ROWID columns

Informix®

When creating a table, Informix automatically adds a ROWID integer column (applies to non-fragmented tables only).

The ROWID column is auto-filled with a unique number and can be used like a primary key to access a given row.

Note:

Informix ROWID usage was a common practice in the early days of Informix 4GL programming. Today it is recommended to define all your database tables with a PRIMARY KEY to uniquely identify rows.

With Informix, the sqlca.sqlerrd[6] register contains the ROWID of the last row affected by an INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statement.

Oracle® MySQL and MariaDB

MySQL and MariadDB do not support implicit rowid columns like Informix does.

Starting with version 8.0.30, MySQL provides Generated Invisible Primary Keys (GIPKs): When setting the sql_generate_invisible_primary_key server variable to ON, new created tables will implicitly get a my_row_id column as an AUTO_INCREMENT INVISIBLE PRIMARY KEY. This could be used to emulate Informix rowids, but is not supported by Genero, as it would require to adapt the SERIAL emulation: There can only be one auto-incremented column, and one primary key in a MySQL database table.

Solution

If your Genero BDL application uses rowid columns, review the program logic to use primary keys insead. If the database table does no define a primary key, it should be added. All references to SQLCA.SQLERRD[6] must be removed, because this variable will not hold the ROWID of the last modified row.

For databases where the keyword of the rowid pseudo-column is different than "ROWID", the translation can be controlled with the following FGLPROFILE entry:
dbi.database.dsname.ifxemul.rowid = { true | false }
For more details see IBM Informix emulation parameters in FGLPROFILE.