Chapter 14. DB2 Extenders

DB2 Extenders enhance the usability and functionality of the RDMS. Application developers use them to assist with nontraditional data types such as formatted documents, geographical coordinates, and multimedia data. They add tools for managing, manipulating, and interpreting characteristics of these data types with standard SQL statements. DB2 Extenders provide many useful features that can be integrated with software applications.

Several DB2 Extender products make up the DB2 Extenders Family: Text Extender; Net Search Extender; Audio, Image, and Video (AIV) Extenders; XML Extender; and Spatial Extender. Text Extender is used to provide advanced text search capabilities such as linguistic and fuzzy logic searches. Net Search Extender provides fast, scalable, fuzzy logic searches intended for high volume use over the Internet. Net Search Extender v8 combines the functionality previously offered in both DB2 Text Information Extender v7.2 and Net Search Extender v7.2. AIV Extenders provide functions that can be used to identify properties and manipulate media data with specific properties. The media data can be audio, image, and video. XML Extender enables XML document generation, decomposition, and XPath searches.

The bundling of these products depends on the edition of DB2 purchased. All database server installations are packaged with Text, AIV, and XML Extenders. Net Search and Spatial Extenders are optional add-ons for Enterprise Server Edition and Workgroup Edition. The Universal Developer's Edition, Personal Developer's Edition, and Personal Edition include Net Search and Spatial Extenders in the same package. The Personal Edition of these products are limited with a single user license. DB2 Personal Edition does not allow remote connections.