Introduction

This guide provides you with the instructions for using Object Management Extension to add data types and SQL functions to Ingres® and provides the requirements for creating the required source code and procedures for installing your code.

Audience

This guide assumes that you are an experienced programmer, familiar with the C programming language.

In This Guide

This guide introduces Object Management Extension and contains information on the following topics:

• Interaction of new data types and SQL functions with the DBMS Server
• Requirements for defining a new data type
• Requirements for defining a new SQL function
• Requirements for defining function instances to support your new data types and functions
• Description of the routine used by the DBMS Server to access the code for new data types and functions
• Instructions for installing and testing your code
• Description of spatial data types

An appendix contains a checklist for defining, installing, and testing a new data type or SQL function.

System-specific Text in This Guide

This guide provides information that is specific to your operating system, as in these examples:

UNIX: This information is specific to the UNIX operating system.

VMS: This information is specific to the UNIX operating system.

When necessary for clarity, the symbol is used to indicate the end of the system-specific text.

For sections that pertain to one system only, the system is indicated in the section title.

Terminology Use in This Guide

The documentation uses the following terminology:

A command is an operation that you execute at the operating system level.

A statement is an operation that you embed within a program or execute interactively from a terminal monitor.

A statement can be written in Ingres 4GL, a host programming language (such as C), or a database query language (SQL or QUEL).

Syntax Conventions Used in This Guide

This guide uses the following conventions to describe syntax: