views on external databases

We have Informix SE (v5.?) running on an IBM RS/6000. We have the need to do something that we think is possible in Informix OnLine, but is not possible in SE (we tried). Whenever we call Informix to see if one of their products will do something, we always seem to get the standard marketing answer, "of course it will, it will do anything you want it to". (My appologies to non-marketing employees of Informix :-) Could someone out there with access to OnLine please confirm this for us? On page 11-25 of our SQL Tutorial manual, it says "INFORMIX-OnLine permits you to base a view on tables and views in external databases." Here is what we want to do, put as simply as possible: One database is called "main". It contains two tables, "customer" & "state". The customer table has one record per customer. The state table has one record per state (Alabama, Alaska, etc). Then there needs to be a second database, called "branch". This database will also have a table called "customer", using the same schema as the main database. However, since the states don't change (short of a civil war), there is no need to duplicate that data. Therefore, the branch database needs to contain a view, called "state", on the state table in the main database. The sql statements we are using to try to set up the view on the branch database are: > create view state_tbl ( > state_code, > state_name ) > as select > m.state_code, > m.state_name > from main:state_tbl m With SE I receive: > Error 554: Syntax disallowed in this database server. If this works the way we think it should, it should make no difference which database a set of sql statements is run on, it should run the same, without modification. Although this is not the scenario we are actually interested in, it should (I hope) convey the essence of what we need to accomplish. If some kind net.soul out there with access to Informix OnLine could check this out for us, and let us know for sure whether it works, we would be much appreciative. Either e-mail or posting would be okay. Thank you for your assistance. -- Bill Dixon