IBM releases DB2 adapter for SQLAlchemy

This article is obsolete.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!

A while ago I informally announced IBM’s intention to develop an SQLAlchemy adapter for DB2 and Informix IDS. Today, I’m happy to inform you that we have a first working release for DB2 on Linux, Unix and Windows (LUW). Support for Informix IDS is next (almost done), and after that, it will be System i and z/OS’ turn.

This release will surely excite those Pythonistas who can appreciate DB2 for what it is: one of the most powerful data servers in the world. Which, in its Express-C version, also happens to be gratis (“free as in free beer”). But there is more to it than just that.

IBM has in fact created a project on Google Code, for supporting Python development with IBM Data Servers. Aside from downloads and SVN access, this gives the project a nice public bug tracker which was missing up until this point. A Google Group was also created in order to have an easy to follow support mailing list, and I invite you to join it now.

With the switch to Google Code, there was also an update to the Python drivers (now version 0.2.5), which contain a few improvements and a bug fix for the egg that wasn’t working properly on Linux.

The project currently hosts the following components:

1. The ibm_db Python Egg for Linux and Windows which contains:
   • The ibm_db driver: a C extension module that wraps IBM’s Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI APIs and provides a Python client interface for the DB2 and Informix IDS databases.
   • The ibm_db_dbi: a Python coded module that relies on the ibm_db Python driver, and complies with the DB-API 2.0 specs.
2. The ibm_db_sa: a Python coded adapter which implements the SQLAlchemy 0.4 API specification.

Please use the driver and/or the adapter for SQLAlchemy and let us know if you encounter any issues or have any feedback about it.