-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge

Release 2.4.5.0.0

RELEASE NOTES

July 1998

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Copyright (C) 1998 Oracle Corporation

Primary Author: D. Yitzik Brenman

Contributors: Chandu Bhavsar, Anny Chan, Chung-Ho Chen, Paul Dixon,

Mohammad Faisal, Garrett Kaminaga, Jackie Kud, Kavi Mahesh,

Steve Yang, David Yu

This software/documentation contains proprietary information of Oracle

Corporation; it is provided under a license agreement containing

restrictions on use and disclosure and is also protected by copyright

law. Reverse engineering of the software is prohibited.

If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency

of the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with Restricted Rights

and the following legend is applicable:

RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND:

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions

as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of DFARS 252.227-7013, Rights in

Technical Data and Computer Software (October 1988).

If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency

not within the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with

"Restricted Rights," as defined in FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data -

General, including Alternate III (June 1987).

Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

If you find any problems in the documentation, please report them to us in

writing. Oracle Corporation does not warrant that this document is error free.

Oracle, ConText, SQL*Loader, SQL*Net, and SQL*Plus are registered trademarks

of Oracle Corporation. Oracle8, PL/SQL, and Gist are trademarks of

Oracle Corporation.

All trade names referenced are the service mark, trademark, or registered

trademark of the respective manufacturer.

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**** NOTE ****

With each distribution, ConText provides the ConText Workbench, a package

of tools and utilties which enable:

-- GUI administration of ConText from a Windows NT/95 client or from any

Web browser

-- development of ConText applications for Windows NT/95, Oracle Forms, or

the World Wide Web

The ConText Workbench can be installed on any IBM-compatible personal computer

running Windows NT or Windows 95. The Web-based administration and

application development components can be implemented for use with either

Oracle WebServer 2.1 or Oracle Web Application Server 3.0.

For more information, see the the "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Workbench

User's Guide" or the ConText Workbench release notes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

=================

INTRODUCTION

0.1 Purpose of this README

0.2 Cover Letter and Licensing

0.3 Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Documentation Currently Available

CONTEXT 2.4 ENHANCEMENTS

1.1 Filters

1.1.1 PDF Filter Available for Additional Platforms/Operating Systems

1.2 Indexing

1.2.1 Support for Creating ConText Indexes on Oracle8 Objects

1.2.2 Support for Piecewise Optimization

1.2.3 Support for Paragraph/Sentence Section Searching in Text Indexes

1.3 Thesauri

1.3.1 Seeded Thesaurus Supplied by ConText

1.4 International Support

1.4.1 Composite Text Indexes/Queries Extended to Dutch Text

1.4.2 Stoplists Supplied for Many European Languages

1.5 Text and Theme Queries

1.5.1 Behavior of NEAR Operator (Text Queries) Consistent with

Other Operators

1.5.2 Section Searching (Text Queries) Enhanced to Support Paragraphs

and Sentences

1.5.3 Enhanced Handling of Case in Theme Queries

1.6 Linguistics

1.6.1 General Improvements in Linguistics Performance and Output

1.6.2 CTX_LING Table Obsolete

1.6.3 Theme Output for Documents Increased from 16 to 50

1.6.4 Publication of Category Hierarchy (Knowledge Catalog)

1.7 ConText Workbench

1.7.1 Configuration Manager Provides Utility for Generating Prototype

Applications

CONTEXT 2.4 NEW FEATURES


OTHER ENHANCEMENTS/NEW FEATURES

3.1 ConText Servers

3.2 Loading Utility (ctxload)

3.3 Filters

3.4 Indexing

3.5 Thesauri

3.6 International Support

3.7 Text and Theme Queries

3.8 Linguistics

3.9 ConText Workbench

INSTALLATION ISSUES

4.1 Location of ConText Installation Information

4.2 Default Tablespace and Default Temporary Tablespace for CTXSYS

UPGRADE ISSUES

5.1 Requirements for Upgrading

5.2 Upgrade Options for ConText 2.4 Database Objects

5.3 Manual Upgrade of Database Objects

5.4 Upgrading ConText Indexes

5.5 Features Which Require Reindexing

GENERAL USAGE ISSUES

6.1 Enabling One-Step Queries

LINGUISTIC ISSUES

7.1 Importing Linguistic Settings

7.2 ConText Server Personalities for Theme Indexing and Querying

7.3 Immediate DML Update Not Supported for Theme Indexes on Columns

Containing All-Uppercase/All-Lowercase Text

7.4 Obsolete Predefined Setting Configurations

FIXES

8.1 Fixes in Release 2.4

8.2 Other Fixes

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

9.1 One-Step Queries in PL/SQL Not Supported (344159)

9.2 One-Step Queries for LONG Columns in Remote Tables Not

Supported (436969)

9.3 Section Searching Not Supported for HTML Documents in Mixed-Format

Columns

9.4 PDF Supplied External Filter

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**********************

* *

* Introduction *

* *

**********************

0.1 Purpose of this README

--------------------------

This README file contains information about ConText, release 2.4.5.0.0. It

lists any differences between release 2.4 and its documented functionality,

as well as fixed bugs, and known problems and workarounds.

0.2 Cover Letter and Licensing

------------------------------

Please read the cover letter included with your Oracle8 package.

It contains important information about licenses for Oracle8 cartridges.

0.3 Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Documentation Available in this Release

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge QuickStart

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's Guide

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Workbench User's Guide

-------------------

NOTE: ConText error messages are located in "Oracle8 Error Messages"

-------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*********************************

* *

* ConText 2.4 Enhancements *

* *

*********************************

The following section lists the enhancements/changes made to ConText between

release 2.4 and 2.3, and provides details about each change.

-------------------

NOTE: If you are upgrading from release 2.3, please read this section

carefully. Enhancements to the current release of ConText may

affect the functionality and operation of previous releases.

If you are upgrading from a release prior to 2.3, you may want to

read "Other Enhancements/New Features" as well.

-------------------

1.1 Filters

===========

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

document filtering in ConText for release 2.4.

For more information about filters, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge

Administrator's Guide".

1.1.1 PDF Filter Available for Additional Platforms/Operating Systems

---------------------------------------------------------------------

In release 2.3, the (production) PDF external filter supplied by ConText was

available only for Windows NT and Solaris.

In release 2.4, the (production) PDF filter is available for the following

platforms/operating systems:

-- AIX

-- DEC

-- HP UX

-- SGI

-- Sun

-- Solaris

-- Solaris X86

-- SunOS

-- Windows NT

For all other supported platforms/operating systems, a (BETA) PDF external

filter is supplied by ConText.

1.2 Indexing

============

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

ConText indexing for release 2.4.

For more information about ConText indexing, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge

Administrator's Guide".

1.2.1 Support for Creating ConText Indexes on Oracle8 Objects

-------------------------------------------------------------

In release 2.4, ConText supports creating ConText indexes on object tables

and views. The methods for creating ConText indexes on object tables

and views are identical to the indexing methods for relational tables and

views.

-------------------

NOTE: ConText does not support indexing of object tables/views where the

textkey or text column for the table/view is a user-defined object

type; the datatype for the textkey and text column must be one of

the built-in datatypes (e.g. NUMBER, VARCHAR, LONG, LOB) supported

by ConText.

-------------------

1.2.2 Support for Piecewise Optimization

----------------------------------------

In previous releases, index optimization could only be performed on an entire

index. Because optimization of large indexes can take a long time and

ConText does not allow DML updates to an index while the index is being

optimized, frequent and/or online optimization of entire indexes is not

always feasible.

In release 2.4, ConText supports restricting optimization to a single token

(word or theme). Piecewise optimization blocks DML updates; however, since

the optimization is restricted to a single token, it completes more

quickly, presenting less of a potential bottleneck.

To support piecewise optimization, the CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX procedure

has been extended:

-- new 'opttyp' argument value ('dr_optimize_piecewise') for specifying

piecewise optimization

-- new argument ('term') for specifying the token to be optimized

1.2.3 Support for Paragraph/Sentence Section Searching in Text Indexes

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ConText supports paragraph/sentence section searching (a new feature provided

in release 2.3) through the definition of two system-level sections named

'paragraph' and 'section'.

-------------------

NOTE: If you want to use paragraph/sentence section searching in a text

column, do not use 'paragraph' and 'section' as section names when

defining sections and section groups for the column.

-------------------

In addition, the BASIC LEXER Tile has been enhanced to identify paragraph

and sentence boundaries used for indexing paragraph/sentence sections:

-- new attribute ('sent_para') for enabling paragraph/sentence searching

-- new attributes ('whitespace' and 'newline') for specifying character(s)

that identify the ends of paragraphs/sentences

-- 'punctuations' attribute enhanced to support specifying character(s)

that, in conjuction with 'whitespace' and 'newline', identify the

ends of paragraphs/sentences

1.3 Thesauri

============

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

thesauri for release 2.4.

For more information about creating and maintaining thesauri, see "Oracle8

ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

For more information about using thesauri in text queries, see "Oracle8

ConText Cartridge Application Developer's Guide"

1.3.1 Seeded Thesaurus Supplied by ConText

------------------------------------------

In release 2.4, ConText supplies a thesaurus load file named 'dr0thsus.txt'

which can be used to create a general purpose thesaurus complete with

commonly-used synonyms, hierarchical terms, and related terms.

To create a thesaurus, use ctxload and the '-thes' parameter. For example:

ctxload -thes -name generic_thes -file dr0thsus.txt

To create a case-sensitive thesaurus, use the '-thescase' parameter also:

ctxload -thes -thescase -name generic_thes -file dr0thsus.txt

The exact location of the load file is operating system dependent; however,

the file is generally located in the following directory structure:

<Oracle home directory> --> <ConText directory> --> thes

For more information about the directory structure for ConText, see the

Oracle8 Server documentation specific to your operating system

1.4 International Support

=========================

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

ConText international features for release 2.4.

For more information about international features for ConText, see "Oracle8

ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

1.4.1 Composite Text Indexes/Queries Extended to Dutch Text

-----------------------------------------------------------

In addition to composite indexes/queries for German text (a new feature

introduced in release 2.3), ConText now provides similar functionality

for Dutch text.

To support Dutch composite text indexing, a new value ('2') has been defined

for the 'composite' attribute in the BASIC LEXER Tile.

1.4.2 Stoplists Supplied for Many European Languages

----------------------------------------------------

ConText now supplies stoplists for the following European languages:

-- Danish (DA)

-- Dutch (NL)

-- Finnish (FI)

-- French (FR)

-- German (DE)

-- Italian (IT)

-- Portuguese (PR)

-- Spanish (ES)

-- Swedish (SE)

Each stoplist is supplied as a SQL script that creates a Stoplist preference

for the indicated language. Each script takes a single argument,

'preference_name', as input.

For example, the following SQL*Plus command creates a Stoplist preference

named 'danish_stopwords:

SQL> @drstopda danish_stopwords

-------------------

NOTE: This example assumes you started SQL*Plus from the directory in

which the stoplist scripts are located.

-------------------

The exact location of the SQL scripts is operating system dependent; however,

the scripts are generally located in the following directory structure:

<Oracle home directory> --> <ConText directory> --> demo

For more information about the directory structure for ConText, see the

Oracle8 Server documentation specific to your operating system.

-------------------

NOTE: If you are upgrading from release 2.3, you do **NOT** need to use

the scripts to create stoplists for French, German, Italian, or

Spanish.

During installation/upgrade of release 2.3, the following preferences

were created automatically by ConText (for the respective stoplists):

-- FRENCH_STOPLIST

-- GERMAN_STOPLIST

-- ITALIAN_STOPLIST

-- SPANISH_STOPLIST

-------------------

1.5 Text and Theme Queries

==========================

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

text and them queries for release 2.4.

For more information about queries using ConText, see "Oracle8 ConText

Cartridge Application Developer's Guide"

1.5.1 Behavior of NEAR Operator (Text Queries) Consistent with Other Operators

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In previous releases, the scoring method for the NEAR operator was not

consistent with the scoring method for the other operators. As a result,

using the NEAR operator in combination with other operators resulted in

possibly inconsistent and inaccurate results.

In release 2.4, scoring for NEAR has been enhanced to support usage with

other operators.

1.5.2 Section Searching (Text Queries)

Enhanced to Support Paragraphs and Sentences

--------------------------------------------------

ConText now supports searching for the occurrence of two or more terms

(words or phrases) within a paragraph or sentence.

To support paragraph/sentence searching, the WITHIN operator (a new operator

introduced in release 2.3) accepts 'paragraph' and 'sentence' as valid

sections.

For example:

'dog and cat within sentence'

'Oracle and SQL within paragraph'

Note that paragraph/sentence searching is useful primarily for finding

documents in which two (or more) terms occur in the same paragraph/sentence.

In this sense, paragraph/sentence searching is similar to proximity searching

using the NEAR operator.

-------------------

NOTE: Paragraph/sentence searching requires setup information to be defined

for and stored in the text index. As a result, to use

paragraph/sentence searching for an existing text index, you must

drop the index, perform the necessary setup, then recreate the index.

For more information, see "1.2.3 Support for Section Searching in

Paragraphs and Sentences" in this document or "Oracle8 ConText

Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

-------------------

1.5.3 Enhanced Handling of Case in Theme Queries

------------------------------------------------

In previous releases, theme queries required query terms (words or phrases)

to be entered **EXACTLY** as they appear in the text of the indexed

documents. For example, a theme query for 'MicroSoft' would likely return

no documents, because, in the correct (and commonly occurring) form of the

term, only the initial character appears in uppercase (i.e. 'Microsoft').

In release 2.3, ConText automatically converts each query term in a theme

query to its various uppercase and lowercase forms to determine, if possible,

the proper form of the term. If ConText is able to determine the proper

form, the theme query is expanded to include the form.

1.6 Linguistics

===============

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to

ConText Linguistics for release 2.4.

For more information about ConText Linguistics, see "Oracle8 ConText

Cartridge Application Developer's Guide"

1.6.1 General Improvements in Linguistics Performance and Output

----------------------------------------------------------------

The performance of the Linguistics has been improved for theme indexing,

theme highlighting, and generating CTX_LING output.

In addition, the theme output for the Linguistics has been improved in the

areas of phrase recognition, disambiguation, and normalization.

1.6.2 CTX_LING Table Obsolete

-----------------------------

The CTX_LING table, introduced in release 2.3, is no longer required for

storing the Knowledge Catalog and lexicon used by the ConText Linguistics.

The Knowledge Catalog and lexicon are now stored in an operating-system flat

file.

If you have an existing CTX_LING table as a result of upgrading from release

2.3, you can delete the table.

1.6.3 Theme Output for Documents Increased from 16 to 50

--------------------------------------------------------

ConText now generates 50 themes per document. The increased theme output

affects theme indexes as well as CTX_LING output.

-------------------

NOTE: If you make use of theme indexes/queries, to take full advantage of

the increased number of themes generated for documents, Oracle

Corporation suggests dropping and recreating your existing theme

indexes.

-------------------

1.6.4 Publication of Category Hierarchy (Knowledge Catalog)

-----------------------------------------------------------

The "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's Guide" now includes an

appendix which lists, in hierarchical format, the approximately 1800

concepts that serve as categories in the Knowledge Catalog.

The published category hierarchy can be used to gain an understanding of the

terms (words or phrases) and relationships that serve as higher-level/grouping

concepts in the Knowledge Catalog. As such, it is intended for

viewing/reference use only.

-------------------

NOTE: The published category hierarchy does not contain **ALL** of the

concepts found in the Knowledge Catalog; it only contains those

concepts that serve as categories.

-------------------

1.7 ConText Workbench

=====================

This section provides details about the enhancements and changes made to the

ConText Workbench for release 2.4.

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Workbench User's Guide"

1.7.1 Configuration Manager Provides Utility

for Generating Prototype Applications

-------------------------------------------

The Configuration Manager now provides a wizard for quickly and easily

generating basic (prototype) Web-based, ConText query applications for text

and structured data stored in a single database table.

Prototype applications can be used for demonstration and training purposes,

as well as for performing ad-hoc queries on any text data set provided

by users.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*********************************

* *

* ConText 2.4 New Features *

* *

*********************************

ConText does not contain any new features for release 2.4.

For more information about changes made between release 2.4 and 2.3 of

ConText, see "ConText 2.4 Enhancements".

If you are upgrading from a release prior to release 2.3, you should read

the "Other Enhancements/New Features" section as well.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

****************************************

* *

* Other Enhancements/New Features *

* *

****************************************

The following section lists enhancements and new features implemented in

ConText, release 2.3.

-------------------

NOTE: If you are upgrading from release 2.3, you can skip this section;

however, you should read the "ConText 2.4 Enhancements" section.

If you are upgrading from a release prior to 2.3, you should consult

this section for an overview of changes to ConText, then read the

indicated ConText documentation for details.

-------------------

3.1 ConText Servers

===================

Beginning with release 2.3, the ctxsrvx executable is **OBSOLETE**. The

ctxsrvx executable was provided in previous releases to give users the

option of starting ConText servers that were not meant to perform linguistic

operations. The ctxsrv executable now can be used for starting all ConText

servers.

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.2 Loading Utility (ctxload)

=============================

The following ctxload enhancements/new features were implemented in

release 2.3:

1) Support for updating and exporting individual rows (documents):

-- new parameters ('-export' and '-update')

-- modified parameters ('-file' and '-name')

2) Support for creating/loading case-sensitive thesauri: new

parameter ('-thescase').

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.3 Filters

===========

In previous releases, the external filters supplied by Oracle were

distributed on a separate CD-ROM. After installation/upgrade of ConText

was complete, these filters had to be manually installed and wrappers had to

be created for each filter.

Beginning with release 2.3, the executables and wrappers for all supplied

external filters are installed automatically.

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.4 Indexing

============

The following indexing enhancements/new features were implemented in

release 2.3:

1) Control over creation of DML trigger and index table population during

indexing: new CTX_DDL.CREATE_INDEX arguments ('create_trig' and

'pop_index').

2) Enhanced handling of printjoin and punctuation characters.

3) New model for indexing documents stored in master-detail tables: new Data

Store Tile (MASTER DETAIL NEW).

3) Support for FTP in URL Tile (Data Store).

4) Support for creating/maintaining section groups and sections (enables

named section searching):

-- new BASIC LEXER Tile attributes ('startjoin' and 'endjoin')

-- new HTML FILTER Tile attribute ('keep_tag')

-- new GENERIC WORD LIST Tile attribute ('section_group')

-- new procedures in CTX_DDL package

-- new predefined preferences

-- new template policy (TEMPLATE_BASIC_WEB)

-- new views

5) Support for creating case-sensitive text indexes (enables case-sensitive

text queries): new BASIC LEXER Tile attribute ('mixed_case').

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.5 Thesauri

============

ConText now provides support for creating Case-sensitive thesauri:

-- new ctxload parameter (-thescase)

-- new CTX_THES.CREATE_THESAURUS argument ('case_sensitive')

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.6 International Support

=========================

The following enhancements/new features for international support were

implemented in release 2.3:

1) Support for indexing text in any supported NLS character sets, including

Unicode.

2) Enhanced fuzzy matching for non-English languages and OCR text: new values

for 'fuzzy_match' attribute in GENERIC WORD LIST Tile

3) Production status for Chinese and Korean lexers

4) Support for indexing roots found in compound words in German-language text:

new BASIC LEXER Tile attribute ('composite')

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

3.7 Text and Theme Queries

==========================

The following ConText query enhancements/new features were implemented in

release 2.3:

1) Feedback for query expansion, normalization, and other transformations that

occur in query expressions: new procedure (CTX_QUERY.FEEDBACK)

2) Support for structured data in in-memory queries: new CTX_QUERY.OPEN_CON

argument ('struct_query')

3) Support for post-query counting of query hits for two-step and in-memory

queries: new procedure (CTX_QUERY.COUNT_LAST)

In addition, the following enhancements/new features, specific to text queries,

were implemented:

1) Support for case-sensitive text queries

2) New scoring method based on word frequency and document statistics

3) Enhanced handling of stopwords

4) Enhanced handling of printjoin and punctuation characters

5) Support for searching user-defined (named) sections: new operator ('WITHIN')

6) Support for use of multiple terms with NEAR operator

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's

Guide".

3.8 Linguistics

===============

The following Linguistics enhancements/new features were implemented in

release 2.3:

1) Improvements in processing and memory usage

2) Support for theme highlighting through CTX_QUERY.HIGHLIGHT

3) CTX_LING.REQUEST_THEMES enhanced to include hierarchy information,

if any information exists in the Knowledge Catalog, for generated themes:

new procedures (CTX_LING.SET_FULL_THEMES and CTX_LING.GET_FULL_THEMES)

4) Enhanced control over Gist and theme summary generation: new

CTX_LING.REQUEST_GIST argument ('pov')

5) Support for generating sentence-level Gists and theme summaries: new

CTX_LING.REQUEST_GIST argument ('glevel')

6) CTX_PROPER_NAMES table no longer used by the ConText Linguistics

case-sensitivity routines

-------------------

NOTE: As a result of the CTX_PROPER_NAMES table no longer being used,

ConText no longer requires the ctxprop.dmp file to be imported to use

the Linguistics. If you have an existing CTX_PROPER_NAMES table,

you can delete the table.

-------------------

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Application Developer's

Guide".

3.9 ConText Workbench

=====================

The following ConText Workbench enhancements/new features were implemented

in release 2.3:

1) Web-based GUI administration tool

2) Support for migrating TextServer3 data dictionary to ConText

3) Support for document viewing in a Web-based application: new viewer

cartridge and Netscape viewer plug-in

For more information, see "Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Workbench User's Guide".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************

* *

* Installation Issues *

* *

***************************

4.1 Location of ConText Installation Information

================================================

The information required for installing ConText is located in the Oracle8

installation documentation for your operating system.

Additional installation information for ConText may be located in the

Oracle8 Server release notes for your operating system.

4.2 Default Tablespace and Default Tempoary Tablespace for CTXSYS

=================================================================

On most platforms, the default tablespace and temporary tablespace for

CTXSYS is TOOLS. If this tablespace (or the relevant tablespace for your

platform) is not acceptable, you should install Oracle8 and any other

required components, create the desired tablespace(s), then perform

a **CUSTOM** installation of ConText and specify, when prompted, the newly

created tablespace(s) for CTXSYS.

-------------------

NOTE: The tablespace for CTXSYS stores the ConText data dictionary objects,

which require a minimum of approximately 6 Megabytes.

-------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

**********************

* *

* Upgrade Issues *

* *

**********************

5.1 Requirements for Upgrading

==============================

Upgrading from a previous version of ConText must occur in two separate steps:

1) Upgrade/migrate your Oracle database to version 8.0.5

2) Upgrade ConText from the previous version to version 2.4.5

-------------------

NOTE: Version 8.0.5 of Oracle is the only supported Oracle database version

for version 2.4.5 of ConText.

-------------------

In addition, all ConText servers that are currently running **MUST** be shut

down **BEFORE** upgrade.

For more information about upgrading ConText, see the Oracle8 Server

installation documentation for your operating system.

5.2 Upgrade Options for ConText 2.4 Database Objects

====================================================

For upgrading the ConText database objects to release 2.4.5, the option

you choose depends on your version of ConText and whether you are:

-- migrating (from Oracle 7.3.x to 8.0.5)

-- upgrading (from Oracle 8.0.x to 8.0.5)

Oracle Migration ConText Upgrade

---------------- ---------------

7.3.2 to 8.0.5 1.1.2 to 2.4.5

7.3.3 to 8.0.5 2.0.4 to 2.4.5

7.3.4 to 8.0.5 2.3.4 to 2.4.5

Oracle Upgrade ConText Upgrade

-------------- ---------------

8.0.3 to 8.0.5 2.0.6 to 2.4.5

8.0.4 to 8.0.5 2.3.6 to 2.4.5

5.3 Manual Upgrade

==================

Oracle Corporation **STRONGLY** suggests using the Oracle installer, whenever

possible, to upgrade ConText from previous releases.

However, if you are required to manually upgrade ConText (e.g. your platform

does not support upgrading via the installer or you encountered

difficulties with your upgrade), the following section provides the

information you need to perform the upgrade.

5.3.1 Upgrade Database Objects

------------------------------

After you install the new ConText 2.4.5 software (executables, scripts,

etc.), you can manually upgrade the ConText database objects by running the

upgrade script(s) appropriate for your version of ConText:

1.1.2 --------> sys20000.sql as SYS

upg20000.sql as CTXSYS

upg23600.sql as CTXSYS

upg24500.sql as CTXSYS

2.0.4/2.0.6 --> upg23600.sql as CTXSYS

upg24500.sql as CTXSYS

2.3.4 --------> dr0pack.sql

upg24500.sql as CTXSYS

2.3.6 --------> upg24500.sql as CTXSYS

The exact location of the upgrade scripts is operating system dependent;

however, the scripts are generally located in the following directory

structure:

<Oracle home directory> --> <ConText directory> --> admin --> upgrade

For example, in a UNIX-based operating system, the scripts are located in

$ORACLE_HOME/ctx/admin/upgrade.

In Windows NT, the scripts are located in <ORACLE_HOME>\CTX80\ADMIN\UPGRADE

For more information about the directory structure for ConText, see the

Oracle8 Server documentation specific to your operating system.

5.3.2 Create Error Messages

---------------------------

After you upgrade the ConText database objects, you must load the most

current ConText error messages.

To load the most current ConText error messages, run drgus.sql (or the

appropriate script for your language) as CTXSYS.

The drgus.sql script is generally located in:

<Oracle home directory> --> <ConText directory> --> admin

5.4 Upgrading ConText Indexes

=============================

After upgrading to release 2.4.5 from a release prior to 2.3 (i.e. releases

1.1 or 2.0), you **MUST** call the CTX_DDL.UPGRADE_INDEX procedure once for

each existing ConText index. UPGRADE_INDEX converts ConText indexes to the

current release.

-------------------

NOTE: If you are upgrading from release 2.3, you do not need to upgrade

your ConText indexes.

-------------------

UPGRADE_INDEX can be called by the owner of the policy for the index or by

CTXSYS.

In the following example, the ConText index for a policy named 'html_docs'

is upgraded to release 2.4.5 by the policy owner:

exec ctx_ddl.upgrade_index('html_docs')

For more information about CTX_DDL.UPGRADE_INDEX, see "Oracle8 ConText

Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

5.5 Features Which Require Reindexing

=====================================

The following enhancements and features (from releases 2.4 and 2.3) require

setup information to be defined for and/or stored in a ConText index:

-- named section searching (including sentence/paragraph searching)

-- startjoin and endjoin characters

-- new master/detail data store

-- enhancements for printjoin and punctuation characters

-- case-sensitive text indexing

-- composite indexing for German or Dutch text

As a result, if you have an existing index for a column and

want to use the enhancements/features on the column, you must:

-- create a second policy and index on the column

OR

-- drop the existing index, update the policy accordingly, and recreate

the index

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****************************

* *

* General Usage Issues *

* *

****************************

6.1 Enabling One-Step Queries

=============================

If you want to use one-step queries in ConText, you must set the ConText

initialization parameter TEXT_ENABLE to TRUE. TEXT_ENABLE enables Oracle8

to recognize the CONTAINS SQL function utilized in one-step queries.

You can set TEXT_ENABLE for all users and sessions in the initsid.ora file.

You can also set TEXT_ENABLE for the current session using the SQL command,

ALTER SESSION.

-------------------

NOTE: Once you have set TEXT_ENABLE, start one or more ConText servers

with the Query (Q) personality to ensure one-step queries are

processed.

-------------------

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*************************

* *

* Linguistic Issues *

* *

*************************

7.1 Importing Linguistic Settings

=================================

To use the ConText Linguistics, the CTX_SETTINGS table, owned by CTXSYS, must

be populated with the most current version of the 'GENERIC' and 'SA'

predefined setting configurations (labels).

If 'GENERIC' and 'SA' are missing from the table or if versions from

earlier releases (e.g. 1.1 or 2.0) are present in the table, you will

receive an error when starting ConText servers with the Linguistic

personality.

To ensure you have the most current versions of 'GENERIC' and 'SA', you must

import the ctxset.dmp file provided by ConText.

To import ctxset.dmp, run the Import/Export utility from the directory where

the file is located. For example:

imp ctxsys/<passwd> file=ctxset.dmp full=y ignore=y

The exact location of the ctxset.dmp file is operating system dependent;

however, the file is generally located in the following directory structure:

<Oracle home directory> --> <ConText directory> --> admin

For more information about the directory structure for ConText, see the

Oracle8 Server documentation specific to your operating system

-------------------

NOTE: If the CTX_SETTINGS table is not empty, you may need to delete the

rows from the table (or truncate the table) before importing

ctxset.dmp.

-------------------

7.2 ConText Server Personalities for Theme Indexing and Querying

================================================================

Unlike Gist, theme, and theme summary generation, theme indexing and theme

querying do not require ConText servers with the Linguistics (L) personality.

Creation of theme indexes is a DDL operation performed by ConText servers

with the DDL (D) personality. Similarly, theme queries are processed

by ConText servers with the Query (Q) personality.

For more information about ConText servers and personalities, see "Oracle8

ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide".

7.3 Immediate DML Update Not Supported for Theme Indexes

on Columns Containing All-Uppercase/All-Lowercase Text

==========================================================

To create a theme index for a column that contains all-uppercase or

all-lowercase text, the 'SA' setting configuration (or a custom setting

configuration derived from 'SA') must be set using CTX_LING.SET_SETTINGS_LABEL;

however, because SET_SETTINGS_LABEL only enables a setting configuration for

the current session/user, Oracle Corporation does **NOT** recommend enabling

immediate DML update of theme indexes for all-uppercase or all-lowercase text.

Immediate DML can be disabled by shutting down all ConText servers with the

DML (M) personality. The DML queue continues to accept requests for DML

updates; however, the updates are not performed until CTX_DML.SYNC is called.

-------------------

NOTE: Before CTX_DML.SYNC is called for an all-uppercase/all-lowercase

theme index, use SET_SETTINGS_LABEL to ensure that the same setting

configuration used to create the index is enabled.

-------------------

7.4 Obsolete Predefined Setting Configurations

==============================================

The following predefined setting configurations are obsoleted by the indicated

setting configuration and are provided only for backward compatibility.

Obsoleted by 'GENERIC':

-- S

-- P

-- PP

-- PS

-- PSP

Obsoleted by 'SA':

-- PSA

-- PSAP

If you use any of these obsolete setting configurations (or any custom

setting configurations based on these setting configurations) in an existing

application, you can continue to use them without any adverse effects;

however, for new applications, you should only use 'GENERIC'/'SA' (or

custom setting configurations based on 'GENERIC'/'SA').

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*************

* *

* Fixes *

* *

*************

The following section provides an overview of the **MAJOR** bugs fixed in

release 2.4, as well as previous releases, of ConText. It does **NOT**

contain a complete listing of every bug fixed in these releases.

8.1 Fixes in Release 2.4

========================

The following lists the bug number and a short description for bug fixes that

were implemented in release 2.4:

522249 Errors encountered for index optimization (CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX).

558429 Errors encountered when themes generated for ambiguous themes.

584552 Errors encountered when code conversion in HTML filter used for

Japanese text.

587757 ConText does not allow scope Notes (SN) longer than one line in

thesauri.

587776 ConText does not create thesauri for thesaurus load files containing

the string 'EOE'.

618949 Upgrade scripts from 2.0 to 2.3 contain errors.

630906 Errors encountered when trying to index a URL data store.

646864 ConText does not recognize end tags for sections.

647702 Section searching incorrectly returns documents that contain the

search term(s) in sections other than the specified section.

8.2 Other Fixes

===============

The following lists the bug number for bug fixes that were implemented in

the release prior to 2.4.

403354

405408

451530

458969

459036

466374

474426

474471

476799

478063 (Also fixes 462571)

481502

495711

500035

504488

505982

509331

510916

512209

512698

512699

514404

517274

520688 (Also fixes 487974)

521663

532547

569521

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*************************

* *

* Known Limitations *

* *

*************************

The following section lists known problems that may affect your usage of

ConText 2.4.

8.1 One-Step Queries in PL/SQL Not Supported (344159)

=====================================================

ConText does not support using one-step queries within PL/SQL blocks.

If you are using PL/SQL to develop applications, use two-step queries

(CTX_QUERY.CONTAINS) or dynamic SQL (DBMS_SQL package).

The following example illustrates using dynamic SQL in a PL/SQL block to fetch

the score returned by a one-step query for documents containing the word

'test'.

declare

myscore number;

c1 number;

n number;

f number;

stmt varchar2(1024);

begin

stmt := 'select score(0) from docs where contains(text,'test')>0';

c1 := dbms_sql.open_cursor;

dbms_sql.parse(c1, stmt, dbms_sql.v7);

dbms_sql.define_column(c1, 1, myscore);

n := dbms_sql.execute(c1);

loop

f := dbms_sql.fetch_rows(c1);

exit when f = 0;

dbms_sql.column_value(c1, 1, myscore);

dbms_output.put_line('score : ' || myscore);

end loop;

dbms_sql.close_cursor(c1);

end;

8.2 One-Step Queries for LONG Columns in Remote Tables Not Supported (436969)

=============================================================================

ConText does not support one-step queries on LONG and LONG RAW columns in

remote database tables and views.

8.3 Section Searching Not Supported for HTML Documents in Mixed-Format Columns

==============================================================================

For mixed-format columns that contain HTML documents, ConText does not

include any HTML documents in the results of a section search (text

query that includes the WITHIN operator), regardless of whether sections

were defined for the column and the HTML documents meet the query criteria.

All other documents (ASCII or formatted) that meet the query criteria in

the column are returned in the results for the section search.

8.4 PDF Supplied External Filter

================================

The production PDF external filter supplied by ConText sometimes replaces

special characters, such as bullet marks, with basic characters. This

behavior does not have any noticeable affect on the indexing of PDF

documents; it only affects the presentation of PDF documents when

CTX_QUERY.HIGHLIGHT is called.

The BETA PDF external filter supplied by ConText does not support filtering

(for indexing or highlighting) multi-column documents or documents over

1 Mb in size.

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