Connecting to Informix using pyobbc on Windows

I am trying to write a process in python that needs to be portable between different database environments. One of the environments it needs to be connected to is Informix.

I was looking for how to connect to Informix in Python and came across both InformixDB and ibm_db {, _ sa} which seem overly difficult to use (and I tried and tried and just couldn't get them to work).

I'm trying (again) to get this to work with pyodbc, but can't connect to the database from Windows:

set INFORMIXDIR="C:\Program Files\IBM Informix Client SDK"
set CLIENT_LOCALE=en_US.CP1252
set DB_LOCALE=en_US.819

python
Python 3.3.3 (v3.3.3:c3896275c0f6, Nov 18 2013, 21:18:40) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
>>> import pyodbc
>>>
>>> cnxn = pyodbc.connect(dsn='devdb')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
pyodbc.Error: ('HY000', '[HY000] [Informix][Informix ODBC Driver][Informix]Unspecified System Error = -23101. (-23101) (SQLDriverConnect)')

      

        
        
        
      

    

From what I found, Error -23101 is caused by an incorrect locale match, however these are the same values ​​used in the ODBC configuration as well as any other Informix related utility I have at my disposal.

I am at a loss to figure out how to connect to Informix and cannot think of more search terms to try and figure out this problem. How difficult it can be to use ODBC - just about every other language I know has no problem with it!

Note . To be clear, the ODBC connection is set up correctly and works with other ODBC based applications (I can connect using QTODBC or Perl DBI).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Edit : Heh, I'm not enough authority to attach an image yet, but I have uploaded it at http://wraeth.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/odbcad32.png if you want to take a look.

Edit 2 :

• Updated to ActivePython-3.3.4 with no changes
• Created a symbolic link to the IFX ClientSDK directory to remove spaces in the path, resulting in "driver not throwing an error"
• Confirmed DB_LOCALE
  
  - en_US.819
  
  by checking the table sysdbslocale
  
  in the database.

Also confirmed to be %INFORMIXDIR%

installed on a valid CSDK installation:

> mklink /D informix "C:\Program Files\IBM Informix Client SDK"
> set INFORMIXDIR=C:\informix
> dir %INFORMIXDIR%\gls
 Volume in drive C has no label
 Volume Serial Number is 808D-98FF

 Directory of C:\informix\gls

19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          .
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          ..
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          cm3
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          cv9
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          dll
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          etc
19/09/2013  04:50 PM    <DIR>          lc11

      

        
        
        
      

    

Using a symbolic link INFORMIXDIR

still prevents it from being connected:

ActivePython 3.3.4.1 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 3.3.4 (default, Feb 25 2014, 15:11:05) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os, pyodbc
>>> os.path.exists(
...   os.path.join(
...     os.environ.get('INFORMIXDIR'),
...     'gls'
...   )
... )
True
>>> cnxn = pyodbc.connect(dsn='devdb', uid='user', pwd='password')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
pyodbc.Error: ('HY000', 'The driver did not supply an error!')

      

        
        
        
      

    

Decision

Removing and reinstalling the client SDK to a path that has no spaces ( C:\informix

) seems to fix the problem.