Preface

The Oracle Migration Workbench Reference Guide for Informix Dynamic Server 7.3 Migrations provides detailed information about migrating a database from Informix Dynamic Server to Oracle9i or Oracle8i. It is a useful guide regardless of the conversion tool you are using to perform the migration, but the recommended tool for such migrations is Oracle Migration Workbench (Migration Workbench). This reference guide describes several differences between Informix Dynamic Server and Oracle and outlines how those differences are handled by the Migration Workbench during the conversion process.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Audience

This guide is intended for anyone who is involved in converting an Informix Dynamic Server database to Oracle using the Migration Workbench.

What You Should Already Know

You should be familiar with relational database concepts and with the operating system environments under which you are running Oracle and Informix Dynamic Server.

How This Reference Guide is Organized

This reference guide is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, "Overview"

Introduces the Migration Workbench and outlines features of this tool.

Chapter 2, "Oracle and Informix Dynamic Server Compared"

Contains detailed information about the differences between data types, data storage concepts, and schema objects in Informix Dynamic Server and Oracle.

Chapter 3, "Triggers, Packages, and Stored Procedures"

Introduces triggers and stored procedures, and compares T-SQL and PL/SQL language elements and constructs in Informix Dynamic Server and Oracle.

Chapter 4, "Distributed Environments"

Describes when and why distributed environments are used, and discusses application development tools.

Chapter 5, "The ESQL/C to Oracle Pro*C Converter"

Describes how to use the ESQL/C to Oracle Pro*C Converter and includes an example conversion.

Chapter 6, "Disconnected Source Model Loading"

Describes how to perform a disconnected source model load, using delimited flat files containing schema metadata.

How to Use This Reference Guide

Every reader of this reference guide should read Chapter 1, "Overview" as that chapter provides an introduction to the concept and terminology of the Migration Workbench.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of the this documentation. It describes:

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold type indicates GUI options. It also indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	The C datatypes such as ub4, sword, or OCINumber are valid. When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles, emphasis, syntax clauses, or placeholders.	Reference Guide Run `U``old_release``.SQL` where old_release refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.
UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width font)	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, user names, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a `NUMBER` column. You can back up the database using the `BACKUP` command.
lowercase monospace (fixed-width font)	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, user names and roles, program units, and parameter values.	Enter `sqlplus` to open SQL*Plus. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Square Brackets [ ]	Indicates that the enclosed arguments are optional. Do not enter the brackets.	`DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])`
Curly Braces { }	Indicates that one of the enclosed arguments is required. Do not enter the braces.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}`
Vertical Line \|	Separates alternative items that may be optional or required. Do not type the vertical bar.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}` `[COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]`
`Ellipses ...`	Indicates that the preceding item can be repeated. You can enter an arbitrary number of similaritems. In code fragments, an ellipsis means that code not relevant to the discussion has been omitted. Do not type the ellipsis	`CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery;` `SELECT col1, col2, ... , col``n` `FROM employees;`
`Italics`	Indicates variables that you must supply particular values.	`CONNECT SYSTEM/``system_password`
`UPPERCASE`	Uppercase text indicates case-insensitive filenames or directory names, commands, command keywords, initializing parameters, data types, table names, or object names. Enter text exactly as spelled; it need not be in uppercase	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES;` `DROP TABLE hr.employees;`
`lowercase`	Lowercase words in example statements indicate words supplied only for the context of the example. For example, lowercase words may indicate the name of a table, column, or file.	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `sqlplus hr/hr`