New Release of the Ruby Driver and Rails Adapter for DB2

The API team at IBM recently released a new update for the ibm_db gem, which includes both the Ruby driver and the Rails adapter for DB2 (and Informix). This coincides with the release of the latest major upgrade to DB2 LUW (Linux/Unix/Windows), which is now up to version 10.1. ibm_db 2.5.10 adds support for Rails 3.2 and fixes a few minor bugs that have been reported by the community. New features such as Time...

DB2 Express-C 10 is now out

IBM has just released version 10.1 of DB2 Express-C for Linux, Unix, and Windows. This is a major upgrade that boasts a number of additions and improvements. The already excellent performance has been improved further (including XML performance), and the free edition now takes advantage of up to 4 GB of RAM (but you can have as much RAM on the server as you wish). As usual, there are no limits on database size,...

Download DB2 Express-C 9.7.5

IBM recently released a new edition of DB2 Express-C, the free edition of their powerful commercial database. You can grab DB2 Express-C 9.7.5 for Linux, Unix, and Windows here. This new version includes support for Oracle compatibility (which was previously only available for commercial editions), and a few other features, including an enhanced db shell known as CLP+. If you downloaded DB2 in the past, take this...

Speeding up queries by a factor of 100 or more with DB2 Text Search

During a recent Rails project at IBM we had to deal with a large table consisting of customers. The table is made up of legacy enterprise data, and contains close to a million records. Among many other fields, the table Customers includes a column name defined as VARCHAR. name is used to store company names. One of the requirements for the project was to implement a Google Suggest-like feature. That is, when...

IBM is Looking for a University Student with PHP skills in Toronto

My team is looking for a student for a paid internship, which will last for up to 18 months. The candidate should be legally permitted to work in Canada, as the location for this internship will be the IBM Toronto Software Lab in Markham, Ontario. PHP is a required skill for this position. If you have experience with cloud computing (Amazon EC2), relational databases, open source contribution, and/or Moodle, that...

Installing Python, Django, and DB2 on Ubuntu 11.04

Note: This is the Python version of the Ruby guide I just published. In this brief tutorial I’ll show you how to create a complete Python and Django setup for DB2 on Ubuntu. By following my step-by-step instructions, you’ll be able to install the following components: Python easy_install Django DB2 Express-C 9.7.4 The official Python driver, dbi module, and Django adapter for DB2 Installing Python and...

Installing Ruby on Rails and DB2 on Ubuntu 11.04

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a complete Ruby on Rails setup for DB2 on Ubuntu. Following my step-by-step instructions, you’ll be able to install the following components: Ruby 1.8.7 Rubygems Ruby on Rails DB2 Express-C 9.7.4 The official Ruby driver and Rails adapter for DB2 Installing Ruby We are going to install Ruby 1.8.7 using the Debian packages that are available in the default...

Download DB2 Express-C 9.7.4

Last week IBM released DB2 Express-C 9.7.4. This new version of the free flagship database by IBM mostly focuses on enhancements rather than new features, as you can read in this developerWorks article by my colleague Raul, “What’s new with DB2 Express-C 9.7.4“. What’s more interesting to me is that IBM has implemented a completely new full text search engine known as DB2 Text Search, which...

Running Radiant CMS on DB2 in the Cloud

In this article I will show you how to set up and run Radiant CMS on DB2 Express-C in the Cloud. Before getting started, let’s define each of these components: Radiant CMS is a popular, easy to use open source Content Management System (CMS) that’s written in Ruby on Rails. DB2 Express-C is a fully functional, free edition of DB2 which can be used in production for commercial purposes. Cloud, in this particular...

Try the next version of DB2 today

IBM has been working hard to create a new, substantial upgrade of DB2. Thanks to the Early Experience program, you can now test drive the recently released Alpha 4 in the cloud for free. Despite its name, it’s a pretty solid release, so I wholeheartedly invite you to try it out. To apply for the early experience program, all you have to do is fill out this form. If you’d like to run DB2 on your own...

DB2 University goes live

DB2 University is a website that’s aimed at providing (mostly free) database courses. Its public beta went live today. While the focus is clearly on the free DB2 Express-C — as the name implies — the initial lineup of free courses already includes “SQL Fundamentals I”, which is a course that’s worth following regardless of your database of choice. Feel free to watch the intro...

Why would you use a commercial database anyway?

Yesterday was the 25th birthday of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Over the past 25 years they’ve managed to deeply influence the world of computing and technology. The ideas promoted by the FSF’s foundation and leader, Richard Stallman, have certainly veered on the radical side. However, even if you don’t agree with this group’s ideology, I’d argue that we are afforded a lot more...

Things I’ve learned from hiring interns for IBM

A few months ago I blogged about the fact that IBM was looking for two interns to fill a longterm (paid) internship. The good news is that after an extensive selection process and a hearty dose of governmental bureaucracy (which is not unusual when relocating countries), two students have finally been able to join our DB2 team at the lab. In case you are curious about who the students are, they’re Marius Butuc...

Enabling LIMIT and OFFSET in DB2 9.7.2

In order to enable the new LIMIT and OFFSET syntax in DB2 9.7.2, you’ll need to execute the following commands: $ db2set DB2_COMPATIBILITY_VECTOR=MYS $ db2stop $ db2start With this enabled, you’ll be able to execute queries such as: SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5 SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5 OFFSET...

IBM releases DB2 Express-C 9.7.2

I’m glad to report that we’ve just released a new version of DB2, namely DB2 Express-C 9.7.2. This version — of what is arguably the most advanced hybrid database system in the world — is (as usual) absolutely free to develop with, deploy in production, and even redistribute. Unlike SQL Server Express which is limited to 10GB of data, there are no data limits with DB2 Express-C. This means no...

IBM_DB 2.5.0 with support for Rails 3 is out

This is a tiny post to let you know that IBM just released version 2.5.0 of the IBM_DB gem with support for the upcoming Rails 3. That’s what I call both proactive and a true testament of IBM’s commitment towards DB2 on Rails. Aside from providing a working adapter and driver before the new framework release is even out, this release has a few improvements and fixes, such as getting rid of a minor...

Rails, DB2 and the Enterprise

Recently Matt Aimonetti wrote an insightful article about Rails and the Enterprise. In it he identifies five core Enterprise application needs: Reliability Support Performance Advantage over the competition Integration and transition path Matt then proceeds to illustrate how Rails does a good job in regards to most of these points, despite a few existing challenges. Among these challenges, I can clearly see the...

DB2 support for Django 1.2 is here

The latest release of the IBM Adapter for Django now supports Django 1.2. Aside from enabling you to use the most recent version of Django, this release adds a few new goodies into the mix, that I’m sure many will appreciate. For example, IBM’s adapter (through the underlying DBI wrapper) now uses persistent connections, which are especially helpful when dealing with Django – as it lacks connection...

Heads up: IBM is looking for top notch student hackers

As a thank you for following my blog, I’d like to introduce you to what I think is a great opportunity for the right students. My team is looking for two bright students for a 16 month, full-time internship opportunity with IBM. Aside from being a bright and ambitious student, you should currently be working towards a Computer Science degree at any recognized University in the world (and have completed at...

DB2 support for Ruby/Rails turns 2.0

This article is obsolete. Please refer to the following articles for up do date instructions: Ruby/Rails and DB2 | Python/Django and DB2. Thank you! The API development team just released a major version of the ibm_db gem. Detailed installation instructions are available on RubyForge (PDF). Among several improvements, there are three particularly newsworthy features: Support for Ruby 1.9; Support for mingw32, used...