What's New in Oracle Database for Windows?

This chapter describes new features of Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) for Windows and provides pointers to additional information. It also retains new features information from previous releases to help those users migrating to the current release.

The following sections describe the new features in Oracle Database:

• Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) New Features for Windows

• Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) Deprecated Components

• Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2.0.4) New Features

Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) New Features for Windows

This section contains these topics:

• Automatic Storage Management

• Database Password Encryption

• Data Pump Import and Data Pump Export

• Instant Client

• Large Page Support

• Oracle Data Provider for .NET

• Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

• Oracle Home Selector

• Oracle Objects for OLE

• Oracle Provider for OLE DB

• Oracle Scheduler

• Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server

• Components Requiring Separate Installations

• Renamed Components

Automatic Storage Management

Automatic Storage Management enables creation of a single disk group from a collection of individual disk devices.

Database Password Encryption

When a user attempts a remote login to an Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) database, the password is automatically encrypted before it is sent to the remote database.

Data Pump Import and Data Pump Export

Two new utilities, Data Pump Import and Data Pump Export, offer faster transfer of files to and from Oracle databases. The previous file transfer utilities, Import and Export, are retained for use with Oracle databases created with earlier versions of Oracle software.

Instant Client

The Instant Client feature of Oracle Call Interface (OCI) simplifies OCI installation. The activation of Instant Client mode is only dependent on the ability to load the Instant Client data shared library. It requires only two dynamic link libraries to be loaded by the dynamic loader of the operating system.

Large Page Support

Large page support provides a performance boost for memory-intensive database instances running on Windows Server 2003. By taking advantage of newly introduced operating system support, Oracle Database now can make more efficient use of processor memory addressing resources.

Oracle Data Provider for .NET

Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) 10g release 1 (10.1) includes the following new features:

• Support for Oracle grids

  Oracle Data Provider for .NET is grid-enabled, allowing developers to take advantage of Oracle database grid support without having to make changes to their application code.

• Support for new datatypes in the database

  Oracle Data Provider for .NET supports the new database native types BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE.

• Support for multiple Oracle homes

  You can install Oracle Data Provider for .NET in multiple Oracle homes. In order to make multiple homes available, some of the Oracle Data Provider for .NET files include a version number, and the use of a HOMEID is required.

• Support for schema-based XMLType in the database

  Oracle Data Provider for .NET supports the native schema-based XMLType.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control is installed in the same Oracle home as the database and supports standalone Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J) instances.

Oracle Home Selector

Oracle Home Selector is no longer available from the Start menu. Instead, use Oracle Universal Installer, which has functionality similar to Oracle Home Selector.

Oracle Objects for OLE

Oracle Objects for OLE (OO4O) 10g release 1 (10.1) has the following new and updated features:

• Support for Oracle grids

  Oracle Objects for OLE is grid-enabled, allowing developers to take advantage of Oracle database grid support without having to make changes to their application code.

• Support for new datatypes

  Oracle Objects for OLE 10g release 1 (10.1) now provides support for the BINARY_DOUBLE and BINARY_FLOAT datatypes. You can fetch instances of these types from the database or passed them as input or output variables to SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks, including stored procedures and functions.

• Support for multiple Oracle homes

  You can install Oracle Objects for OLE in multiple Oracle homes, starting with 10g release 1 (10.1). However, being a COM component, only one instance can be active on the computer. This means that the current (latest) installation renders the previous one inactive.

  In order to make multiple homes available, you must use a HOMEID. Also, some of the Oracle Objects for OLE files include a version number.

Oracle Provider for OLE DB

Oracle Provider for OLE DB 10g release 1 (10.1) includes the following new features:

• Support for Oracle grids

  Oracle Provider for OLE DB is grid-enabled, allowing developers to take advantage of Oracle database grid support without having to make changes to their application code.

• Support for the following datatypes introduced with Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1):

  • BINARY_DOUBLE

  • BINARY_FLOAT

• Support for multiple Oracle homes

  You can install Oracle Provider for OLE DB in multiple Oracle homes, starting with 10g release 1 (10.1). However, being a COM component, only one instance can be active on the computer. This means that the current (latest) installation renders the previous one inactive.

  In order to make multiple homes available, some of the Oracle Provider for OLE DB files now include a version number, and the use of a HOMEID is required.

Oracle Scheduler

This release includes a new database scheduler, Oracle Scheduler, to provide enterprise scheduling functionality. You can use the OracleJobScheduler service to start external jobs. This service is disabled by default. In order to use the external jobs functionality, the administrator must set the username and password for the user account under which this service must run, and then enable the service.

Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server

Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server supports .NET transactional applications with Oracle Data Provider for .NET through the Oracle Provider for OLE DB, and ODBC.NET through the Oracle ODBC driver.

Components Requiring Separate Installations

Several components are no longer installed from the Oracle Database installation media.

Renamed Components

The following components were renamed in this release:

Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) Deprecated Components

The following Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) components that were part of Oracle9i release 2 (9.2.0) are not available for installation with Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1):

• INTYPE File Assistant (IFA)

• Migration Utility

• Oracle Names

• Oracle Trace

  Use SQL Trace and TKPROF in place of Oracle Traces

• Pro*C GUI

• Pro*COBOL 1.8.77

Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2.0.4) New Features

This section contains these topics:

• Oracle Data Provider for .NET

• Oracle Objects for OLE

• Oracle Provider for OLE DB

Oracle Data Provider for .NET

Oracle Data Provider for .NET release 9.2.0.4, which was released on Oracle Technology Network (OTN) included the following:

• Support for validating pool connections

  Oracle Data Provider for .NET has a new connection string, validate connection. Set validate connection to true to validate connections that come from the connection pool. By default, validate connection is set to false.

  Note that validation causes a round trip to the database for each connection coming from the connection pool, which can be very expensive in terms of performance. Therefore, use the validate connection attribute only when absolutely necessary.

• XML support in Oracle Data Provider for .NET.

  With XML support, Oracle Data Provider for .NET can now:

  • Store XML data natively in the database as the Oracle database native type, XMLType.

  • Access relational and object-relational data as XML data from an Oracle database instance into Microsoft .NET environment, process the XML using Microsoft .NET framework.

  • Save changes to the database server using XML data.

• Support for PL/SQL Associative Array Binding

  ODP.NET supports PL/SQL Associative Array (formerly known as PL/SQL Index-By Tables) binding.

  An application can bind an OracleParameter, as a PL/SQL Associative Array, to a PL/SQL stored procedure using OracleParameter properties.

• Support for InitialLOBFetchSize property on OracleCommand and OracleDataReader objects

Oracle Objects for OLE

Oracle Objects for OLE release 9.2.0.4 has the following new datatypes:

• TIMESTAMP

• TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

• TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

• INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH

• INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND

Oracle Provider for OLE DB

Oracle Provider for OLE DB release 9.2.0.4, which was released on Oracle Technology Network (OTN) included the following:

• Oracle Provider for OLE DB-Specific Connection String Attribute UseSessionFormat

  UseSessionFormat specifies whether to use the default NLS session formats or let Oracle Provider for OLE DB override some of these formats for the duration of the session.

• Support for the following datatypes introduced with Oracle9i release 1 (9.0.1):

  • TIMESTAMP

  • TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

  • TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

  • INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH

  • INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND