Frontend/Backend Compatibility

A question for Jonathan: Is there any official information or statement about frontend- and backend-compatiblity ? To be more specific. A client has an ISQL 7.30 (32-Bit) and 4GL 7.30 (32-Bit) running against and IDS 9.30 (32-Bit) on a Reliant Unix platform. The application is running on the same host as the databaseserver and connects via shared-memory (onipcshm). AFAIK 4GL and ISQL 7.30 are based on CSDK. Is the underlaying CSDK version compatible with the databaseserver in terms of shared memory connections ? Is there any rule of thumb that could be used for these frontend-/backend compatibility issues ? Thank you in advance. Best regards Eric -- IT-Consulting Herber WWW: http://www.herber-consulting.de Email: eric@herber-consulting.de *********************************************** Download the IFMX Database-Monitor for free at: http://www.herber-consulting.de/BusyBee ***********************************************

Eric Herber wrote: > A question for Jonathan: See the disclaimer near the end! > Is there any official information or statement about > frontend- and backend-compatiblity ? I dunno about official, but the general rule is you can get away with almost anything most of the time. Actually, the official rules are similar, more or less along the lines of any client-based on CSDK 2.x (for x bigger than about 01, anyway) will talk to just about any equivalent server. For shared memory connections, you have to have UCx clients talking to UCx servers and FCx clients talking to FCx servers, but if you use network connections (even loopback connections) then UCx clients can talk to FCx servers and vice versa. Things might get a bit more flaky(*) if you try to connect a ESQL/C 7.20 client to an IDS 9.40 server. Note that the latest clients (CSDK 2.8x I think) can talk direct to OnLine 5.20 on the same machine (using the pipe connection). Older versions of CSDK need I-Star (sqlexecd) running and a network connection. > To be more specific. A client has an ISQL 7.30 (32-Bit) and > 4GL 7.30 (32-Bit) running against and IDS 9.30 (32-Bit) on a Reliant > Unix platform. > The application is running on the same host as the > databaseserver and connects via shared-memory (onipcshm). As long as the U/F column is the same, you should be fine. > AFAIK 4GL and ISQL 7.30 are based on CSDK. Is the > underlaying CSDK version compatible with the > databaseserver in terms of shared memory connections ? > > Is there any rule of thumb that could be used for these > frontend-/backend compatibility issues ? ROT: It should work unless you confuse the [UFH] letters and insist on shared memory connections. Network connections will usually simply work. One of the minor miracles is the extent to which mismatched versions of the client and server software can intercommunicate without completely confusing each other. It isn't trivial to keep that. And, of course, you can confuse the server if you send it instructions that it has no idea what to do with - but it should just generate an error message (eg -201 syntax error), not anything more serious. Disclaimer: that was all stated without reference to a single scrap of official documentation. Therefore, it should be taken with a small pinch of salt. (*) Or even 'more than a bit flaky' :-) -- Jonathan Leffler #include <disclaimer.h> Email: jleffler@earthlink.net, jleffler@us.ibm.com Guardian of DBD::Informix v2003.04 -- http://dbi.perl.org/