DbSchema: Visual Catalog Explorer for IBM Informix

DbSchema connects to IBM Informix through the IBM JDBC driver and turns the system catalog — tables, views, synonyms, and stored procedures across your database spaces — into an ER diagram your team can browse, document, and change deliberately.

See tables, views, and synonym chains on one diagram
Edit structures with Informix types — LVARCHAR, DATETIME intervals, SERIAL
Export HTML documentation as a baseline for audits and onboarding
Compare schemas across database spaces and environments

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DbSchema rendering an IBM Informix catalog as an ER diagram

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Applications Read Through Synonyms
DBAs Read the Catalog by Hand

A grown Informix estate hides its structure well: applications reach base tables through layers of synonyms, views depend on other views, and the only map is a query against systables. Command-line catalog reading proves an object exists — it never shows how everything connects.

DbSchema draws the connections: synonym chains resolved down to their base tables and view dependencies laid out on a diagram, ready for DBA audits and architecture reviews.

Audit, Change & Document
an Informix Estate Visually

From the first catalog import to the reviewed ALTER script, in one desktop tool.

Reverse engineer an Informix catalog into an ER diagram

The Catalog as a Picture, Not a Query Result

DbSchema introspects the Informix catalog and renders tables, views, synonym chains, and view dependencies as a navigable diagram — the resolution path from application synonym to base table included.

Preview Informix ALTER TABLE DDL before executing it

ALTER TABLE, Written for You

Change a column in the visual editor — the type picker knows LVARCHAR, DATETIME intervals, and SERIAL — and read the generated Informix DDL before it reaches a live database.

Generate HTML documentation from an Informix system catalog

A Baseline for the Next Audit

Export table definitions, column types, constraints, indexes, and view SQL as HTML documentation — change management and compliance get a reference that is actually current.

The Schema Lives on the Server
The Design Lives in a Model

DbSchema keeps your Informix design in a model file of its own. Work on it offline, version it, and connect only when a change is ready to ship.

No Connection Required

Sketch and refine the schema before the server is reachable — or before it exists.

History for Every Table

Commit the model to Git and each structural change gets an author, a date, and a diff.

Read generated Informix DDL before it runs

Read the DDL Before It Runs

Preview the exact ALTER statements a change produces ahead of executing them.

One Environment at a Time

Carry the reviewed change to development, test, and production separately, each on its own approval.

Connecting to Informix: Driver, Port, and URL

DbSchema ships without the Informix driver: download ifxjdbc.jar from IBM Fix Central and register it in the driver manager. Schema discovery works when the connecting user holds SELECT privileges on the catalog tables — systables, syscolumns, and their relatives.

Informix listens on port 9088 by default, and the URL carries the INFORMIXSERVER name, which must match its entry in the sqlhosts file on the Informix host: jdbc:informix-sqli://host:9088/dbname:INFORMIXSERVER=servername. Setup details are on the Informix JDBC driver page.