Oracle ODBC Driver - Frequently Asked Questions
This document answers frequently asked questions about Oracle ODBC connectivity. All of the answers to the questions refer to the DataDirect Connect® for ODBC (32-bit) and DataDirect Connect64™ for ODBC (64-bit) Oracle ODBC drivers. Both 32- and 64-bit DataDirect Oracle ODBC drivers are available in two versions: a Wire Protocol driver requiring no client software and a client driver that requires Oracle client software to connect to the underlying Oracle server. The following answers refer to these drivers collectively as the DataDirect Connect Series Oracle ODBC drivers. Answers that apply only to the Wire Protocol drivers or only to the client drivers are so noted.
Which Oracle Server Versions Are Supported?
Which 8i Features Are Supported?
Which 9i Features Are Supported?
Which 10g Features Are Supported?
What DataDirect Features Are Supported Across Versions?
Which Platforms Are Supported?
What Database Client Software Do I Need to Connect to Oracle Servers?
How Do I Create a Data Source?
Are Stored Procedures (PL/SQL) Supported?
Which Version of the ODBC Specification Is Supported?
What Cursor Types Are Supported?
Is Full Outer Join Syntax Supported?
What Performance Tuning Options Are Available?
Is the Oracle ODBC Driver Optimized for Third-Party Applications?
How Can I Tell Which Version of the Oracle ODBC Driver I Have Installed?
Where Can I Learn More About DataDirect Oracle ODBC Drivers?
Which Oracle Server Versions Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle Wire Protocol drivers support Oracle8i R2 and R3 (8.1.6 and 8.1.7) servers; Oracle9i R1 and R2 (9.0.1 and 9.2) servers; and Oracle 10g R1 (10.1). They connect to the server directly without the need for any Oracle client software
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle client drivers support Oracle 7.3.4 and higher servers; Oracle 8.0.5 and higher servers; Oracle8i R1, R2, and R3 (8.1.5, 8.1.6, and 8.1.7) servers; Oracle9i R1 and R2 (9.0.1 and 9.2) servers; and Oracle 10g R1 (10.1) servers.
For current specific support information, see
DataDirect Connect for ODBC 32-bit and DataDirect Connect for ODBC 64-bit
Which 8i Features Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers support Oracle8i features such as CLOBs, BLOBs, BFILEs, and other data type changes.
Which 9i Features Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers support Oracle9i features such as setting the number of seconds to wait on a lock timeout, ANSI Outer Joins, TIMESTAMP data types, and materialized views.
Which 10g Features Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers support new features in Oracle10g such as Grid computing, server-side Load Balancing, and SQL and data type enhancements.
What DataDirect Features Are Supported Across Versions?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers support Connection Failover and client-side Load Balancing across all supported Oracle versions.
Which Platforms Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect for ODBC (32-bit) Oracle drivers run on Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, and on Sun Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Linux.
The DataDirect Connect64 for ODBC (64-bit) Oracle drivers run on Windows Server 2003 and on Sun Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Linux.
For current specific support information, see http://www.datadirect.com/products/odbc/matrix/connectodbc.htm and http://www.datadirect.com/products/odbc64/matrix/connect64odbc.htm
What Database Client Software Do I Need to Connect to Oracle Servers?
No database client software is needed to connect to Oracle servers when using the DataDirect Connect Series Oracle Wire Protocol drivers.
When using the DataDirect Connect for ODBC (32-bit) client driver, the minimum client supported is Oracle Net8 Client 8.1.6 or higher.
When using the DataDirect Connect64 for ODBC (64-bit) client driver, the minimum client supported is Oracle Net Client for 9i R2. On Solaris only, the minimum client supported is Net8 Client for Oracle8i 8.1.7.
How Do I Create a Data Source?
On UNIX, data sources are configured and modified by editing the system information file using connection string attributes. The DataDirect Connect for ODBC Reference and the DataDirect Connect64 for ODBC Reference provide detailed information about this.
On Windows, data sources are configured and modified through the ODBC Administrator.
To configure a data source on Windows:
- Start the ODBC Administrator to display a list of data sources.
- To configure a new data source, click Add to display a list of installed drivers. Select the DataDirect Connect series Oracle driver of your choice and click Finish to display the Driver Setup dialog box.
- On the General tab, provide information such as Data Source Name, Description, Host, and Port Name; then, click Apply.
- Optionally, click the Advanced and Performance tabs to specify data source settings such as Default User Name, Array Size, Lock Timeout, Default Buffer Size for Long/LOB Columns, and Catalog Options.
- At any point during the configuration process, you can click Test Connect to attempt to connect to the data source using the connection properties specified in the Driver Setup dialog box.
- Click OK or Cancel. If you click OK, the values you have specified become the defaults when you connect to the data source. You can change these defaults by using this procedure to reconfigure your data source. You can override these defaults by connecting to the data source using a connection string with alternate values.
For more information on creating an Oracle data source, refer to the appropriate DataDirect Connect Series ODBC reference.
Are Stored Procedures (PL/SQL) Supported?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers fully support returning result sets (including multiple result sets) generated from PL/SQL stored procedures against 7, 8, 8i, 9i, and 10g servers. This implementation is:
- Flexible-You can call any stored procedure without worrying about data integrity or the size of result sets.
- Standards-based-Calling an Oracle stored procedure and returning a result set is done the same way it would be done for other databases, such as Informix or Sybase, and the way it would be expected by any third-party application.
- Fully functional-Business logic written in PL/SQL is not limited to a single result set. Multiple result sets can be returned from a single invocation, which allows the greatest application flexibility and performance.
Which Version of the ODBC Specification Is Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers fully support the ODBC 3.52 specification, thereby providing maximum flexibility and utility.
Is Microsoft DTC Supported?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers leverage the facilities of the Microsoft DTC environment in a user-friendly and flexible manner. No separate installation packages are required and DTC is supported "straight out of the box" against multiple versions of the Oracle8i, Oracle9i, and Oracle 10g server platforms. The drivers provide flexible recognition features that detect Oracle8i, Oracle9i, and Oracle 10g settings to allow for maximum performance and throughput in any Microsoft Transaction Server/DTC environment.
What Cursor Types Are Supported?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers optimize forward-only cursors to pre-fetch multiple records, reducing network traffic and improving performance. Two types of scrollable cursors are supported to allow maximum application flexibility:
- Static cursors are ideal for applications that require high levels of concurrency on the database server and require the ability to scroll forwards and backwards through result sets. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers fully implement the static cursor model and provide options to fine-tune static cursor performance (for example, options allowing you to set how much long textual data is cached).
- Keyset-driven cursors are the preferred scrollable cursor model when the application cannot afford to buffer the data from a static cursor. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers implement a robust keyset-cursor model that works well with dynamic enterprise applications.
Is Unicode Supported?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers fully support Unicode across all operating systems.
Is XML Persistence Supported?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers fully support XML persistence. This feature allows you to retrieve result sets from a relational database and store the result sets as XML data files.
Is Full Outer Join Syntax Supported?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers support full outer join syntax, including extensions such as nested outer joins.
What Performance Tuning Options Are Available?
The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers include options such as ArraySize, CachedCursorLimit, CachedDescriptionLimit, CatalogIncludesSynonyms, DefaultLongDataBuffLen, DescribeAtPrepare, EnableStaticCursorsForLongData, OptimizeLongPerformance, ProcedureRetResults, ServerType, and UseCurrentSchema.
Is the Driver Optimized for Third-Party Applications?
Yes. The DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers offer several application-specific tuning options to allow maximum performance and functionality for many of today's third-party applications.
How Can I Tell Which Version of a Driver I Have Installed?
Call SQLGetInfo with the argument SQL_DRIVER_VER. This will return a version string such as:
5.0.0002 (B0001, U0002, F0001)
Where Can I Learn More?
For more information about the DataDirect Connect Series Oracle drivers, go to the DataDirect Technologies web site at the following locations: http://www.datadirect.com/products/odbc/index.ssp and http://www.datadirect.com/products/odbc64/index.ssp
