Before you create a database with an IBM Informix product, you must decide what type of data model you want to use to design your database. This manual describes the following database models:
This data model typifies database design for online transaction processing (OLTP). The purpose of OLTP is to process a large number of small transactions without losing any of them. An OLTP database is designed to handle the day-to-day needs of a business, and database performance is tuned for those needs. Basics of Database Design and Implementation of this manual, describes how to build and implement a relational data model for OLTP. Managing Databases, discusses how to manage your databases.
Object-relational databases employ basic relational design principles, but include features such as extended data types, user-defined routines, user-defined casts, and user-defined aggregates to extend the functionality of relational databases. Object-Relational Databases of this manual, discusses how to use the extensible features of Dynamic Server to extend the kinds of data you can store in your database and to provide greater flexibility in how you organize and access your data.
This data model is typically used to build data marts, which are a type of data warehouse. In a data-warehousing environment, databases are optimized for data retrieval and analysis. This type of informational processing is known as online analytical processing (OLAP) or decision-support processing. Dimensional Databases of this manual, describes how to build and implement a dimensional data model for OLAP.
In addition to the data model you choose to design the database, you must make the following decisions that determine which features are available to applications that use the database:
The remainder of this chapter describes the implications of these decisions and summarizes how the decisions that you make affect your database.
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