Syntax error on stored procedure call to linked server?

Question

I've got an Informix machine I've configured as a linked server in SQL Server.

I can remotely send, and receive the results of, a query for, say

SELECT * FROM linkedServer.instanceName.database.myTable

but can't run the

linkedServer.instanceName.database.selectAllFromMYTABLE

stored procedure.

The error message I'm getting returned is "[Informix][Informix ODBC Driver][Informix]A syntax error has occurred." which is not massively helpful, except that it tells me that my request was received in some form...

Could someone tell me what the correct calling syntax would be to execute an Informix stored procedure via SQL Server? Presumably I'm screwing up the stored procedure call, because the stored procedure can be verified to be working fine on the Informix server.

EDIT: Adding the full text of a stored procedure I am testing, in order to verify I'm not doing something stupid in Informix which is causing a knock-on problem with the SQL Server execution:

CREATE FUNCTION sp_testSP()
   RETURNING char(20) as item_no

   DEFINE item_no char(20);

   FOREACH
    SELECT table_name.item_code
     INTO item_no
     FROM table_name
     WHERE table_name.item_code LIKE 'test%'
     RETURN item_no WITH RESUME;
   END FOREACH;
END FUNCTION

As I've mentioned, this appears to work fine in RazorSQL, which I have connected to Informix, but maybe seeing this will jog someone's memory with some reason why SQL Server can't work with this return method...

Answer 1

Have you tried using OpenQuery ?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188427.aspx

Answer 2

In native Informix, you would write (approximately):

EXECUTE PROCEDURE database@linkedServer:selectAllFromMYTABLE();

I'm not sure quite where you'd fit an instance name into that - the 'linkedServer' corresponds to an instance name (to my way of thinking). The nearest approaches would be:

database@linkedServer:instancename.selectAllFromMyTABLE()
instancename@linkedServer:database.selectAllFromMyTABLE()

However, that is via the native Informix interfaces. If you go via SQL Server, then the syntax probably needs to be the native SQL Server syntax for invoking a procedure. In theory, I believe, the API used (ODBC or whatever) should be able to translate to the native Informix syntax.