1. Informix Applications Uncovered
on iOS
Bharat Gera Session Z99
IBM April 23 2012

2. Agenda
• Introduction to iOS
• Advantages / Marketplace for iOS
• Data Management on iOS
• Architecting Informix Apps on iOS
• Other Database Vendors on iOS
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3. Introduction to iOS
• iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is Apple
Inc.'s mobile operating system
• Originally developed for the
iPhone, it has since been extended
to support other Apple Inc. devices
such as the iPod Touch, iPad, and
Apple TV
• Apple does not license iOS for
installation on non-Apple
hardware.
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4. Contd…
• iOS is derived from Mac OS X, and is therefore a
Unix-like operating system.
• The user interface of iOS is based on the concept
of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures.
• The current version of the operating system (iOS
5.0.1) uses roughly ~770M of the device's storage.
• In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core
OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media
layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer
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5. Advantages / Marketplace for iOS
• Apple’s Software Development Kit
(SDK): Apple’s desktop and mobile
platform share a common programming
language(Objective-C) and development
environment. Seamless transition for Mac
Programmers! Xcode is the development
environment for the iOS SDK. The SDK
allows developers to make applications
for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as
test them in an "iPhone simulator".
– iPhone applications are written in Objective-C
– Objective-C is a Superset of C Programming
Language adding object oriented support like
C++
– iOS does not support Java, .NET and Adobe
Flash
iOS SDK included in Xcode
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6. Contd…
• Apple’s Minimal iOS Devices Sold: Apple has
only sold a handful of different iOS devices
across the platforms’s history – four generations
of iPhones, three generations of iPod
Touches, and one iPad. Leads to easier software
stack validation.
• Apple’s iTunes App Store: Apple has a single
application store that it manages, curates and
promotes in order to distribute iOS apps. The
store maintains the same account information as
for iTunes music/videos.
– Developers can write and simulate iOS apps using the
SDK, then submit them to the App Store.
– Apple reserves the right to review applications for
sale, providing 70% of the sale revenue to the
developer. All download cost, bandwidth and server
management are handled by Apple for free other than
a fee to become an official developer.
App Store running on
6/1/2012 iPad version of iOS 6
Bharat Gera- Session Z99

7. Contd…
• Customer Base / User Download:
iOS’s customer base is larger than
Androids (as of this writing). iOS
users download twice as many apps
as owners of other smartphones.
- the App store led other mobile
application channels in size, revenue
and international reach.
- the average iPhone owner
downloaded 37 third-party
applications, significantly more than
were downloaded by owners of any
smartphone type
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8. iOS Support for Data Management
• iOS has a comprehensive collection of
tools and frameworks for
storing, accessing, and sharing data.
• Core Data is a full-featured data modeling
framework for object-oriented iOS
applications.
• iOS includes the popular SQLite library, a
lightweight yet powerful relational
database engine that is easily embedded
into an application. Unlike the object-
oriented Core Data framework, SQLite
uses a procedural, SQL-focused API to
manipulate the data tables directly.
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9. Architecting Informix Apps on iOS
WebServices Model
• Requirements:
– Web Server with PHP and Informix
PDO (PHP Data Object) – IBM
OpenAdminTool(OAT) for Informix
bundles Apache/PHP Stack!
– XCode – Dashcode. Dashcode is
included as part of Apple's iOS SDK.
This allows for the creation of Web
apps for the iOS version of Safari
– Informix Database Server with the
stores_demo database
– Your Post Lunch time!
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10. Simplistic Steps
Create a PHP Web
Service that pulls data
from Informix Store
Create the Application
that consumes the data
using Dashcode
Sit Back and Marvel at
how Cool you are!
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11. Step 1
• We need to create a web service in PHP. The service will get
all the customer records from the database
• If you have OAT installed in /Applications/OpenAdmin,
- WEBROOT will refer to the
/Applications/OpenAdmin/Apache_XXX/htdocs
- Now lets create our service within that directory
- Create and edit a file called service.php with the code
(snapshot)
• This will provide us a URL that will generate the customer
records in a XML format
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12. PHP Code Sample (Informix PDO)
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13. Step 2
• In this step we will create our
UI and ‘hook up’ our newly
created service to provide the
data
• Select the template
type ‘Browser’ and create the
new Dashcode project
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14. Dashcode Web App Design Schematic
Specify Data Source
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15. Dashcode Web App Design Schematic
• Modify the User Interface to be more applicable
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16. Step 3
• Now all we have todo is Run our web application (Run
option or press the shortcut COMMAND R)
• The iPhone simulator should start and launch Safari and
load your application
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17. Client SDK Integration Model – Futuristic!
• Requirements / Steps:
– Xcode 4.2 Development Studio
environment for developing native iOS
Application
– iOS SDK 4x or higher
– Informix Client SDK on iOS (Note –
Informix CSDK is NOT supported on
iOS yet!).
– Informix Database Server
– iOS Developer Program Registration (
~$99 / year ) to generate certificates for
hardware deployment
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18. Sample Xcode Project
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19. iPhone Simulator – Client SDK POC
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20. Database (Client) Vendors on iOS
• DataGlass iOS Software from Impathic supports complete and flexible
access to Oracle, Microsoft SQL
Server, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, and Microsoft Access
databases
• Cellica Database for iPhone is based on ODBC Client connectivity to
Windows Desktop. Supported Databases: Microsoft Access, Access
2007, Microsoft Excel, Excel 2007, Oracle, SQL
Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, FoxPro, dBase and R:BASE
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21. Questions?!?
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