Untitled

Oracle8 ODBC Driver Version 8.0.5.0.0

Release Notes

This file contains the following sections:

1. Post-Installation

2. Hardware Required

3. Software Required

4. Functionality

5. New Features

6. Data Conversions

7. Oracle8 Lob Datatypes

8. Known Software Problems

9. Software Problems Fixed

1. Post-Installation

1. Use the Microsoft(R) ODBC Administrator to configure your

Oracle8 ODBC Driver data sources. Refer to the Oracle8 ODBC driver help

file section entitled Configuring the Data Source.

2. Hardware Required

Refer to PRODDESC.TXT enclosed in your software distribution kit.

3. Software Required

Refer to PRODDESC.TXT enclosed in your software distribution kit.

4. Functionality

Refer to PRODDESC.TXT enclosed in your software distribution kit.

5. New Features

Refer to the Oracle8 ODBC Driver help file section entitled New Features.

6. Data Conversions

The Oracle8 ODBC Driver follows the Microsoft(R) ODBC 3.00 Software

Development Kit (SDK) guidelines for manipulating and displaying

real and double data types. Precision (the maximum number of digits used)

of SQL_DOUBLE and SQL_FLOAT is 15.

If double values are stored in a Oracle database precision for these data

types can be much greater than what ODBC currently supports. The end

result will be the loss of precision. For Example:

A float data type defined in Oracle with the

default precision contains a number such as:

123.9991029382123

When converted on the Windows Platform the number

will drop precision to

123.999102938212

This loss of precision may have different behavior for different

applications. For Microsoft Access(R), the user is not allowed to update

the data. Microsoft Access(R) thinks the data has changed, because Oracle

has the value 123.9991029382123 and Microsoft Access(R) now has the

original but truncated number 123.99910293821. Microsoft Access(R) cannot

update the row using the 123.99910293821 truncated number as a selection

criteria since that row does not exist in the Oracle Oracle8 database.

Only the original row with 123.9991029382123 exists in the Oracle Oracle8

database.

In Microsoft Query(R) the display will be incorrect. Lets take for

example the following double precision number to display:

-1.123400000000000E-001

with Microsoft Query(R) the number is displayed as

-1.123400000000000E-00

Microsoft Query(R) makes a call to SQLColAttributes returning the

display size of 22. The format defined in the ODBC SDK for display of

a double precision data is the following:

Total 22 Length

(a sign,15 digits,a decimal point,the letter E,a sign and 3 digits)

Our example contains a total string length of 23 with 16 digits

instead of the 15 digits for precision. This is why the data is displayed

wrong.

In general to avoid precision problems using ODBC, ensure that data

stored in the Oracle database for a double data type conform to the

specifications described in the Microsoft ODBC Programmer's Reference and

SDK Guide.

7. Oracle8 LOB Datatypes

The Oracle8 ODBC driver supports read access to columns which are of type

BLOB, CLOB or BFILE. The contents of a CLOB, BLOB or BFILE column must be

retreived through the SQLGetData routine.

8. Known Software Problems for Oracle8 ODBC Driver

1. The SQLSetStmtOption SQL_QUERY_TIMEOUT does not work if the database

server is running on Windows NT.

2. Connection in the format of username@servicename is not supported.

9. Software Problems Fixed

Version 8.0.5.0.0

- OCI in Oracle 8.0.5 includes a fix which allows the Oracle8 ODBC

driver to work with Microsoft IIS.

(Bug #661057)

- Fixed SQLColumns to ignore escape sequences when checking for the

maximum length of a Table Name.

(Bug #664147)

- Output parameters for dates are now returned from a stored procedure.

(Bug #666849)

- ODBC escape clauses for date,time and timestamp data were incorrectly

parsed if the escape clause was in the form of {d'1967-01-15'} instead

of {d '1967-01-15'}.

(Bug #668518)

Version 8.0.4.4.0

- Return SQL_DECIMAL instead of SQL_NUMERIC from SQLGetTypeInfo.

Visual Basic uses setting in the Regional Setting control panel to

identify what the Decimal symbol is for the country.

Setting the Decimal symbol to a comma (located under the Number tab)

tells Visual Basic to leave the comma as the decimal symbol. If

this setting was not turn on the comma would be removed.

(Bug #637963)

- Character Data is now null terminated for output parameters returned

from a stored procedure.

(Bug #662566)

- Fixed memory corruption when SQL_ATTR_NOSCAN was set to TRUE.

(Bug #650836)

- Fixed parsing of outer join syntax when there are compound conditionals

in the search condition.

(Bug #648205)

- Fixed memory leak when a statement handle is reused to prepare and execute

SQL statements.

(Bug 620910)

- Fixed SQLTables to support 'empty string' as a valid parameter for

catalog name, table owner, and table name. This fix enables MSQuery's

ability to select tables by owner.

(Bug 652073)

- Fixed support of SQL_NULL_DATA on SQLBindParameter when a statement is

repeatedly executed and the StrLen_or_IndPtr parameter value gets changed

to SQL_NULL_DATA. Data from previous execute was getting reused.

(Bug 652357)

Version 8.0.4.3.0

- Return SQL_NUMERIC instead of SQL_DECIMAL from SQLGetTypeInfo.

Fixed problem of an RDO select in Visual Basic failing on columns

with decimal digits. If the decimal separator character was ',' instead

of '.' then Visual Basic was treating the ',' as a group separator and

removing it.

(Bug #637963)

- Fixed problem of SQLExtendedFetch not working for catalog functions.

This was causing Delphi 3 DB Explorer and Powerbuilder 6.0 to fail.

(Bug #646134)

- Fixed problem of selecting tables which included double byte characters.

(Bug #633107)

- Fixed problem of SQLBindParameter not inserting NULL data for parameters

bound SQL_NULL_DATA.

(Bug #647207, #649556)

- Binary data is no longer being null terminated.

- Increased SQL_MAX_PROCEDURE_NAME_LEN to 91 to accomodate specifying

procedures within packages.

- Added synonym support to the SQLStatistics, SQLTablePrivileges, and

SQLSpecialColumns catalog functions.

(Bug #638553)

- Added support for scalar functions: QUARTER, WEEK, INSERT, REPEAT,

and REPLACE.

- Fixed memory leak of 100 bytes that was occuring on SQLDriverConnect.

- Fixed parsing bugs of scalar function parameters. Invoking functions

as parameters was not always being parsed properly. For example,

{fn RIGHT({fn CURDATE()}, 5)} use to fail.

- Fixed problems of associating external descriptors with a statement.

An access violation would occur when the statement was dropped.

- Fixed problem of ODBC install scripts not detecting older versions of

ODBC installed.

(Bug #631692)

Version 8.0.4.0.2

- Updated Microsoft ODBC redistributable components to version 3.50.3609

- Added support for SQLBrowseConnect.

(Bug #618956)

- Added support for SQLDescribeParam. The Oracle database does not support

returning information about input parameters. The ODBC driver will return

the following values for an input parameter:

DataTypePtr = SQL_VARCHAR

ParameterSizePtr = 999

DecimalDigitsPtr = 0

NullablePtr = SQL_NULLABLE

(Bug #556749)

- Added support for scalar functions: CEILING, FLOOR, SQRT, COS, LOG, EXP,

LOG10, POWER, SIN, TAN, TRUNC, CHAR, ASCII.

- Added support for SYNONYMS to SQLTables and SQLColumns.

(Bug #591038)

- Some of the metadata calls (for example SQLColumns) were improperly

handling embedded underscore characters if the string length was set to

SQL_NTS. (Bug #589676)

- The SQLProcedures and SQLProcedureColumns calls have been modified to

locate and return information about ALL procedures and functions even if

they are contained within a package. Up to now, the calls only found

procedures and functions that were outside of packages. The following

examples show what procedures/functions are returned when.

I have the following 8 stored prodecures:

"BAR"

"BARX"

"XBAR"

"XBARX"

"SQLPROCTEST.BAR"

"SQLPROCTEST.BARX"

"SQLPROCTEST.XBAR"

"SQLPROCTEST.XBARX"

When I look for "%" or "%%%%%%" I get:

ALL 8 procedures

When I look for "%_" or "_%" I get:

"BAR"

"BARX"

"XBAR"

"XBARX"

When I look for "." or ".%" or "%.%" or "SQLProc%." or "SQLProc%.%" I get:

"SQLPROCTEST.BAR"

"SQLPROCTEST.BARX"

"SQLPROCTEST.XBAR"

"SQLPROCTEST.XBARX"

When I look for "%bar" I get:

"BAR"

"XBAR"

When I look for ".%bar" or "%.%bar" I get:

"SQLPROCTEST.BAR"

"SQLPROCTEST.XBAR"

When I look for "SQLProc%" or ".SQLProc%" I get:

nothing (0 rows)

- Added support for OS authentication (OPS$ account). If the username

is not specified the ODBC driver will request the Oracle server to use

operating system account credentials to log the user in.

(Bug #599378, #625269)

Version 8.0.4.0.1

- SQLFetch was incorrectly processing columns after a call was made to

SQLFreeStmt with the SQL_UNBIND option set. A side effect of the

problem would cause the Oracle ODBC Driver to prematurely process

BLOB data before the application asked for it. (No Bug)

- SQLColAttribute and SQLGetDescField returned to small a display

size for Columns where the scale was greater than the precision. (No Bug)

- SQLGetTypeInfo no longer supports SQL_TINYINT, SQL_SMALLINT, SQL_BIGINT,

SQL_INTEGER, SQL_FLOAT and SQL_REAL. In attempting to map database

definitions to these datatypes the ODBC driver was choosing mappings that

could result in data overflow errors. For example, a column defined as

NUMBER(3) use to be mapped to SQL_TINYINT by default. The range for

SQL_TINYINT is smaller than the range of valid values for NUMBER(3). Now

this column will be mapped to SQL_DECIMAL by default.

Applications such as MSAccess store table meta-data when they link to the

table. In order to take advantage of this fix the link to the table will

need to be recreated.

(Bug #595436)

- SQLGetInfo now returns both static and forward only

cursor result sets (SQL_SO_FORWARD_ONLY | SQL_SO_STATIC)

when SQL_SCROLL_OPTIONS parameter is given. (Bug #573989)

- SQLFetchScroll, SQLExtendedFetch now return Blobs correctly

during Array Fetchs. (No Bug)

- SQLNumParms now returns correct number of parameters for a PL/SQL

begin/end block. (No Bug)

- SQLDriverConnect would connect with a Default DSN if the directory

where the driver was located was greater than 32 characters. The

- SQLPrepare, SQLExecDirect and SQLNativeSql now discards the semicolon

at the end of a SQL Statement. (Bug #569244)

- SQLBindParameter, SQLExecDirect, SQLExecute now returns the result

length for OUTPUT or INPUT/OUTPUT parameters

Version 8.0.4.0.0

- Return SQL_ERROR if a trigger, procedure or function is created with

PL/SQL compilation errors. (Bug #563307)

- Support parse of ALIAS in outer join. (Bug #572621)

- Support MOD scalar function. (Bug #588509)

- Fix the order of the result set for SQLProcedureColumns. (Bug #590612)

- SQLGetCursorName and SQLSetCursorName properly return cursor names. This

functionality was implemented to support the Microsoft ODBC cursor library.

However the Oracle ODBC driver does not support positioned updates.

(Bug #555089)

- SQLColAttribute correctly returns the precision of a column. (No Bug)

- Data-at-execution parameters for character data has been fixed. (No Bug)

- The prefetch count on the datasource configuration screen can now be

set to 0. (No Bug)

- The ODBC Administrator is now installed into the system folder and has

been removed from the Oracle installer directory. (Bug #547411)

- The Oracle ODBC driver DLLs are now installed into the Oracle installer

directory and have been removed from the system folder. (Bug #532713)

- The SQORA.H file is now installed in the Oracle ODBC folder. (Bug #522833)

- The Oracle ODBC driver DLLs are now properly removed from the system on

a deinstall. (Bug #522831)

Version 8.0.3.0.2

- Added support in SQLBindParameter to allow bulk Inserts and Updates

to an Oracle Database (No Bug).

- Fixed in SQLPutData when parameters were set to data-at-execution

for SQL_CHAR and SQL_VARCHAR datatypes only the last SQLPutData

buffer was written to the database (No Bug).

- Fixed in SQLBindParameter a problem not detecting changed data when

using null terminated strings (SQL_NTS) (No Bug).

- Fixed in SQLGetData, SQLExecute, SQLExecDirect data corruption when

retrieving and inserting SQL_TINYINT data. The corruption would occur

if the bound column or parameter was defined as a SQL_C_STINYINT,

SQL_C_UTINYINT or SQL_TINYINT (No Bug).

- Fixed in SQLGetData to detection for null data when retrieving

binary data such as SQL_LONGVARBINARY (No Bug).

- Fixed General Protection Fault in SQLPutData when a given buffer len

was equal to zero (No Bug).

- SQLTables no returns the correct table type in the result set

for system tables (Bug #559182).

Version 8.0.3.0.1

- Added support for SQLSetCursorName and SQLGetCursorName.

This corrected the problem of the ODBC cursor library not being

loaded (Bug #444287).

- Added support in SQLGetInfo for case sensitive identifiers

(table owner, table name, column name) (Bug #545279).

- Fixed General Protection Fault in SQLFetch, SQLExtendedFetch

and SQLGetData when returning result of columns containing null

dates (Bug #523849).

- Fixed problem of properly interpreting the pcbValue parameter on

SQLBindParameter when the data type is not character or

binary (Bug #537133).

- Fixed in SQLBindParameter to properly initialized hour, minute and second

fields of the Oracle date structure when binding an input parameter in

the form {d 'yyyy-mm-dd'} (No Bug).

- Fixed in SQLFreeStmt SQL_CLOSE option no longer unbinds the bounded

column or parameters (No Bug).

- SQL_NULL_DATA is now properly returned in SQLFetch,SQLExtendedFetch

and SQLGetData for columns whose contents is NULL. This fixes the

problem in PowerBuilder where columns containing nulls were being

displayed with the values from the previous row instead of a null.

This also fixes the problem where MSAccess and PowerBuilder were unable

to update columns that contained a null value (No Bug).

- The nullable column in the result set of SQLDescribeCol and

SQLColAttributes is returned properly. It was returning the

opposite value of what it should have been (No Bug).

- SQLProcedureColumns now returns the correct value for 'scale' (No Bug).

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

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.

Microsoft Access, Microsoft Query, Microsoft, MS are

registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Open Database Connectivity

are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

PowerBuilder is a registered trademark of Sysbase Inc.

All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property

of their respective owners.

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