.
  9. Click OK.

You can now launch the db2game.jar file: Double-click on the icon, or you can create a shortcut to the file for easier access.

Create a shortcut to the DB2 business game

To create a shortcut to the db2game.jar file on your desktop:

  1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop.
  2. Select New > Shortcut.
  3. In the field called Type the location of the item:, type
    C:\db2game\db2game.jar.
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the field called Type a name for this shortcut:, type db2game (it should already appear by default).
  6. Click Finish.

You are now ready to play the game!

1 of 11 | Next

Comments



Help: Update or add to My dW interests

What's this?

This little timesaver lets you update your My developerWorks profile with just one click! The general subject of this content (AIX and UNIX, Information Management, Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere, Java, Linux, Open source, SOA and Web services, Web development, or XML) will be added to the interests section of your profile, if it's not there already. You only need to be logged in to My developerWorks.

And what's the point of adding your interests to your profile? That's how you find other users with the same interests as yours, and see what they're reading and contributing to the community. Your interests also help us recommend relevant developerWorks content to you.

View your My developerWorks profile

Return from help

Help: Remove from My dW interests

What's this?

Removing this interest does not alter your profile, but rather removes this piece of content from a list of all content for which you've indicated interest. In a future enhancement to My developerWorks, you'll be able to see a record of that content.

View your My developerWorks profile

Return from help

static.content.url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/js/artrating/
SITE_ID=1
Zone=Information Management
ArticleID=161086
TutorialTitle=The DB2 business game
publish-date=09212006
author1-email=pmoffatt@ca.ibm.com
author1-email-cc=
author2-email=
author2-email-cc=

Tags

Help
Use the search field to find all types of content in My developerWorks with that tag.

Use the slider bar to see more or fewer tags.

Popular tags shows the top tags for this particular content zone (for example, Java technology, Linux, WebSphere).

My tags shows your tags for this particular content zone (for example, Java technology, Linux, WebSphere).

Use the search field to find all types of content in My developerWorks with that tag. Popular tags shows the top tags for this particular content zone (for example, Java technology, Linux, WebSphere). My tags shows your tags for this particular content zone (for example, Java technology, Linux, WebSphere).

Try IBM PureSystems. No charge.