Extensions to Dynamic Server

The IBM Informix Geodetic DataBlade module provides three kinds of data types:

• Spatio-temporal. To represent objects.
• Distinct and range. Building blocks that simplify the construction and manipulation of spatio-temporal objects.

Spatio-temporal data types enable you to store data that represents spatial objects with a time component in an Informix database. The time component associates the object with a time period or moment in time. Spatio-temporal types are defined in a type hierarchy, with a supertype—GeoObject—that has the time and altitude attributes common to all spatio-temporal types.

Distinct types provide angular components such as latitude and longitude and linear components such as distance.

Range data types specify the altitude and time dimensions of spatio-temporal data.

The IBM Informix Geodetic DataBlade module provides more than 60 functions to enable you to manipulate your spatio-temporal data. These functions can be grouped into the following categories:

• Accessor functions. These functions allow you to access information about objects stored in a database. For example, the Latitude function returns—or accesses—the latitude value of an object.

  Type verification functions are included in this group.

• Computational functions. These functions perform standard computations.
• Constructor and conversion functions. These functions are the basis for the data types. Many of these functions are overloaded, with a conversion syntax in addition to a constructor. The conversion syntax converts an object from the GeoObject supertype back to its original representation.
• Spatial operators. The functions take spatio-temporal objects and test them for proximity or intersection. Spatial operators return Boolean TRUE or FALSE.
• Data validation functions. These functions verify GeoRing and GeoPolygon objects.
• System functions. These functions control session parameters and provide information about the version of the IBM Informix Geodetic DataBlade module.
• Tracing functions. These functions control the trace files and tracing output.
• Warning functions. These functions control warning messages and output.
• Z Value functions. These functions manipulate Z values.

The IBM Informix Geodetic DataBlade module also provides:

• a client utility called geovalidate that you can use to verify the correctness of your input data.
• support for the R-tree spatial access method. The R-tree access method allows you to create an index on columns containing spatio-temporal data.