Pythian Group

The latest release of DBD::Oracle is now ready and can be found at: CPAN DBD::Oracle. It is a Perl module that works with the DBI module to provide access to Oracle databases. It is maintained by me, John Scoles, under the auspices of The Pythian Group as open source/free software.

The release has been fully tested with the latest version of DBI (1.601).

Below is the list of the changes and/or fixes in this release.

Changes in DBD-Oracle 1.21(svn rev 11067) 11th April 2008

• Added Notes to README.win32.txt on installing Instant Client 1.1.0.6.0; from John Scoles
• Added the oci_typecode_name method to get the name rather than just the number of an OCI_TYPECODE; from John Scoles
• Fixed a unreported bug with Embedded Objects; from John Scoles
• Fixes for #34621 & 33791 from RT cpan
• Added patch to allow faster fetch from REF CURSORs; from Biswadeep Chowdhury
• Updated the Todo file for next version; from John Scoles
• Added support for the 10.2 Data Interface for Persistent LOBs; by John Scoles
• Changed the way pre-fetching is done; by John Scoles
• Added support for Scrollable cursors; from John Scoles
• Changed the max size of cache_rows to a sb4 rather than a int and or a ub4; from John Scoles
• Added support for Lobs in select of OCI Embedded Objects; from John Scoles with a big thankyou to Paul Weiss
• Fixed for embedded object in object; from Paul Weiss
• Added support for direct insert of large XML data into XMLType fields; from Hendrik Fuss & John Scoles
• Fixed memory leak (not releasing Temp Lob with OCILobFreeTemporary) when created for a bind; from John Scoles
• Added support for bind_param_inout_array for use with execute_array; from John Scoles
• Added enhancement for Embedded Objects handling; from Paul G. Weiss
• Fixed to Makefile.PL let it read makefiles from other makes from; Alexander V Alekseev
• Updated POD to tell users to Avoid Using “SQL Call”; from Charles Jardine
• Updated POD to account for rt.cpan.org #30910: “DBD-Oracle crashes when trying to read empty LOB”; from John Scoles
• Added DBD::Oracle impdata/threads patch; from Jeffrey Klein

In this release there are a number of new features. One important one you might want to have a look at is support for binding an array for in-out operations with execute_array. Given this SQL:

INSERT INTO foo (id, bar) VALUES (foo_id_seq.nextval, ?) RETURNING id INTO ?

and using execute_array to insert 200 records, you will get an array back of the 200 new IDs inserted.

I have also added support for directly inserting of large XML files into an XMLType field.

Another important addition is support for Persistent LOBs if you are using Oracle 10.2 or later. You can now treat LOBs as if they were any other form of data, so say goodbye to LOB locators.

Finally, I have added support for native Oracle ‘Scrolling Cursors’.

There were also a number of bug fixes and code updates as listed above.

Cheers, John Scoles.

The latest release of DBD::Oracle is now ready and can be found at: CPAN DBD::Oracle. It is a Perl module that works with the DBI module to provide access to Oracle databases. It is maintained by me, John Scoles as open source/free software, under the auspices of The Pythian Group.

The release has been fully tested with the latest version of DBI (1.601).

Below is the list of the changes and/or fixes in this release. Read the rest of this entry . . .

The latest release of DBD::Oracle is now ready and can be found at:

CPAN DBD::Oracle

The release has been fully tested with the latest version of DBI (1.53).

Below is the list of the changes and /or fixes in this release.

• Fixed execute_array to comply with DBI standard from Martin J. Evans, Xho Jingleheimerschmidt and others
• Fixed execute_array so it will not throw a Perl warning on undef values in Tuples from John Scoles
• Fixed execute_array so it will take the ora_array_chunk_size DB handle attribute
• Fixed some typos in code and READMEs from John Scoles
• Fixed a few other little bugs dealing with compatibility with Oracle 8 Changes to README from Karl Auer
• Suppress warning in 26exe_array.t from Philip Garrett
• Added support for array context aware execute_for_fetch from Martin J. Evans
• Fixed Makefile.PL for an incompatibility with ExtUtils::MM_Unix v1.50 (invoked byExtUtils::MakeMaker) from Dennis McRitchie
• Updated POD to reflect that OCI after 9.2 no longer strips trailing spaces

Please enjoy,

John Scoles.

Hello!

I am happy to present the very first post to my new group blog, where I will be inviting Pythian DBAs with interesting thoughts to contribute to prepare blogs of their own. You can read the group blog either one author at a time, by clicking the author’s name in the right-hand side of this column, or if you prefer, you can see all the posts on one page by going to the main group blog page.

My subject for this first posting: DBD::Oracle. If you have used perl to interact with a database, you are aware of the DBI that Tim Bunce and his collaborators first developed in the 1990s in order to interact with a database abstraction layer. DBD::Oracle is one of the database layer drivers that allows the DBI to communicate with Oracle. Pythian is a big user of perl and DBD::Oracle internally, as our problem tracking groupware, Support Track, and our availability monitoring software, avail, are all written using the DBI to communicate with the underlying database.

Late last year, Tim posted to the DBI users’ mailing list looking for a volunteer that would become the maintainer for DBD::Oracle. He explained that as he was no longer a user of Oracle, the task of keeping the software current was becoming increasingly difficult and distracting for him. Pythian volunteered and I am proud to announce that we made our first release, DBD::Oracle 1.17 last month. This release adds support for Oracle XE, Oracle’s free low-end database, and for installation using the Oracle Instant Client, as well as troubleshooting a variety of installation gotchas and bugs in the makefile.

Seah Hull at the Oracle Open Source blog interviewed me on the subject of Pythian taking on the stewardship of DBD::Oracle and even has a podcast of the interview available on his site.

We cover the following material:

1. Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, and your company?
2. When a perl programmer wants to interface with a database, what
technology do they use?
3. How did that DBI project get started, and by whom?
4. How does the DBD::Oracle component come into play? What language is it written in, and how does it interface with Oracle’s own libraries?
5. What has Pythian’s role been with this project in the past, and how has that changed recently?
6. From a business perspective, why would a company like Pythian want to contribute to this project for free? What is the advantage?
7. How have Open Source technologies benefited Pythian?
8. Do you have any other comments on Open Source, benefits, industry
threats, myths, and so on? Is everything really just free? And
furthermore won’t everyone eventually go the way of a free database?

Check it out!

Cheers,

Paul