DataBlade Developers Kit User's Guide Creating DataBlade Objects Using BladeSmith

The first step you complete in BladeSmith to create a DataBlade module is to create a project for it. BladeSmith saves DataBlade module object definitions in a project file with an .ibs extension. BladeSmith generates source code, SQL scripts, functional tests, and installation package files in directories that are relative to the project file. By default, BladeSmith creates subdirectories src, scripts, functest, and install in the directory where you save the project file.

Important: Create a different project directory for each DataBlade module so that BladeSmith does not overwrite any other files.

When you create a project, use the DataBlade module project name and three-character new object prefix assigned to you by Informix. See Contacting the Informix Registry for more information.

To create a new project in BladeSmith, choose Project New and complete the information requested by the New Project wizard; then save your project file in the directory you created. BladeSmith creates the necessary subdirectories when you generate files.

The following table lists the properties you must specify values for when you create a project.

The project name is combined with the version numbers as a unique identifier to use to register the DataBlade module in the database server and to create the installation directory. The project name must follow standard directory naming conventions.

For Dynamic Server Version 9.2, the maximum length of the project name is 32 characters.

For Dynamic Server Version 9.14, the maximum length of the project name is 18 characters.

If you change the project name or version numbers, you must regenerate files in BladeSmith.

For more information on obtaining the project name, see Contacting the Informix Registry.

The three-character new object prefix assigned to your DataBlade module by Informix is used in the name of many of the new objects you create in BladeSmith. Use this prefix to ensure that your objects have unique names in the database when the DataBlade module is registered. See Contacting the Informix Registry for information on obtaining a new object prefix.

Use your registered DataBlade module new object prefix to begin the names of the following objects:

• New data types
• User-defined routines
• Aggregates
• Access methods
• Executable utilities and tools provided with the DataBlade module
• Tables, views, and other custom SQL objects included with your DataBlade module
• User-defined virtual processors
• Trace classes
• Named memory

You do not have to use the DataBlade module new object prefix for the following objects:

• Names of routines that operate on data types unique to your DataBlade module, including routines that you overload to take a new data type
• Names of routines that operate on data types provided by other DataBlade modules that you develop and maintain
• Names of routines in support libraries linked to the shared object file

When you create a new project in BladeSmith, you must specify the version of the database server with which you want your DataBlade module to be compatible. Different database server versions have different features; if you choose a feature that is not available for the database server version you specified, the feature is either disabled or BladeSmith displays a warning.

The following features are compatible only with Version 9.2 of Dynamic Server:

• User-defined statistics
• Long identifiers for database objects

If you specify a database server version of 9.14 and attempt to add user-defined statistics support for an opaque data type, you receive a warning stating that statistics support is not available with Version 9.14.

You can use DBDK to generate Java code for aggregates, cast support functions, and user-defined routines by specifying compatibility with Version 9.2 of the database server. However, you must use the Informix J/Foundation upgrade to Informix Dynamic Server 2000 to enable services that use Java. For more information about Informix J/Foundation, see the manual Creating UDRs in Java.

All other features are compatible with Version 9.14 and later versions of Dynamic Server.

A GLS description locale is a set of files that contain information specific to a particular language and culture. A GLS locale provides the following information:

• The name of the code set that the application data uses
• The collation order to use for character data
• The format in which different types of data are displayed

The default locale is the locale that your Windows NT installation uses. For example, Windows installations running U.S. English use the en_us.1252 locale. To change the locale, type a new locale specification in the Description Locale field. See the Guide to GLS Functionality for more information on locales and how to access a list of available locales.

When you generate SQL scripts, BladeSmith uses the locale information to generate a locale-specific prepare script and locale-specific error scripts.

The optional version information can be one to four sets of numbers or letters separated by periods: for example, 1.2.3.4. The numbers correspond to the categories major, minor, revision, and release. The major and minor numbers can be up to eight characters long; the revision and release numbers can be up to six characters long. Use a consistent versioning format for all your projects.

The version numbers are combined with the project name as a unique identifier to register the DataBlade module in the database server and to create the installation directory.

If you change the version numbers or project name, you must regenerate SQL files and installation packaging files in BladeSmith.

The vendor ID is unique; you can obtain a vendor ID from Informix. All DataBlade modules with the same vendor ID display the same information when the user requests it from BladeManager. If you want to display different contact information for different DataBlade modules, you must use different vendor IDs.