Calvin Buckley

Running the x86 IBM i ODBC driver on ARM Linux with Rosetta

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM iI recently did some research on how to run the IBM i ODBC driver under Linux on newer macOS architecture and thought I’d share what I learned.

Over the last few years, macOS has changed from x86 (Intel) to ARM architecture. IBM has kept pace by updating its IBM i ODBC driver to support ARM on macOS as of version 1.1.0.15.

Developers who use a Linux virtual machine, however, will note that there is no ARM version of the Linux driver available yet. While an ARM-native version of the driver would be ideal, Mac users running a Linux virtual machine can run the existing x86 version of the driver using Rosetta for Linux. Read more →

Alan Seiden

Connecting to IBM i Db2 with the Laravel PHP Framework

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Laravel FrameworkLaravel has been inspiring loyalty among PHP developers for its documentation, community, and many built-in features.

Like most PHP frameworks, Laravel is cross-platform and can work with IBM i and Db2 data. This article shows how to take full advantage of Laravel’s built-in database components by installing an IBM i-specific extension to Laravel’s database connection class.

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Alan Seiden

Case-Insensitive Queries using ODBC on IBM i

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM iWhen querying for character data using SQL, case matters. “A” is not equal to “a”. Even so, you might want to find all matches, whether uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.

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Alan Seiden

Encrypting IBM i ODBC Connections from Linux with TLS/SSL

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM i

ODBC connections between Linux and IBM i should be encrypted to keep their Db2 data safe in transit.

To encrypt ODBC data, IBM recommends the industry-standard TLS encryption protocol (the successor to SSL).

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Alan Seiden

What’s in Your ODBC Driver?

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM iSince IBM announced Yum support for installing the IBM i Db2 ODBC driver, as documented in our recent tutorial, users can update their driver more easily.

To help users determine what’s changed, IBM maintains a list of fixes and enhancements for each IBM i ODBC driver release.

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Alan Seiden

Using Yum to Install or Update the IBM i ODBC Driver

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM iThe IBM i ODBC driver for Db2 has become easier to install.

Formerly available only as a download requiring several steps, the driver can now be installed and updated on IBM i with Yum or Access Client Solutions (ACS), as easily as with other IBM i open source packages.

Here are instructions for installing the ODBC driver using Yum.

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Calvin Buckley

ODBC Connection Strings for IBM i Db2

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ODBC with Db2 for IBM iAs ODBC gains popularity for IBM i database access, developers of web applications and APIs need information on defining ODBC database connections. This article demonstrates tips and techniques for effectively using ODBC connection strings in all programming environments, including popular languages such as PHP, Python, and Node.js.

For an example of how connection strings are used in a program, see How to Query IBM i Data with PHP and PDO_ODBC.

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Alan Seiden

How to Query IBM i Data with PHP and PDO_ODBC

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ODBC & Db2 for iOf the PHP extensions that can connect to IBM i Db2, we recommend PDO_ODBC whenever possible.

Although the classic extensions (ibm_db2, PDO_IBM) and older ODBC continue to work, we prefer PDO_ODBC for several reasons:
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Calvin Buckley

ibm_db2 & ODBC Run Side-by-Side in Seiden CP+ PHP

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PHP on IBM iIn the past, PHP on IBM i implementations demanded loyalty to a single database connection style: either the classic extensions (ibm_db2 / PDO_IBM) or the ODBC extensions (odbc / PDO_ODBC). Operating system limitations prevented both types from being loaded at the same time.

In July 2021, we overcame those limitations in Seiden CommunityPlus+ PHP. Yes, now the classic PHP database extensions can run side-by-side with ODBC!

As of this writing, you’ll find this feature exclusively in CP+ PHP. When you install Seiden CP+, all db2 extensions (ibm_db2, PDO_IBM, odbc, and PDO_ODBC) are enabled by default.

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Alan Seiden

Q&A: IBM i ODBC Driver

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Stephanie Rabbini

I recently caught up with Seiden Group CTO Stephanie Rabbani about the ODBC driver that’s quickly becoming standard for open source and web connections on Db2 for i.

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