Analyze IBM Informix Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server to build dynamic dashboards from live IBM Informix data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for IBM Informix, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to IBM Informix in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Connect to IBM Informix from API Server

CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection 👁 Adding a connection
   
2. Select "IBM Informix" 👁 Selecting a Connector (Salesforce is shown).
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to IBM Informix.

   Set the following properties to connect to IBM Informix

   • Server: Set this to the name of the server running IBM Informix.
   • Port: Set this to the port the IBM Informix server is listening on.
   • Database: Set this to the name of the IBM Informix database.
   • User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
   • Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown).
   

Add IBM Informix Resource Definitions in API Server

After connecting to IBM Informix, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for IBM Informix data.

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource 👁 Adding a new resource
   
2. Select the IBM Informix connection 👁 Selecting a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
3. Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next 👁 Selecting a Table (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

Add an API Server User

Create a User to connect to IBM Informix from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the IBM Informix Connection and Resource(s) 👁 Creating a new user
   

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With the API Server configured, we can visualize IBM Informix data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New 👁 Adding a new dashboard
   
2. Click Data Source -> OData Feed 👁 Adding a new OData data source
   
3. Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc 👁 Configuring the OData URL
   
4. Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token 👁 Configuring the credentials
   
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize 👁 Selecting an entity to visualize (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Select fields and choose a chart type 👁 Visualizing data in Reveal (Salesforce is shown.)
   

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live IBM Informix data. For more information on creating OData feeds from IBM Informix (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live IBM Informix data in tools that consume OData APIs.