A couple of webcasts on DB2 Express-C

One of the key components of the Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails is the free DB2 Express-C data server. Recently we announced that not only do we offer a free DB2 Express-C but that you now also have an option of purchasing support subscription if you need one. With this support subscription you also get data replication and high availability clustering and remote site disaster recovery. Pretty decent set of features for $2995 for a server for one year.
On June 7 we will talk about this product in a couple of free (naturally) webcasts. One of the webcasts called Premiering DB2 Express-C: The truly free database is designed to introduce developers to DB2 Express-C. The other webcast Drive revenue with DB2 Express-C is more suited for ISVs and business partners. If you don’t catch either one of the webcasts on June 7, don’t worry, they will be available for a replay. To register for these webcast or for a later replay click on the links above.

May 30 2007 | Announcements and How-to | Comments Off

DB2 and Ruby on Rails, Part 1

Developerworks has published the first part of a long and detailed article about DB2 on Rails programming. In this article the basics of how to get started, migrations and an introduction to working with XML are covered. In the follow up article, XML will be covered in detail with informative step-by-step instructions on how to use DB2 pureXML™ in Rails. I’m sure you will find them to be extemely useful and informative.

Please visit and rate the first part of the article here.

May 28 2007 | Announcements and How-to | Comments Off

IBM_DB-0.6.5 update available

I know it’s no longer news for many, but for some it might still be: IBM_DB 0.6.5 gem refresh is available at rubyibm on RubyForge (prepackaged for win32/*nixes, and source code under MIT). This is the first refresh since the production/stable release 0.6.0, and contains a few important fixes for db:schema:dump/load for boolean, XML data type default option, and a reconnect regression. To refresh your environment is as simple as with any other Ruby gem: “gem install ibm_db”, and choose the appropriate platform of your choice (i.e. ‘mswin32’ for Windows, or ‘ruby’ for any *nix flavour). The online documentation also serves a few simple install verification examples, too.

And yes, this is the same IBM_DB2 adapter and driver you first encountered while installing Starter Toolkit. It evolved a bit though, it became more mature, fit to support all DB2 platforms (Linux, Unix, Windows, zOS and i5 systems), and ready to expand its support to other IBM data servers. In fact, the gem install now available makes it so easy, that you may want to give it a try whenever you have a couple of minutes.

Here’s another hint, if you already have access to a DB2 server, you might even be interested to try a “thin” DB2 client environment: IBM DB2 Driver for ODBC and CLI, and the Rails enablement IBM_DB 0.6.5 gem. And that makes you ready to test your Rails application prototypes on existing DB2 8 or 9 data servers. No, I really mean it, just go download latest FP2 for IBM DB2 Driver for ODBC and CLI, unzip and place its bin in the path, then install IBM_DB gem and kick-start your db:migrate for a test.

And if you need help or you find something unexpected, make sure IBM_DB developers hear from you through rubyibm Forum or Tracker.

May 16 2007 | Announcements | Comments Off

IBM_DB2 or IBM_DB?

If you haven’t followed the IBM releases of DB2 on Rails very closely, you may be puzzled to find a Rubyforge project alongside the Alphaworks project. I’d like to shortly clarify what’s going on. The Stater Toolkit for DB2 on Rails is an easy, batteries included, one-click installer for Microsoft Windows and was last updated quite some time ago, when our driver and adapter were called IBM_DB2.

IBM’s vision of extending the driver and adapter not only to DB2 for LUW (Linux/Unix/Windows), but also for the other IBM databases, was clearly highlighted by the renaming of the DB2 enablement from IBM_DB2 to IBM_DB.

The new driver and adapter have been released in the Open Source on Rubyforge and they will be continuously improved and supported by IBM. Bugs, suggestions and questions should be posted directly on the homepage of the project at Rubyforge. This release allows users to install a gem or, if they prefer, to get a plugin on an individual project basis. So what will happen to the Alphaworks project?

An updated toolkit will be published very soon, and as you may expect it will automatically install the ibm_db gem along with Ruby, Rails, DB2 9 Fix Pack 2 and more. Windows users who already have several components installed, and users of other operating systems, can directly setup a DB2 development environment through the gem or the plugin, without requiring the toolkit. Others who prefer the comfort of a one click installer, will still find the starter toolkit to be an excellent solution to get everything setup including DB2 itself. If you are still uncertain about something, please feel free to use the comments to ask further questions.

May 10 2007 | Tips&Tricks | 4 Comments »