Pre-Installation Requirements for Single-Tier "Express" Edition ODBC Driver for Informix, for Mac OS X

DBMS Requirements

You need to know a variety of information pertaining to your Informix DBMS:

Informix Instance Startup Mode (Sockets or Shared Memory). Note: Shared Memory connections cannot be made with the Express Edition; these require either Lite Edition or Enterprise Edition. Sockets-based connections are fully supported by the Express Edition.
Database Server Hostname or IP Address
Informix TCP Port Number
Database Name
Informix Instance Name

You must have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that is compatible with our components.
- The JRE was part of the default Mac OS X installation, for Cheetah (10.0) through Snow Leopard (10.6).
- As of Lion (10.7), you may need to manually choose to add Java, but the OS should prompt you to do so when you try to use Java components.
- All Java software shipped by Apple and/or installed as part of Mac OS X, through Java 6 (a/k/a 1.6), is compatible. See 64-bit ODBC Application notes below!
- All Java software obtainable from Oracle for Lion (10.7) and later, i.e., Java 7 and later, is compatible. See 32-bit ODBC Application notes below!

Important notes for users of 64-bit ODBC Applications:
- All Java software shipped by Apple and/or installed as part of Mac OS X, through Java 6 (a/k/a 1.6), is 32-bit only, and can only be used by 32-bit ODBC client applications, including iODBC Administrator.app (found in /Applications/iODBC/). If you are using a 64-bit ODBC client application (e.g., Microsoft Excel 2016 or later), you must upgrade to Java 8 or later from Oracle, and then reinstall the Express Edition ODBC Driver.

Important notes for users of 32-bit ODBC Applications:
- All Java software obtainable from Oracle for Lion (10.7) and later, i.e., Java 7 and later, is 64-bit only, and can only be used by 64-bit ODBC client applications, including iODBC Administrator64.app (found in /Applications/iODBC/). If you are using a 32-bit ODBC client application (e.g., Microsoft Excel 2011 or earlier), you must downgrade to Java 6 from Apple, and then reinstall the Express Edition ODBC Driver.

Important notes for users of Snow Leopard (10.6), Leopard (10.5), and Tiger (10.4):
- PowerPC-based applications on Intel-based Macs cannot connect through our "Lite" Edition ODBC-to-JDBC Bridge, due to limitations in Mac OS X and its JRE. Commonly problematic applications include Microsoft Query as shipped with Microsoft Office:Mac v.X through Microsoft Office:Mac 2011 (upon which Microsoft Excel 2011 and earlier depend), and FileMaker? Pro v8 and earlier.
- PowerPC-native applications on PowerPC-based Macs can connect through our "Lite" Edition ODBC-to-JDBC Bridge.
- Intel-native applications, and Universal Binary applications which include Intel-native components, on Intel-based Macs can connect through our "Lite" Edition ODBC-to-JDBC Bridge.
- PowerPC-based applications on Intel-based Macs can connect to Informix through the Multi-Tier "Enterprise" Edition drivers.

There are no software configuration requirements associated with the use of the "Express" Edition ODBC Driver for Informix.