Overview of HCL Informix .NET Provider
The topics in this overview describe the Informix® .NET Provider and provide information on the environment in which to use it. These topics also provide installation and connection information and general information to help you get started using the Informix .NET Provider.
- What is the Informix .NET Provider?
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. - Supported programming environments
The Informix .NET Provider can be used by any application that can be run by the Microsoft .NET Framework. - Support for IPv6
The Informix .NET Provider can use Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addresses, as well as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses. - Installing the HCL Informix .NET Provider
You can install the Informix .NET Provider with the IBM® Informix Client Software Development Kit (Client SDK) through a typical or custom installation. - Overview of the .NET provider class library
The Informix .NET Provider supports all of the .NET public classes and base classes that are needed to access the Informix database. - Thread-safety of provider types
Only static members of the Informix .NET Provider type are thread-safe. - Namespace requirements
The namespace for the Informix .NET Provider is: IBM.Data.Informix. This means that the full name of the objects in the Informix .NET Provider all begin with IBM.Data.Informix. - Connecting to a database
You connect to a database by using the Open method of an IfxConnection object. - The ? parameter markers
You can use the question mark symbol (?) to mark a parameter's place in an SQL statement or stored procedure. - Call stored procedures
To use stored procedures in your applications, you must set some properties of the IfxCommand object. - IfxProviderFactory objects to write database-independent code
Starting with Informix .NET Provider Version 2, you can use the IfxProviderFactory class to write database-independent code. - Distributed transactions
Your application can enlist a connection for distributed transactions by setting the Enlist connection string attribute to true, yes, or 1. - The OUT and INOUT Parameters
As of Version 3.50.xC4, HCL Informix Client Software Development Kit supports the use of OUT and INOUT parameters during execution of SPL. - Generic coding with the ADO.NET common base classes
The .NET Framework features a namespace that is called the System.Data.Common namespace, which contains a set of base classes that can be shared by any .NET data provider. - Error messages
Error messages from the HCL Informix server are represented as Informix .NET Provider exceptions.
Parent topic: Informix .NET Provider Guide