Oracle8 ODBC Driver Version 8.0.4.0.0

Release Notes

Copyright 1996,1997 Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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.

An application can detect which type of LOB data a column contains through

SQLDescribeCol or SQLColAttributes. The Oracle8 ODBC driver extends

the list of SQL types supported by adding SQL_ORCL_BFILE, SQL_ORCL_CLOB,

and SQL_ORCL_BLOB. These new SQL types are defined in sqora.h.

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 8.0.4.0.0

- 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).

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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 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.

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