9 ORACLE

============================================================================= Simba Oracle ODBC Driver Release Notes =============================================================================

The release notes provide details of enhancements, features, and known issues in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.9, as well as the version history.

1.2.9 =======================================================================

Released 2019-02-08

Enhancements & New Features

  • [ORCL-464] Disable automatic IPD population

    You can now stop the driver from automatically populating the fields of the Implementation Parameter Descriptor (IPD). To do this, enable the new Disable Default Auto IPD (or DisableDefaultAutoIPD) property. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

Resolved Issues The following issue has been resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.9.

  • [ORCL-438] The driver cannot insert more than 1056 rows into an Oracle data store.

Known Issues The following are known issues that you may encounter due to limitations in the data source, the driver, or an application.

  • When converting extremely large values to SQL_FLOAT (9.99999999999999e+125 or greater) the driver might stop responding.

Workflow Changes =============================================================

The following changes may disrupt workflows from earlier versions.

1.2.7 ————————————————————————

  • 32-bit applications no longer supported on macOS

    Beginning with this release, the driver uses Oracle Instant Client 12.2 instead of 12.1. Due to platform support differences in the Oracle Instant Client, the macOS version of the driver no longer supports 32-bit applications.

  • Oracle Instant Client upgrade

    Beginning with this release, the driver requires Oracle Instant Client 12.2 instead of 12.1. If you installed Oracle Instant Client and the driver through separate installation processes, then the Oracle Instant Client does not get updated automatically and the driver may not work as expected.

    To resolve this, make sure to upgrade your installation of Oracle Instant Client. For instructions, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

Version History ==============================================================

1.2.8 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-12-21

Enhancements & New Features

  • [ORCL-413] Kerberos authentication

    You can now authenticate your connection using the Kerberos protocol. To do this, enable the new Use External Credentials (or UseExternalCredentials) property. The driver then authenticates the connection using the Kerberos settings configured in your sqlnet.ora configuration file. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

  • [ORCL-416] TCPS protocol

    You can now configure the driver to use the TCPS protocol, which enables you to encrypt your connections using SSL/TLS when connecting over TCP/IP. To do this, enable the new Use TCPS (or UseTCPS) property. The driver then encrypts the connection using the SSL settings configured in your sqlnet.ora configuration file. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

  • [ORCL-435] Updated workflow for TNS connections

    When you connect using a connection string or from a non-Windows machine, the TNS Name (or TNS) property now takes precedence over the Host, Port, and Service Name properties (Host, Port, and SVC, respectively).

1.2.7 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-10-12

Enhancements & New Features

  • [ORCL-308] Upgrade to Oracle Instant Client 12.2

    The driver now uses version 12.2 of the Oracle Instant Client as a dependency. Previously, the driver used version 12.1.

    IMPORTANT:
    • Due to platform support differences in the Oracle Instant Client, the macOS version of the driver no longer supports 32-bit applications.
    • If you installed Oracle Instant Client and the driver through separate installation processes, then make sure to manually upgrade Oracle Instant Client to version 12.2. For instructions, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

Resolved Issues The following issue was resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.7.

  • [ORCL-433] The TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data type is not supported.

    This issue has been resolved. The driver is now able to work with the TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data type from Oracle databases, mapping it to the SQL_TYPE_TIMESTAMP data type.

1.2.6 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-09-12

Resolved Issues The following issues were resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.6.

  • [ORCL-259] Error messages produced by the driver are not formatted correctly.

  • [ORCL-427] In some cases the driver returns NULL values when reading large amounts of rows.

1.2.5 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-07-18

Enhancements & New Features

  • [ORCL-381] Error messages enhanced

    When you enter an invalid character or a value outside the acceptable range for “Statement Cache Size” or “Fetch Buffer Size” in the DSN setup,

    the driver now displays an error message that includes more information about the values that you entered.

  • [ORCL-348] Updated encryption method for driver on Windows

    The driver now uses the DPAPI encryption method to make sure that the credentials can only be used by the current user (for User DSNs) or used by all users on the same machine (for System DSNs). The registry contents cannot be used to create the same user DSN or system DSN on another computer. Also, the user DSN registry contents cannot be used to create a system DSN on the same computer.

1.2.4 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-06-05

Enhancements & New Features

  • [ORCL-375] Updated log file name

    The log file that the driver generates when logging is enabled has been renamed from oracle_driver.log to simbaoracleodbcdriver.log.

  • [ORCL-353] Internal Driver Improvements

    The driver has been updated with internal security improvements.

Resolved Issues The following issues were resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.4.

  • [ORCL-366] Driver displays an incorrect alert for data source name validation.

    This issue has been resolved. When adding a DSN through the ODBC Administrator, if you enter invalid characters in the Data Source Name field, the driver now displays an alert with the correct message and prevents you from using invalid characters.

  • [ORCL-362] Driver incorrectly handles SQL queries having argument of zero length.

    This issue has been resolved. When a SQL query with an argument length equal to zero is run, the driver now responds with the correct error message such as “Invalid string or buffer length”.

1.2.3 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-04-25

Enhancements & New Features

  • Driver supports statement caching

    You can now cache statements using the driver. Use this feature if you want to improve driver performance for parsing the same statement multiple times in the same connection. Make sure that you enable statement caching only when required because statement caching requires more memory. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

  • Upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.0h

    The driver now uses OpenSSL 1.1.0h for encryption of data.

  • MEMLIM option available through the user interface

    The MEMLIM configuration option, which was available only as a key name, is now accessible via the Windows user interface for the driver. Use the Fetch Buffer Size field to configure MEMLIM through the user interface. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

1.2.2 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-02-28

Enhancements & New Features

  • Support for the Basic Light Oracle Instant Client

    You can now use the Basic Light version of the Oracle Instant Client package. This Basic Light package requires less disk space compared to the Basic Package.

1.2.1 ————————————————————————

Released 2018-02-09

Resolved Issues The following issues were resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.1.

  • Under some circumstances the driver calls deprecated OCI functions.

  • During installation the system message “Error creating temporary swap file name” may appear.

  • When you link data to your data source in Microsoft Access, an error may occur, displaying an error message such as “Reserved error (-7745); there is no message for this error.”

1.2.0 ————————————————————————

Released 2017-12-12

Resolved Issues The following issue was resolved in Simba Oracle ODBC Driver 1.2.0.

  • In some cases, the registry entries or error logs generated by the driver may contain some sensitive information.

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