Informix DataBlade API Programmer's Manual Using Smart Large Objects

The Illustra large-object interface is a set of DataBlade API functions that allow you to access the data of a smart large object with the same functions that Illustra applications used. The interface provides the following:

• Illustra-large-object functions
• Illustra-large-object data structures

The miloback.h header file defines the functions and data structures of the Illustra large-object interface. The mi.h header file automatically includes the miloback.h header file. You must include either mi.h or miloback.h in any DataBlade API routine that calls an Illustra large-object function or declares one of the Illustra large-object data structures.

Most of the large-object functions begin with the string mi_large_object_. However, Dynamic Server does not support the entire set of Illustra large-object functions.

Chapter 15, DataBlade API Function Descriptions, contains an alphabetical list of all DataBlade API functions, including the Illustra large-object functions.

The following Illustra data types are no longer supported:

BLOB and CLOB are the SQL data types for smart large objects. They have no relation to the legacy Informix large objects, called blobs, of BYTE and TEXT.

In addition, the DataBlade API does not support the following functions in the Illustra interface:

• mi_large_object_handles()
• mi_large_object_to_lohandle()
• mi_lohandle_to_large_object()

The following table summarizes the Illustra large-object data structures and their smart-large-object equivalents.