ChangeLog

    * Improved Execute/Fetch performance with prepared statement

      - Improved by x15 fetch performance when executing and fetching prepared statements that return resultsets
      
          - Prior to v3.7.0 :

              - Before a prepared statement was re-executed, any previous resultset was freed
              - Then, once the statement was re-executed, the resultset was recreated by OCI_GetResultset()

          - From v3.7.0 :

              - The resulset is created only once and is just reinitialized before re-execution
              - Avoiding these unnecessary memory allocations/deallocations improves drastically the performances

    * Extended Array interface

      - Added OCI_SetBindAllocation()
      - Added OCI_GetBindAllocation()
      - Improved drastically performance for handle based array internally created or externally created with OCI_xxxxArrayCreate()
      - Added demo file array_internal.c

    * Miscellaneous changes

      - Modified connection internal handles allocation/deallocation: 

         - Server handle is now allocated/deallocated when physical connection to server is created/freed
         - Session and context handles are now allocated/deallocated at logon/logoff time
         - Before theses handles were all allocated/deallocated when physical connection to server was created/freed
         - The old way could cause problems with old Oracle versions
      
      - Existing programs must be recompiled (in order to use this new version of ocilib) with no code change (as compatibility macros are provided)

    * Miscellaneous fixes
    
      - Fixed OCI_Object binding: 
    
         - Internal objects indicator structures were not binded properly
         - Even if the internal objects indicators were updated correctly, it was not seen by the server
         - Only the object itself nullity flag was sent to server
   
      - Fixed Batch error handling:
        
         - Some errors could not have be caught
         - Added checks in OCI_GetBatchErrorCount()

      - Fixed OCI_Element API :

         - Setting values with a standalone OCI_Element object associated to a standalone collection was broken
         - For collection of REFs, internal OCI_REf object was not freed by OCI_ElemFree()

      - Fixed OCI_Object members internal offset computation for 64bits builds
      - Fixed OCI_DirPathSave() that could not execute on a loaded stream
      - Fixed Connection pooling emulation for Oracle 8i
      - Fixed warnings when compiling OCILIB with OCI_IMPORT_LINKAGE and Oracle 8i
      - Fixed few internal return values literals in OCI_CHECK_XXX macros (like FALSE literal returned for pointer values ...)

2010-05-18 Version 3.6.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@ocilib.net

    * Improved Array interface
    
      - Arrays of non scalar datatypes (based on handles) previously had to be initialized element by element and could be time consuming
      - It is now possible to allocate arrays in one step and thus improve performance (especially with Oracle 11g), internal OCILIB structures and OCI handles are allocated in one step
      - Added OCI_DateArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_DateArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_TimestampArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_TimestampArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_IntervalArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_IntervalArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_LobArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_LobArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_FileArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_FileArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_ObjectArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_ObjectArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_RefArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_RefArrayFree()
      - Added OCI_CollArrayCreate()
      - Added OCI_CollArrayFree()
      
    * Added proper support for UTF8 strings

      - Use OCI_CHARSET_ANSI mode
      - Set the environment variable NLS_LANG to value that contains the substring 'UTF8'
      - Depending on the database charset :
    
          - UTF8 : UTF8 strings are used for any text based binds or retrieved columns values
          - Other charsets : UTF8 strings can be used only with national strings (NCHAR/NVARCHAR/NCLOB)

    * Exented String support

      - Added OCI_BindSetCharsetForm() to enable the use of national charset on binded strings

    * Extended LOB API

      - It is now possible to specify for CLOB/NCLOB buffer lengths in characters and/or bytes for R/W operations
      - Added OCI_LobRead2()
      - Added OCI_LobWrite2()
      - Added OCI_LobAppend2()

    * Modified native CHARSET modes

      - OCI_CHARSET_UNICODE replaced by OCI_CHARSET_WIDE 
      - OCI_CHAR_UNICODE replaced by OCI_CHAR_WIDE
      - OCI_XXX_UNICODE symbols are still supported for backward compatibility
   
    * Fixed Multiple loads in Direct path mode

      - Fixed the API to enable multiple load
      - Updated direct path demo

    * Miscellaneous changes

      - Added OCI_HandleGetSubscription()
      - Modified OCI_Initialize() : renamed parameter 'home' to 'lib_path' 
      - OCI_GetString() : when column base type is not string based, the implicit conversion uses now now dynamic memory allocation to return full data content instead of truncating to OCI_BUFFER_SIZE limit    
      - Various documentation updates
      - Modified OCI_LobRead() (and thus OCI_LobRead2()) to set a trailing null character
      - Replaced few left direct malloc() calls by OCI_MemAlloc()

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - fixed prototype of OCI_ConnPoolGetlGetNoWait() => OCI_ConnPoolGetGetNoWait()
      - fixed internal raw size retrieving in OCI_ObjectGetRaw() and OCI_ElemSetRaw()
      - fixed OCI_ObjectSetString() in OCI_CHARSET_MIXED mode that could cause a segfault
      - fixed internal string conversions in OCI_CHARSET_MIXED mode on Unix systems that could cause a segfault
      - fixed various problems of RAW and LONG handling in OCI_MIXED_CHARSET mode
      - fixed OCI_ServerGetOutput() when statements are reprepared
      - fixed computation of objects members offsets (in the internal object opaque structure) which caused misaligned pointer and lead to segfault depending on the members datatype
      - fixed OCI_xxxFmt() functions that were badly formatting the ouput sql when more than one DATE parameter was present
      - fixed OCI_BindArrayOfXXXX() documentation
      - fixed OCI_BindArraySetSize() when called many times with a new size > initial size
      - fixed endianness problem on big endian platforms when a string buffer had to be converted
      - fixed internal lengths used in implicit conversions in OCI_GetString() for some datatypes
      - Improved long long support detection
      - fixed national charset attribute detection for NCLOB binds
      - Fixed memory leak appeared in v3.5.0 when deallocating internal fetched LOBs

    * Modified developer and support contacts

      - use the following contact address for any information/question/help about OCILIB :

          - support and help         : support@ocilib.net
          - contact and information  : vince.rogier@ocilib.net 

2010-02-03 Version 3.5.1 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - fixed reinitialization of OCI_Statement objects binded to other statements
      - fixed endianness problem with precision attribute of sub columns of objects retrieved with OCI_TypeInfoGet()
      - fixed compilation error with Oracle client < 10gR2 when using build mode OCI_IMPORT_LINKAGE
      - fixed returned value of OCI_GetColumnIndex()

    * Documentation updates / fixes
 
2009-12-21 Version 3.5.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for Oracle Database Change notification / Continuous Query Notification

      - Added type OCI_Subscription
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionRegister()
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionUnregister()
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionAddStatement()
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionGetName()
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionGetPort()
      - Added OCI_SubscriptionGetTimeout()
      
      - Added type OCI_Event
      - Added OCI_EventGetType()
      - Added OCI_EventGetOperation()
      - Added OCI_EventGetDatabase()
      - Added OCI_EventGetObject()
      - Added OCI_EventGetRowid()
      - Added OCI_EventGetSubscription()
      
      - Added new environment mode OCI_ENV_EVENTS to enable events
      - Updated documentation (new page <modules> <Database Change Notification>)

    * Added support for Oracle warning (grace period notification, SQL truncation, etc ...)

      - Added OCI_EnableWarnings()
      - Added error type OCI_ERR_WARNING
      - Updated documentation (page <modules> <error handling>)

    * New functions 

      - OCI_CollGetAt2()
      - OCI_SetUserPassword() to renew a user password (expired or active) 
      - OCI_SetErrorHandler() to modify user error handler callback after library initialization

    * Major Object API internal update, rewrite and improvement

      - Speed improvements
      - Now works on Unicode builds (tired to wait after Oracle fixes that never come, so i have reimplemented some buggy OCI calls)
      - Smarter code

    * Extended Lob Support

      - Added OCI_LobEnableBuffering()
      - Added OCI_LobGetChunkSize()
      
    * Native 64 bits fixes

      - Fixed Direct Path API
      - Added casts + modified some variables types

    * PL/SQL support fixes
      - Segmentation fault could happen when using OCI_Date binds in PL/SQL statements
      - Binds values for OCI_Date and big_int variable where not updated after OCI_Execute for PL/SQL
      - OCI_ServerGetOutput() : ouput was broken if PL/SQL statement/blocks were re-executed
      - OCI_ServerGetOutput() : trash string was returned if the number of amount of output lines was greater than the value of the  <arrsize> parameter of OCI_ServerEnableOutput()
       
    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - OCI_ImmediateFmt(), OCI_PrepareFmt(), OCI_ExecuteStmtFmt():  trailing character of formatted string representation of dates was missing on non windows platforms
      - OCI_ObjectGetColl() : the internal OCI Collection handle of the returned OCI_Coll object was invalid and thus caused segfault when calling OCI_Coll functions afterwards for these objects
      - OCI_DateNextDay() : On Unix systems+Unicode builds -> wrong value passed to the OCI internal call
      - OCI_Immediate() : if execution failed, internal OCI_Statement (and thus server cursor) was not deallocated 
      - OCI_ConnectionFree() : removed internal call to object cache cleanup routine
      - OCI_DatabaseShutdown() : a segfault happened if the connection to the server could not be done 
      - fixed typos in OCILIB documentation (generated from OCILIB main header file: ocilib.h)

    * Miscellaneous changes
    
      - OCI_RefToText() : parameter size is now if type <unsigned int> instead of <int>
      - Modified : OCI_BIND_MAX (maximum number of binds for a statement) is now 1024 by default instead of 512
      - Added Oracle spatial demo source (demo/geometry.c)
      - Now, OCI_API is by default set to __stdcall when using MS visual studio if it is not already defined
      - If client version >= 11.1, OCILIB Resultsets allocate internal OCI descriptors array in one call (lobs, files, timestamp and interval)
 
    * Information : OCI_DatabaseStartup() fails on Unicode builds because OCI function OCIDBStartup() fails if OCI is initialized in UTF16 mode ! Another bug to report to Oracle !

2009-07-28 Version 3.4.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for Oracle 11g remote instance management

      - Added OCI_DatabaseStartup()
      - Added OCI_DatabaseShutdown()
      - Added documentation (page <modules> <Remote Instance startup/shutdown>)

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - Fixed String binds: since v.3.3.0, an error ORA-01480 could happened if the string length was equal to the max size passed to OCI_BindString()
      - Fixed OCI_CollGetSize() that was returning wrong size after OCI_Execute() if the collection was binded as pure out variable or retrieved as a member of fetched OCI_Object handle
      - Fixed OCI_GetColumnNullable() : since v.3.0.0, it was always returning TRUE
      - Fixed internal binds buffer lenghts updates

    * Miscellaneous changes

      - Removed collection bounds / input index checking in OCI_CollGetAt() and OCI_CollSetAt()
      - Modified behaviour of OCI_BindGetDataSize() and OCI_BindSetDataSize() (see documentation or function declarations for more information)
      - Modified Oracle version handling:
        - Minor versions of OCI are now also detected at compile and runtime time
        - Versions constants have changed: 
          - before: 
            - OCI_8 (8), OCI_9 (9), OCI_10 (10), OCI_11 (11)
          - now : 
            - OCI_8_0  ( 800), OCI_8_1  ( 810)
            - OCI_9_0  ( 900), OCI_9_1  ( 920)
            - OCI_10_1 (1010), OCI_10_2 (1020)
            - OCI_11_1 (1110), OCI_11_2 (1120)
          - Compatibility macros were added to map old versions constant:
            - OCI_8 (=> OCI_8_0), OCI_9 (=> OCI_9_0), OCI_10 (=> OCI_10_1), OCI_11 (=> OCI_11_1)
          - All OCILIB functions returning single version number now returns the new version constants
          - Added macros to extract versions part numbers from new single version numbers:
            - OCI_VER_MAJ() : major    version
            - OCI_VER_MIN() : minor    version
            - OCI_VER_REV() : revision version

2009-06-30 Version 3.3.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added SQL command and verb retrieving

      - Added OCI_GetSQLVerb()
      - Added OCI_GetSQLCommand()
      - Added OCI_SFC_XXXX constants for the 124 Oracle SQL command codes

    * Added support for batched errors for Array DML

      - Added OCI_ErrorGetRow()
      - Added OCI_GetBatchError()
      - Added OCI_GetBatchErrorCount()
      - Updated array interface demo (demo/array.c)

    * Extended Lob Support

      - Added OCI_LobGetMaxSize()
      - Added OCI_LobFlush()

    * Extended Collection API

      - Added OCI_CollClear()
      - Modified OCI_CollTrim(), OCI_CollGetMax(), OCI_CollGetSize() that now take or return 'unsigned int' instead of 'int' type
      - Modified OCI_CollTrim() to accept a zero value as number of elements to trim 
   
    * Modified and extended Bind API

      - Added OCI_BindSetNull()
      - Added OCI_BindSetNullAtPos()
      - Added OCI_BindIsNull()
      - Added OCI_BindIsNullAtPos()
      - Modified OCI_SetNullxxx() calls that are now defined as obsolete macros around OCI_BindSetxxx() calls

    * Extended OCI_ImmediateXXX() API

     - Added missing support for Objects, Collection and REF
     - Added OCI_ARG_OBJECT, OCI_ARG_COLLECTION and OCI_ARG_REF

    * Extended OCI_XXXFmt() API

     - Added support for REFs
     - Added token identifier '%r' for REFs
   
    * Miscellaneous changes

      - Added OCI_Ping()
      - Added Exception type OCI_ERR_CREATE_OCI_ENVIRONMENT if internal Oracle OCI environment handle cannot be allocated
      - Updated documentation (page <modules> <Installing OCILIB>)
      - Modified GNU configure script: the Oracle OCI library folder search sequence is now : lib32, lib, lib64

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - Fixed OCI_CollAssign() that was assigning destination collection to source collection
      - Fixed missing const qualifier in some Direct Path functions prototypes    
      - Fixed OCI_ElemSetXXX() for numeric types that was returning FALSE for local collection
      - Fixed PL/SQL tables binds for non scalar types (wrong values handled since v3.2.0)
      - Fixed possible infinite recursivity when calling some OCI_ErrorGetXXX() calls within an error handler at OCILIB initialization
      - Fixed Error message if Oracle shared lib was not found: library name was not correct on Unicode builds
      - Fixed OCI_GetString() : in mixed charset builds, the returned string was truncated for numeric columns 
      - Fixed internal function OCI_MoveString() for inplace string buffers packing/expansion
      - Fixed in/out or out string binds:
        * Bind indicator is now not reset to "not null" after an execute call if the statement is PL/SQL code
        * Wide string binds on Unixes platforms (Mixed and Unicode builds) : 
          - the trailing null character was missing if the binded string had been shortened by some PL/SQL code or user
          - Internal initialization of bind array of data legnths: the length was including null terminator character and could lead to some memory corruptions
      - Fixed some demo example codes 
      - Fixed computation of internal OCI_Object sub objects offsets in their parents’ indicator array (could have caused segfaults and/or bad indicator values)
      - Fixed problems with OCI_Elem internal null indicators:
          - In some cases, a segfault caused by a null pointer could happened
          - For OCI_Object handles held by an OCI_Elem handle, the object internal indicator structure was not properly set/retrieved
                   
2009-04-20 Version 3.2.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for Direct Path Loading
    
      - See section in the documentation (page <module>, section <Direct Path loading>)
      - Added handle OCI_DirPath
      - Added OCI_DirPathCreate()
      - Added OCI_DirPathFree()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetColumn()
      - Added OCI_DirPathPrepare()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetEntry()
      - Added OCI_DirPathConvert()
      - Added OCI_DirPathLoad()
      - Added OCI_DirPathReset()
      - Added OCI_DirPathFinish()
      - Added OCI_DirPathAbort()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSave()
      - Added OCI_DirPathFlushRow()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetCurrentRows()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetCurrentRows()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetMaxRows()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetDateFormat()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetParallel()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetNoLog()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetCacheSize()
      - Added OCI_DirPathSetBufferSize()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetAffectedRows()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetRowCount()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetErrorColumn()
      - Added OCI_DirPathGetErrorRow() 
      - added OCI_HandleGetDirPathStream()
      - added OCI_HandleGetDirPathColArray()
      - added OCI_HandleGetDirPathCtx()
      - Added Exception type OCI_ERR_COLUMN_NOT_FOUND
      - Added Exception type OCI_ERR_DIRPATH_STATE
      - updated demo application with a direct path loading example
      - Added source code of a standalone application in demo directory
      
    * Modified Database objects describe API

      - OCI_Schema handle has been renamed to OCI_TypeInfo
      - All OCI_SchemaXXX() functions have been renamed to OCI_TypeInfoXXX()
      - Constants OCI_SCHEMA_XXX have been renamed to OCI_TIF_XXX
      - Macro have been added to mapp old types, defines and names to new ones for backward compatibility

    * Extended binding possibilities

      - Added OCI_BindArrayGetSize()
      - Added OCI_AllowRebinding()
      - Different host variables can be binded to the same statement bind placeholder
      - It is possible the update a bind array real number of element before execution
      - Added exception type OCI_ERR_BIND_ARRAY_SIZE
      - Fixed OCI_SetNullXXX() : the upper bound of an array bind was not checked

    * Extended Object API

      - Added OCI_ObjectGetStruct()
      - Now it is possible to retrieve the underlying C (OTT style) structure of an OCI_Object handle

    * Fixed OCI_Element API

      - Modified OCI_ElemCreate() that takes now an OCI_TypeInfo handle instead of an OCI_Connection handle
      - Fixed OCI_ElemFree() that could not free underlying sub objects OCI handles
      - Fixed segfaults when using local instance of OCI_Elem objects created wit OCI_ElemCreate()

    * Extended UROWID support

      - Large UROWID hexadecimal strings where truncated to OCI_ROWID_SIZE (default 23) characters
      - Now OCILIB handles correctly UROWID columns (size up to 4000 chars)
         
    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - Fixed OCI_TimestampToCTime() : members tm_year and tm_mon of the tm structure passed to the function were not properly set
      - Fixed memory leak : when re-executing a prepared statement that hold a SQL 'select', internal OCI column descriptor for each column of the resultset was not freed
      - Fixed implicit conversion of numeric data to string when using OCI_GetString() in mixed and Unicode builds : Entire values had a trailing dot.
      - Fixed OCI_LongRead() : internal offset variable was not reset across OCI_FetchNext() calls causing NULL reads after some fetch sequences
      - Fixed memory leak in internal function OCI_ObjectInit()
      - Fixed configure script for GNU package to detect OCI header location of some older versions ($ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/demo)
      - Fixed internal OCI_StringCopy2to4bytes() when converting internal Oracle UTF16 strings with odd lengths to Unix UTF32 strings
      - Renamed OCI_ColumnGetFractionnalPrecision() to OCI_ColumnGetFractionalPrecision() - added macro for backward compatibility
      
    * Updated windows package

      - Added 2 code::blocks projects
         - ocilib_static_lib_mingw.cbp : to build OCILIB as a 32 bits static library (ansi, mixed and unicode builds) in ocilib/proj/mingw
         - ocilib_demo_codeblocks.cbp  : to build OCILIB 32 bits demo application (ansi, mixed and Unicode builds) in ocilib/proj/test
      - Precompiled OCILIB 32 bits static libraries are now provided within the package :
         - built with Code::Block 8.03 (minGW / gcc-core-3.4.5)
         - available static libs in ocilib/lib32 : libociliba.a (ansi), libocilibm.a (mixed), libocilibw.a (unicode)
      - OCILIB prebuilt Dlls are still compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio
      
    * Miscellaneous internal changes

      - The object cache is now freed when a connection is terminated
      - Internal source file schema.c has been renamed to typeinfo.c
      - Internal source file dirpath.c has been added
      - Fixed some internal calls to please GDCC and its aliasing warnings with -Wall options
      
    * Documentation updates 

      - Added notes in OCI_ConnectionCreate() documentation for using External credentials
      - Added notes in OCI_BindArraySetSize() documentation for modifying input array number of elements between statement executions
      - All OCILIB headers and sources files (45 files - 43.000 lines) have been checked with spell checker to correct typos (my English remains not so good !)
           
2009-01-23 Version 3.1.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for Oracle REF datatype

      - Added OCI_RefCreate()
      - Added OCI_RefFree()
      - Added OCI_RefGetObject()
      - Added OCI_RefAssign()
      - Added OCI_RefIsNull()
      - Added OCI_RefSetNull()
      - Added OCI_RefToText()
      - Added OCI_RefGetHexSize()
      - Added OCI_GetRef2()
      - Added OCI_GetRef()
      - Added OCI_BindRef()
      - Added OCI_BindArrayOfRefs()
      - Added OCI_RegisterRef()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetRef()
      - Added OCI_HandleGetRef()
      - Added OCI_ObjectGetRef()
      - Added OCI_ObjectGetSelfRef()

    * Added some tracing features

      - Added OCI_SetTrace()
      - Added OCI_GetTrace()

    * Extended Object API

      - Fixed internal handling of null attributes (it has been rewritten)
      - Modified local (transients) objects creation. Now:

        * By default, all attributes are set to NULL
        * Non scalar attributes must be set by calling new functions OCI_ObjectSetXXX()

      - Added setters functions for non scalar object attributes

        * OCI_ObjectSetDate
        * OCI_ObjectSetInterval
        * OCI_ObjectSetTimestamp
        * OCI_ObjectSetColl
        * OCI_ObjectSetObject
        * OCI_ObjectSetFile
        * OCI_ObjectSetLob
        * OCI_ObjectSetRef

      - Added Miscellaneous Object functions

        * Added OCI_ObjectIsNull()
        * Added OCI_ObjectAssign()
        * Added OCI_ObjectGetType()

    * Extended Collection elements API

      - Fixed : OCI_ElemSetNull() that was only updating null indicator
      - Fixed : some functions were not checking input element handle nullity
      - Added checks on element type in OCI_ElemGetXXX() calls that throw an exception if the element type is not the same type as the one requested
      - Added setters functions for non scalar element base datatypes

        * OCI_ElemSetDate()
        * OCI_ElemSetInterval()
        * OCI_ElemSetTimestamp()
        * OCI_ElemSetColl()
        * OCI_ElemSetObject()
        * OCI_ElemSetFile()
        * OCI_ElemSetLob()
        * OCI_ElemSetRef()
   
    * Extended Bind informations

      - Modified : OCI_Bind handles are now public and can be retrieved for public information
      - Added OCI_GetBindCount()
      - Added OCI_GetBind()
      - Added OCI_GetBind2()
      - Added OCI_BindGetName()
      - Added OCI_BindGetType()
      - Added OCI_BindGetSubtype()
      - Added OCI_BindGetStatement()
      - Added OCI_BindGetData()
      - Added OCI_BindGetDataCount()
      - Added OCI_BindGetDataSize()
      - Added OCI_BindGetDataSizeAtPos()
      - Added OCI_BindSetDataSize()
      - Added OCI_BindSetDataSizeAtPos()
      - Added OCI_SetNull2()
      - Added OCI_SetNullAtPos2()
      - Extended OCIBindxxx() calls satefy : 

        * An error OCI_ERR_BIND_ALREADY_USED is now raised if the bind name or position is already binded to the statement
        * With the bind mode by position, provided bind indexes <= 0  and > OCI_BIND_MAX will cause an error OCI_ERR_OUT_OF_BOUNDS

      - Extended binds/registers limits :
 
        * OCI implements the SQL returning clause through binds operations
        * OCILIB wraps the result of the returning clause within OCI_Resultet object but has to use internal binds to create its resultset
        * Prior to v3.1.0, OCI_BIND_MAX (default 512) was the maximum of OCI_Bindxxx() including OCI_Registerxxx() that an OCI_Statement could handle
        * With v3.1.0, OCILIB can handle OCI_BIND_MAX user binds handle and OCI_BIND_MAX items in the returning clause

    * Fixed Unicode support for Unixes platforms

        * Unicode support for platforms with 4 bytes wchar_t was broken
        * Fixed configure script was setting bad charset macros
        * Fixed some internal buffer expansion functions

    * Miscellaneous public modifications

      - Added OCI_IsNull2()
      - Added OCI_ResultsetGetStatement()
      - Added OCI_BindArrayOfColls()
      - Added OCI_GetDataLength()
  
      - Added functions to retrieve OCI_Schema object from various OCILIB object bases on Oracle object type :

        * Added OCI_ObjectGetSchema()
        * Added OCI_CollGetSchema()
        * Added OCI_RefGetSchema()

      - Added runtime information about OCILIB builds modes :

        * Added OCI_GetImportMode()
        * Added OCI_GetCharsetMetaData()
        * Added OCI_GetCharsetUserData()

      - On Oracle versions >= 11g, OCILIB now sets the client driver layer name information

        * Value set to the constant OCILIB_DRIVER_NAME (by default "OCILIB") 
        * It is recorded in the system views V$SESSION_CONNECT_INFO and GV$SESSION_CONNECT_INFO

      - Modified ocilib demo to properly support MinGw and unix based unicode console output

    * Miscellaneous internal modifications

      - Added internal reference counter to OCI_Schema object 

        * Some OCILIB objects keep a pointer to some OCI_schema objects
        * If OCI_SchemaFree() was called, these objects were holding a reference to a freed block of memory and then accessing this reference could cause a segfault
        * Now OCI_SchemaFree() only frees an schema object if its reference counter is zero.
       
    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - OCI_FetchPrev() was returning FALSE if called directly after OCI_FetchLast() on resulsets with less then OCI_FETCH_SIZE rows (default set to 20)
      - if OCI_FetchXXX calls were returning FALSE, internal error flag was wrongly set to TRUE and OCI_GetLastError() could return a previous OCI_Error handle
      - OCI_Fetchxxx() functions could return TRUE even if the given SQL statement had some SQL conversion function that failed (like to_date(), etc..)
      - OCI_Getxxx() functions could cause a segfault called before any OCI_Fetchxxx() calls 
      - OCI_IsConnected() was always returning FALSE since v3.0.0
      - OCI_SchemaGet() with OCI_SCHEMA_TABLE was causing an ORA-24328 with Oracle 8 and 9 (working fine with Oracle 10) since v3.0.0
      - OCI_Execute() could raise an ORA-01483 if an OCI_Timestamp handle of type OCI_TIMESTAMP, initialized with OCI_TimestampSysTimeStamp() only, was binded to the statement
      - Fixed OCI_TimestampIntervalAdd() and OCI_TimestampIntervalSub() that might have raised errors with OCI_Timestamp handles of type OCI_TIMESTAMP
      - Fixed some preprocessor directives in oci_loader.h
      - Fixed OCI_Object reusability: internal sub object could not be freed when fetching next object and thus lead to memory leaks
      - Since v3.0.0, fetching LONG column with OCI_LONG_IMPLICIT mode was truncating data to its half length in Unicode and Mixed Builds 
      - Fixed some preprocessor directives for MinGw support
      - Fixed runtime loading of oracle libs that might have not worked if the provided OCI library location ended with an existing slash
      - Fixed internal OCI_CopyString() that might caused some troubles in Unicode builds 
      - Fixed some internal wrong arrays size used for memory allocation
      - Fixed some OCI_Date and OCI_Timestamp decode functions to work properly on big-endian platforms
      - Fixed string binding on mixed charset build iwth Oracle 8i
      - since v3.0.0, OCILIB source compilation was broken for oracle 8i
      - Fixed demo file output.c

2008-10-17 Version 3.0.1 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - Added checks (OCI_ERR_MIN_VALUE) on len parameter (len >=1) of OCI_LobRead(), OCI_LobApend(), OCI_LobWrite(), OCI_FileRead()
      - Compilation of ocilib source with MSCV6++ was broken (vsnprintf was not defined to _vsnprintf anymore)
      - Memory leak : internal bind data allocated for handling PL/SQL tables was never freed 
      - Memory leak : internal OCI_Elem object used by OCI_Coll was never freed
      - Memory leak : since v3.0.0,  OCI_Statement internal stored SQL command string was not freed anymore
      - Scrollable cursors : executing a non select query on a scrollable statement was causing an oracle error

    * The library has been re-tested with various test suites under valgrind to check memory handling and it is now clean !

2008-10-13 Version 3.0.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for scrollable cursors

      - See section in the documentation (page <module>, section <Fetching data>)
      - Added OCI_FetchPrev()
      - Added OCI_FetchLast()
      - Added OCI_FetchFirst()
      - Added OCI_FetchSeek()
      - Added OCI_SetFetchMode()
      - Added OCI_GetFetchMode()
      - Added OCI_GetCurrentRow()

    * Added support for Collection types : VARRAYs and NESTED TABLES

      - Added section in the documentation (page <module> - section <Oracle Collections (Varrays and Nested Tables)>)
      - Added type OCI_Coll
      - Added type OCI_Iter
      - Added type OCI_Elem
      - Added OCI_CollCreate()
      - Added OCI_CollFree()
      - Added OCI_CollAssign()
      - Added OCI_CollGetType()
      - Added OCI_CollGetMax()
      - Added OCI_CollGetSize()
      - Added OCI_CollTrim()
      - Added OCI_CollGetAt()
      - Added OCI_CollSetAt()
      - Added OCI_CollAppend()
      - Added OCI_BindColl()
      - Added OCI_GetColl()
      - Added OCI_GetColl2()
      - Added OCI_ObjectGetColl()
      - Added OCI_HandleGetColl()
      - Added OCI_IterCreate()
      - Added OCI_IterFree()
      - Added OCI_IterGetNext()
      - Added OCI_IterGetPrev()
      - Added OCI_ElemCreate()
      - Added OCI_ElemFree() 
      - Added OCI_ElemGetShort()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetUnsignedInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetBigInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetUnsignedBigInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetDouble()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetString()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetRaw()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetDate()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetTimeStamp()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetInterval()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetLob()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetFile()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetObject()
      - Added OCI_ElemGetColl()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetShort()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetUnsignedInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetBigInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetUnsignedBigInt()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetDouble()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetString()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetRaw()
      - Added OCI_ElemSetNull()
      - Added OCI_ElemIsNull()    
      
    * Massive Library rewrite:

      - Update OCILIB Full Name from "OCILIB (C Wrapper for Oracle OCI)" to "OCILIB - C Driver for Oracle"
      - Split OCILIB main source file into 30 source files
      - All public and internal functions have been partially / largely reorganized / rewritten  
      - Miscellaneous code optimization, enhancement and cleanup
      - OCILIB source code compilation procudes zero warnings with highest warning settings of GCC and Microsoft C compiler
      - Note for GCC builds :

        * OCILIB static/shared libs are now bigger because of the split sources and the autotools default CFLAG set to "-g -02"
        * Stripping the library (using the command strip) will make it 3 times smaller.

      - Standardization of functions implementation:
      
        * 1 - Checks
        * 2 - Function code
        * 3 - thread error status (optionnal)
        * 4 - Single exit point
        
      - OCILIB main header file (ocilib.h) moved from folder ./src to folder ./include. 

        - For MS windows users, do not forget to update your compiler/IDE settings for include paths
 
    * Extended error handling

      - Updated section in the documentation (page <module>, section <Error handling>)
      - Major rewrite for the internal error handling code
      - Added support for thread contextual error handling
      
        * New Flag OCI_ENV_CONTEXT for OCI_Initialize()
        * Added OCI_GetLastError()
        
      - Enforced input parameter checking
      - Added OCI_GetSqlErrorPos() to retrieve the position error in a SQL statement
      - Now, OCILIB calls guaranties to raise an error in any situation where it should instead of just returning to caller as it was doing before
      - Added some Memory checking:

        * OCILIB now keeps counts of all internal allocated OCI handles, descriptors and objects
        * OCI_Cleanup() will throw an error in case of unfreed OCI object and returns FALSE
     
      - Modified return values for OCi_ErrorGetType() :
      
        * OCI_ERR_ORACLE : OCI calls error, SQL errors, ...
        * OCI_ERR_OCILIB : internal OCILIB and application logic errors
        
      - New exceptions are raised:
      
        * OCI_ERR_NONE                : "No error"
        * OCI_ERR_NOT_INITIALIZED     : "OCILIB has not been initialized"
        * OCI_ERR_LOADING_SHARED_LIB  : "Cannot load OCI shared library (%lib_name%)"
        * OCI_ERR_LOADING_SYMBOLS     : "Cannot load OCI symbols from shared library"
        * OCI_ERR_MULTITHREADED       : "OCILIB has not been initialized in multithreaded mode"
        * OCI_ERR_MEMORY              : "Memory allocation failure (type %type_name%, size : %block_size%)"  
        * OCI_ERR_NOT_AVAILABLE       : "Feature not available (%feature_name%) "
        * OCI_ERR_NULL_POINTER        : "A null %type_name% has been provided"
        * OCI_ERR_NOT_SUPPORTED       : "Oracle datatype not supported (sqlcode %oracle_code%) " (currently only REFs are not supported)
        * OCI_ERR_PARSE_TOKEN         : "Unknown identifier %token% while parsing SQL"
        * OCI_ERR_MAP_ARGUMENT        : "Unknown argument %arg_code% while retreiving data"
        * OCI_ERR_OUT_OF_BOUNDS       : "Index %value% out of bounds. Must be between %min% and %max%"
        * OCI_ERR_UNFREED_DATA        : "Found %nb% unfreed %data_type%"
        * OCI_ERR_MAX_BIND            : "Maximum number of binds (%limit%) already reached" (currently 512)
        * OCI_ERR_ATTR_NOT_FOUND      : "Object attribute '%name%' not found"
        * OCI_ERR_MIN_VALUE           : "The integer parameter value must be at least %min%"
        * OCI_ERR_NOT_COMPATIBLE      : "Elements are not compatibles (type 1 = %typecode1%, type 2 = %typecode2%)"
        * OCI_ERR_STMT_STATE          : "Unable to perform this operation on a %stmt_state% statement"
        * OCI_ERR_STMT_NOT_SCROLLABLE : "The statement is not scrollable"

      - The exception OCI_ERR_NOT_INITIALIZED is only available with OCI_GetLastError(), even 
        if OCI_ENV_CONTEXT is not used with OCI_Initialize(), and is raised when calling OCI_XXXXCreate()
        to allocate OCILIB handles before any call to OCI_Initialize()

    * Extended implicit datatype conversions

      - Added OCI_SetDefaultFormatNumeric()
      - Added OCI_GetDefaultFormatNumeric()
      - Added OCI_SetDefaultFormatDate()
      - Added OCI_GetDefaultFormatDate()
      - Modified OCI_SetFormatDate() and OCI_GetFormatDate() that now are macro for compatibility with older code
      - Added support for implicit conversion:

        * String columns can be retrieved as numeric data
        * OCI_GetString() and OCI_GetString() can return string data whatever the real type of the column (except for Object, Collection and Cursor based columns)

    * Improved internal numeric datatypes handling

      - Modified : public OCILIB datatype OCI_CDT_INTEGER and OCI_CDT_DOUBLE has been replaced by one datatype : OCI_CDT_NUMERIC
      - Modified : Now, all fetched numeric columns are internally mapped to OCINumber OCI type and to public type OCI_CDT_NUMERIC
      - Modified : Much cleaner, compact an easier code for handling OCI_GetXXXX() calls for all numeric types
                    
    * Extended Date, timestamp and interval support

      - Added OCI_TimestampGetDateTime()
      - Added checks for securing input integer pointer :

        * OCI_DateGetTime(), OCI_DateGetDate(), OCI_DateGetDateTime()
        * OCI_TimestampGetTime(), OCI_TimestampGetDate(), OCI_TimestampGetDateTime(), OCI_TimestampGetTimeZoneOffset()
        * OCI_IntervalGetDaySecond(), OCI_IntervalGetYearMonth()

    * Extended OCILIB documentation that has been updated and some precisions has been added:

      - Added    : page <module> - section <PL/SQL support> with new code examples
      - Added    : page <module> - section <Collections (Varrays and Nested Tables> with new code examples
      - Extended : page <module> - section <Error handling> for thread contextual error handling
      - Extended : page <module> - section <Fetching data> for scrollable cursors and string conversions
      - Extended : page <module> - section <Library objects and datatypes>) for supported datatypes
      - Updated  : page <module> - section <Charset support>
      - Modified : page <module> - section <Build Options> content moved to page <module> - section <Installing OCILIB>
      - Updated  : miscellaneous changes
         
    * Miscellaneous changes

      - Modified : up to 110 various functions prototypes have been modified to change the type of the return value or some parameters from int -> unsigned int
      - Modified : OCI_GetResultset() returns now the first resultset if it exists instead of creating a new one
      - Modified : OCI_SetNull() and OCI_SetNullAtPos() : now indexes and positions start at 1
      - Modified : OCI_BIND_MAX (maximum number of binds for a statement) is now 512 by default instead of 256
      - Modified : OCI_BindArraySetSize() : param nbelem type modified from 'int' to 'unsigned int'
      - Modified : OCI_HashGetEntry() : now indexes and positions start at 1
      - Modified : Rearranged internal structures to respect alignment and avoid padding
      - Modified : OCI_HashGetEntry() : now indexes and positions start at 1
      - Modified : return value in case of failure for OCI_TransactionGetMode() [OCI_ERROR->OCI_UNKNOWN] and OCI_TransactionGetTimeout() [OCI_ERROR -> 0]
      - Modified : OCI_GetColumnXXX() calls are now renamed to OCI_ColumnGetXXX() and old prototypes are maintained as macros for backward compatibility
      - Added    : OCI_StatementGetConnection()
      - Added    : OCI_ColumnGetSchema()
      - Added    : OCI_ColumnGetSubType()
      - Added    : support for MSVC6++/unicodes builds

        * Inclusion of wchar.h is now done in extern C++ block for MSVC6++ and cpp applications
        * swprintf() is mapped to _snwprintf() because VC6 C-library is not ISO C compliant
 
    * Fixed some Connection pools problems
 
      - Fixed : Connection pools : every call to OCI_ConnPoolGetConnection() was allocating internal data instead of using existing ones.
      - Fixed : Memory leak : internal connection transaction handle was never freed
      - Fixed : OCI_ConnPoolCreate() : parameter 'incr_con' was not used (value '1' used instead)

    * Fixed some PL/SQL table problems
 
      - Fixed : PL/SQL table pure IN binds was causing PL/SQL error when the table parameters was accessed by PL/SQL procedures
      - Fixed : Passing the value 1 for array size in PL/SQL tables binds caused an ORA-06550
  
    * Fixed Oracle Long fetching

      - Segmentation fault was happening if a select contained a LONG column + other columns
      - Unnecessary reallocation of internal LONG buffers was done at every internal fetch call (by default every 20 rows)
      - When using OCI_LONG_IMPLICIT (LONG mapped to VARCHAR), strings returned by OCI_GetString() might not have their final null character
       
    * Modified GNU configure scripts

      - Added    : For GNU builds added configure option --with-custom-loader for platforms that are not using '-ldl' (if using option --with-oracle-linkage=runtime)
      - Fixed    : Some configure options were broken
      - Modified : Added some checks and some outputs

    * Miscellaneous fixes

      - Fixed : Replaced any references of 'long' C type with 'int' C types in unix wchar internal conversion functions (on 64bits platforms, 
                sizeof(long) is 8 bytes so it lead to some buffer bad alignment)
      - Fixed : Second parameter 'ptm' of OCI_DateToCTime() and OCI_TimestampToCTime() was not mandatory as it should have been
      - Fixed : Unicode buffer conversion : Internal OCI_StringLength() could not work properly on some architectures
      - Fixed : Binding 64bits integers was not working properly (wrong internal flags)
      - Fixed : OCI_ObjectGetShort() and OCI_ObjectGetUnsignedShort() were missing in ocilib.c
      - Fixed : the header "limits.h" was not included in ocilib.h and on some configurations the support of 'long long' could not be detected
      - Fixed : CLOBs read/writes on OCILIB Unix/Unicode builds could not work properly (wrong buffer passed to OCI)
      - Fixed : OCI_SetUserData() was not exported
      - Fixed : return value of the declaration of OCI_GetVersionConnection() was wrong (boolean instead of unsigned int)
      - Fixed : OCI_ServerEnableOutput() and OCI_ServerDisableOutput() prototypes did not have the OCI_API call convention (for MS builds)
      - Fixed : OCI_ObjectGetString() prototype was returning wrong type 'mtext *' instead of 'dtext *'

    * Updated main demo application

      - Added : Example for scrollable cursors and collections (varrays and nested tables)
      - Fixed : some bad cast could lead buffer bad filling in mixed charset build

    * Fixed Mixed charset builds (OCI_CHARSET_MIXED ONLY)

      - Fixed : OCI_ObjectGetString() and OCI_ObjectSetString() were misunderstanding string buffers
      - Fixed : OCI_ServerEnableOutput() was not allocating enough memory to hold output buffer lines
      - Info  : OCILIB functions using the OCI functions OCIStringPtr() and OCIStringAssignText() have a limitation on mixed charset builds :

        * In mixed builds, OCILIB Strings (dtext *) used for handling user data are wchar_t strings, but the underlying OCI API 
          understands theses strings as not unicode but ansi or other encoding 
        * So, there is now, when building OCILIB with OCI_CHARSET_MIXED, an internal conversion to/from ANSI data when using :
          
          - OCI_ObjectGetString() and OCI_ObjectSetString()
          - OCI_ElemGetString() and OCI_ElemSetString()

2008-07-24 Version 2.5.1 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Fixed : OCILIB builds with Runtime loading of OCI shared library activated

      - Loading dynamically OCIMutexXXX() functions was broken with v2.5.0
      - Runtime loading of the OCI shared library on Unix-like platforms was broken with v2.5.0

    * Fixed Unicode builds: 

      - Binding C Unicode strings (wchar_t *) to PL/SQL tables of char/varchar was throwing an PLS-00418 error 
      - The internal buffer expansion (for Unix-like platforms where wchar_t is 4 bytes) could mess up the data for arrays of string binds
      - OCI_ConnPoolGetConnection() could return NULL with an Oracle 8i client if OCILIB was built with an OCI version >= 8 or with OCI_IMPORT_RUNTIME option

2008-07-21 Version 2.5.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Added support for PL/SQL tables (PL/SQL arrays)

      - Bind (input, output) C arrays to PL/SQL using OCI_BindArrayOfxxx() functions
      - All the OCI_BindArrayOfxxx() functions take now an extra param : the size of the array for PL/PL/SQL table
      - For regular array interface bind, pass 0 for the array size which is set by OCI_BindArraySetSize() 

    * Extended Date, timestamp and interval support

      - Added OCI_DateGetDateTime()
      - Added OCI_DateSetDateTime()
      - Added support for converting C types (time_t, tm) to/from OCI_Date and OCI_Timestamp :

        * Added OCI_DateFromCTime()
        * Added OCI_DateToCTime()
        * Added OCI_TimestampFromCTime()
        * Added OCI_TimestampToCTime()

      - Date, timestamp and interval can now be create outside a database connection:
            
        * To create a connection independent object, pass a NULL OCI_Connection pointer to OCI_DateCreate(), OCI_TimestampCreate() and OCI_intervalCreate() functions
        * Keep in mind that using a connection pointer is still recommended because it is checking that the server is able to handle these datatypes

      - Fixed OCI_TimestampIntervalAdd(), OCI_TimestampIntervalSub() : 

        * If the timestamps type was not OCI_TIMESTAMP_TZ, an error occured
        * Now, these functions changes the timestamps types for OCI raw call and set it back before returning
        * Possible bug OCI -> Investigating with Oracle support 

    * Extended OCI_Connection handle attributes

      - Added OCI_IsConnected()
      - Added OCI_SetUserData()
      - Added OCI_GetUserData()

    * Added Support for retrieving server output

      - Added OCI_ServerEnableOutput()
      - Added OCI_ServerDisableOutput()
      - Added OCI_ServerGetOutput()

    * Added Support for OCI Threadkeys
     
      - Thread Keys are kind of process wide variable identified by an string identifier with thread specific values
      - See section in the documentation (page <module>, section <Threads and mutexes>)
      - Added OCI_ThreadKeyCreate()
      - Added OCI_ThreadKeyGetValue()
      - Added OCI_ThreadKeySetValue()

    * Extended runtime loading of Oracle shared libs on various Unix-like systems

      - Added support for Mac OSX (handling 'dylib' lib extension)
      - Added support for some HP/UX platforms (handling 'sl' lib extension)
      - Modified dl_open() flags for AIX and HP/UX
      - Modified configure script for Oracle shared Client library detection

    * Added Support for Oracle Instant Client on Unix-like systems

      - See section in the documentation (page <module>, section <Installation>)
      - Added configure option : --with-oracle-headers-path
      - Added configure option : --with-oracle-lib-path

    * Extended OCILIB documentation:

      - Added "Installation" page
      - All examples have been checked, updated, corrected and extended
      - All examples are now provided as full programs sources code

    * Added more demo source code

      - 26 full application sources codes are now provided in the ocilib/demo directory
      - Theses application examples are now integrated in the OCILIB documentation
 
    * Misc:

      - Added const qualifier to return values of OCI_HandleXXX() calls
      - Fixed parameter checking in some OCI_ObjectXXX() calls

2008-04-24 Version 2.4.0 Vincent Rogier vince.rogier@gmail.com

    * Extended support for handling all integers types

      - Added type big_int (64bits long long if supported or int if 64bits integers not available)
      - Added support for shorts
      - Added support for unsigned integers (unsigned short, unsigned int and unsigned big_int)
      - Automatic conversion between integer types whenever possible
      - Removed lobsize_t : Lob calls are using now the type big_uint
 
    * Added public interface for short type

      - Added OCI_BindShort()
      - Added OCI_BindArrayOfShorts()
      - Added OCI_GetShort()
      - Added OCI_GetShort2()
      - Added OCI_RegisterShort()
      - Added OCI_ObjectGetShort()
      - Added OCI_ObjectSetShort()
 
    * Added public interface for unsigned short type

      - Added OCI_BindUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_BindArrayOfUnsignedShorts()
      - Added OCI_GetUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_GetUnsignedShort2()
      - Added OCI_RegisterUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_ObjectGetUnsignedShort()
      - Added OCI_ObjectSetUnsignedShort()

    * Added public interface for unsigned int type

      - Added OCI_BindUnsignedInt()
      - Added OCI_BindArrayOfUnsignedInts()
      - Added OCI_GetUnsignedInt()
      - Added OCI_GetUnsignedInt2()