Version 7.1 (February 2019)

#) Updated to `ODPI-C 3.1

<https://oracle.github.io/odpi/doc/releasenotes.html#

version-3-1-january-21-2019>`__.

#) Improved support for session tagging in session pools by allowing a

session callback to be specified when creating a pool via

:meth:`cx_Oracle.SessionPool()`. Callbacks can be written in Python or in

PL/SQL and can be used to improve performance by decreasing round trips to

the database needed to set session state. Callbacks written in Python will

be invoked for brand new connections (that have never been acquired from

the pool before) or when the tag assigned to the connection doesn't match

the one that was requested. Callbacks written in PL/SQL will only be

invoked when the tag assigned to the connection doesn't match the one that

was requested.

#) Added attribute :attr:`Connection.tag` to provide access to the actual tag

assigned to the connection. Setting this attribute will cause the

connection to be retagged when it is released back to the pool.

#) Added support for fetching SYS.XMLTYPE values as strings, as requested

(`issue 14 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/14>`__).

Note that this support is limited to the size of VARCHAR2 columns in the

database (either 4000 or 32767 bytes).

#) Added support for allowing the typename parameter in method

:meth:`Cursor.var()` to be None or a valid object type created by the

method :meth:`Connection.gettype()`, as requested

(`issue 231 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/231>`__).

#) Added support for getting and setting attributes of type RAW on Oracle

objects, as requested

(`ODPI-C issue 72 <https://github.com/oracle/odpi/issues/72>`__).

#) Added support for performing external authentication with proxy for

standalone connections.

#) Added support for mixing integers, floating point and decimal values in

data passed to :meth:`Cursor.executemany()`

(`issue 241 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/241>`__).

The error message raised when a value cannot be converted to an Oracle

number was also improved.

#) Adjusted fetching of numeric values so that no precision is lost. If an

Oracle number cannot be represented by a Python floating point number a

decimal value is automatically returned instead.

#) Corrected handling of multiple calls to method

:meth:`Cursor.executemany()` where all of the values in one of the columns

passed to the first call are all None and a subsequent call has a value

other than None in the same column

(`issue 236 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/236>`__).

#) Added additional check for calling :meth:`Cursor.setinputsizes()` with an

empty dictionary in order to avoid the error "cx_Oracle.ProgrammingError:

positional and named binds cannot be intermixed"

(`issue 199 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/199>`__).

#) Corrected handling of values that exceed the maximum value of a plain

integer object on Python 2 on Windows

(`issue 257 <https://github.com/oracle/python-cx_Oracle/issues/257>`__).

#) Added error message when attempting external authentication with proxy

without placing the user name in [] (proxy authentication was previously

silently ignored).

#) Exempted additional error messages from forcing a statement to be dropped

from the cache

(`ODPI-C issue 76 <https://github.com/oracle/odpi/issues/76>`__).

#) Improved dead session detection when using session pools for Oracle Client

12.2 and higher.

#) Ensured that the connection returned from a pool after a failed ping (such

as due to a killed session) is not itself marked as needing to be dropped

from the pool.

#) Eliminated memory leak under certain circumstances when pooled connections

are released back to the pool.

#) Eliminated memory leak when connections are dropped from the pool.

#) Eliminated memory leak when calling :meth:`Connection.close()` after

fetching collections from the database.

#) Adjusted order in which memory is freed when the last references to SODA

collections, documents, document cursors and collection cursors are

released, in order to prevent a segfault under certain circumstances.

#) Improved code preventing a statement from binding itself, in order to avoid

a potential segfault under certain circumstances.

#) Worked around OCI bug when attempting to free objects that are PL/SQL

records, in order to avoid a potential segfault.

#) Improved test suite and samples. Note that default passwords are no longer

supplied. New environment variables can be set to specify passwords if

desired, or the tests and samples will prompt for the passwords when

needed. In addition, a Python script is now available to create and drop

the schemas used for the tests and samples.

#) Improved documentation.

#) Re-enabled dead session detection functionality when using pools for Oracle

Client 12.2 and higher in order to handle classes of connection errors such

as resource profile limits.