Oracle® Data Provider for .NET Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Support User's Guide

11g Release 2 (11.2)

E21641-02

Oracle® Data Provider for .NET

Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Support User's Guide

11g Release 2 (11.2) for Windows

E21641-02

September 2012

Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) is an implementation of the Microsoft ADO.NET interface. ODP.NET support for Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database (TimesTen) provides fast and efficient ADO.NET data access from .NET client applications to TimesTen databases.

This document covers only those aspects of ODP.NET that are specific to its use in a TimesTen environment. For more general information, refer to Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide.

You can use ODP.NET with any of the following TimesTen installations:

- TimesTen Data Manager only (for direct connections)

- TimesTen Client only (for client/server connections, assuming a TimesTen Data Manager instance and TimesTen Server instance are accessible elsewhere)

- TimesTen Data Manager with TimesTen Server and TimesTen Client (for either direct connections or client/server connections)

This document describes how to use ODP.NET in a TimesTen environment, covering the following topics:

- Initial considerations for ODP.NET in a TimesTen environment

- Getting started with ODP.NET

- Configuring TimesTen connections for an ODP.NET application

- Testing your ODP.NET installation with TimesTen

- Development considerations for ODP.NET with TimesTen

- ODP.NET namespace and class support with TimesTen

There is also a Documentation Accessibility section at the end of this document.

Initial considerations for ODP.NET in a TimesTen environment

This section discusses points you should be aware of before starting to use ODP.NET with TimesTen, covering the following topics:

- Environments and TimesTen releases supported by ODP.NET

- Support for .NET-related features

- Requirements and prerequisites for using ODP.NET with TimesTen

- Related documents

Environments and TimesTen releases supported by ODP.NET

This revision of the document is for the ODP.NET 11.2.0.3.0 release, which is the minimum ODP.NET release for use with TimesTen 11.2.2 releases. (The minimum ODP.NET release supporting TimesTen 11.2.1 releases is 11.2.0.2.0.)

Note the following:

- The ODP.NET 11.2.0.3.0 release, as available in the corresponding Oracle Database patch set or Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) release, supports TimesTen 11.2.1 (11.2.1.6.1 and higher) and 11.2.2 releases, specifically with the feature support documented in "ODP.NET namespace and class support with TimesTen".

- ODP.NET for TimesTen is supported on all Microsoft Windows 32-bit and 64-bit platforms that support TimesTen.

- The 32-bit version of ODP.NET must be used with a 32-bit instance of the TimesTen database or TimesTen client. Likewise, the 64-bit version of ODP.NET must be used with a 64-bit instance of the TimesTen database or TimesTen client.

- ODP.NET for TimesTen supports .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or later, and .NET Framework 4 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

Note:
TimesTen release 11.2.1.8.0 or higher is recommended.

Support for .NET-related features

ODP.NET for TimesTen supports a subset of features currently available in ODP.NET for Oracle Database. In particular, ODP.NET for TimesTen supports the following features:

- ODP.NET connection pooling

- ODP.NET tracing

ODP.NET for TimesTen does not support these features:

- ADO.NET Entity Framework object relational mapper

- LINQ (Language-Integrated Query)

ODP.NET for TimesTen does not support interoperability with the following Oracle Database client components:

- Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio

- Oracle Database Extensions for .NET

- Oracle Providers for ASP.NET

Requirements and prerequisites for using ODP.NET with TimesTen

Note the following requirements to use ODP.NET with TimesTen:

- You must install TimesTen Data Manager or TimesTen Client on your system. TimesTen is not provided with ODP.NET or OCI.

- Your TimesTen installation must be installed with the PL/SQL option, and PL/SQL must be enabled for the TimesTen database through the connection attribute setting PLSQL=1 (the default) or the ODBC Data Source Administrator. Refer to the PL/SQL section of Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Release Notes for information about the small number of platforms that do not support PL/SQL.

- ODP.NET support for TimesTen depends on Oracle Call Interface (OCI) support for TimesTen. Specifically, an OCI version provided with Oracle Database 11.2 releases is required. The current ODP.NET release must not, and will not, use the OCI version provided with TimesTen, which is under the tt_install_dir\ttoracle_home directory, where tt_install_dir is the TimesTen installation root directory. (There is no issue, however, in using the TimesTen version of OCI for OCI or Pro*C/C++ programs that do not use ODP.NET. Refer to "TimesTen Support for OCI" and "TimesTen Support for Pro*C/C++" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database C Developer's Guide for information on those programming interfaces.)
Also see "Post-installation path considerations".

- Requirements for the execution environment to use ODP.NET with Oracle Database apply to using ODP.NET with TimesTen as well. Refer to Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide for information.

Related documents

Some of the preceding discussion refers to documents in the Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database and Oracle Database documentation libraries.

TimesTen documentation is available on the product distribution media, and on the Oracle Technology Network at the following location.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/timesten/documentation/

Oracle documentation is also available on the Oracle Technology network, at the following location.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/documentation/

Getting started with ODP.NET

This section discusses the following topics to help you start using ODP.NET. Note that installation steps are not TimesTen-specific.

- Installing ODP.NET

- Post-installation path considerations

- Uninstalling ODP.NET

- Building an application for ODP.NET

Installing ODP.NET

This section covers the following installations:

- Install ODP.NET as part of the Oracle Database 11.2 patch set

- Install ODP.NET as part of ODAC 11.2 for Windows, OUI version

- Install ODP.NET as part of ODAC 11.2 for Windows, XCopy version

The installation process for ODP.NET is independent of the TimesTen environment. Nothing is installed into the TimesTen installation directories.

Refer to Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide for additional information about ODP.NET installation, including associated Windows registry entries.

Important:

- The installation subsections that follow discuss Oracle Database and ODAC 11.2 versions generically, but note that the minimum version providing any TimesTen support (for TimesTen 11.2.1 releases) is ODP.NET 11.2.0.2.0. And the minimum version supporting TimesTen 11.2.2 releases is ODP.NET 11.2.0.3.0.

- To use ODP.NET with TimesTen, ODP.NET should be installed on the same system as TimesTen Data Manager or TimesTen Client. See "TimesTen installation" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Installation Guide for installation information. In addition, a TimesTen DSN must be configured. Refer to "Specifying Data Source Names to identify TimesTen databases" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Operations Guide for information about setting up a DSN.

- It is recommended, but not required (unless otherwise noted), to remove any previous versions of ODP.NET before installing a new version.

- After you have completed the installation steps, the location of ODP.NET binaries varies depending on your type of Oracle installation and version of .NET. Consult Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide and the ODP.NET README file for information.

Install ODP.NET as part of the Oracle Database 11.2 patch set

Use these instructions to install ODP.NET as part of Oracle Database 11.2 patch sets.

This installation uses the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), as would be the case in any Oracle Database environment. Run it by executing its setup.exe file (in the Disk1 location), then complete the following steps:

1. In the Select Installation Type dialog, typically choose the "Runtime" radio button, then choose Next.
(There are four installation options: Instant Client, Runtime, Custom, and Administrator. The Runtime option provides the Oracle client and ODP.NET. The Instant Client option does not provide ODP.NET. If you have reason to use a Custom installation, there is a check box for ODP.NET.)

2. In the resulting Download Software Updates dialog, you may choose the "Skip software updates" radio button at your discretion, as appropriate for your situation. Choose Next when you have finished.

3. In the resulting Select Product Languages dialog, use the default English language setting (or choose a desired language), then choose Next.

4. In the resulting Specify Installation Location dialog, you can typically use the default values for the Oracle base path and software location. Alternatively:

1. Enter the path (or browse) to your Oracle home location for the Oracle base path.

2. Enter the path (or browse) to a desired directory location under the Oracle home location where the software files will be installed.

Important:
Paths cannot have spaces.

5. The installer will perform prerequisite checks and display a Summary dialog. Choose Install.

Install ODP.NET as part of ODAC 11.2 for Windows, OUI version

Use these instructions to install ODP.NET as part of the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) version of Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 11.2 releases.

Run OUI by executing its setup.exe file, which you can access in the staging directory into which you unzip the ODAC ZIP file for OUI installation, then complete the following steps:

1. In the OUI welcome page, choose Next.

2. In the page to select a product to install, choose "Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.x.x.x" (the appropriate point release number will be indicated). Then choose Next.

3. In the page to choose an installation location, you can either use the default value or specify an alternative location, as desired. Then choose Next.

4. In the page to choose available product components, confirm that Oracle Data Provider for .NET is selected (default). All other components are optional for ODP.NET. Then choose Next.

Note:
If Oracle Providers for ASP.NET is also selected, you will then see a page instructing you to run a set of SQL scripts at a specified location. Note that Oracle Providers for ASP.NET is not relevant to TimesTen.

5. If there are multiple versions of Visual Studio on your system, the "Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio" page lists the versions so you can choose which versions you would like to have configured with Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client. Then choose Next. Note that Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio is not relevant to TimesTen.
If your system has only one version of Visual Studio, that version is automatically configured with Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client and you will not see this page.

6. In the summary page, choose Install.

Install ODP.NET as part of ODAC 11.2 for Windows, XCopy version

Use these instructions to install ODP.NET as part of the Oracle XCopy version of Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 11.2 releases. The installation process is the same for the 64-bit version as for the 32-bit version.

XCopy provides system administrators with an ODP.NET client that is smaller than the standard ODP.NET client and can be configured more easily, with finer-grained control than OUI offers. This makes it more convenient for production deployments to large numbers of computers, and simplifies the embedding of ODP.NET in customized deployment packages.

This installation does not use the Oracle Universal Installer. Instead, run the installation by executing the install.bat batch file, which you can access in the installation directory into which you unzip the ODAC ZIP file for XCopy installation.

This is a summary of the installation instructions. For further details, refer to readme.txt, which will also be located in the installation directory.

Important:
The readme.txt file emphasizes the following points.

- Do not install XCopy over an existing OUI-based Oracle home installation.

- If you do multiple ODAC product installations to the same directory, specify the same Oracle home name each time.

- By default, ODAC products and dependencies will be installed without a check to see if there are newer product versions already installed.

Execute install.bat to specify the desired ODAC products to install. For example, assuming C:\oracle\odac is your installation directory and odachome is your Oracle home name for ODAC, use the following command to install the client with only ODP.NET for .NET 2.0 libraries:

install.bat odp.net2 C:\oracle\odac odachome

Or this command to install the client with only ODP.NET for .NET 4 libraries:

install.bat odp.net4 C:\oracle\odac odachome

Alternatively, use the following command to install the client with all ODAC products:

install.bat all C:\oracle\odac odachome

Post-installation path considerations

ODP.NET will always find and use the appropriate version of OCI; namely, the Oracle client version and not the TimesTen Instant Client version. In addition, check the following for your path:

1. Confirm that the PATH setting has the location of the TimesTen shared libraries at tt_install_dir\bin, where tt_install_dir is the TimesTen installation root directory. This should follow any other Oracle directories in the path.

2. For an XCopy installation, add your ODAC installation directory and ODAC installation bin directory to the PATH setting, preceding any other Oracle directories, including TimesTen directories. For example, if C:\oracle\odac is the installation directory:

set PATH=C:\oracle\odac;C:\oracle\odac\bin;%PATH%

Note:
Refer to the Oracle Data Provider for .NET README file for any further information about setting up ODP.NET.

Uninstalling ODP.NET

For information about uninstalling Oracle Database products, including ODP.NET, refer to "Removing Oracle Database Software" in Oracle Database Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows.

To uninstall an XCopy installation, execute the uninstall.bat batch file from your ODP.NET installation directory (refer to "Install ODP.NET as part of ODAC 11.2 for Windows, XCopy version"), specifying the product to uninstall (or all products) and the Oracle home name for ODAC products. For example, to uninstall a client with ODP.NET for .NET 2.0 libraries, assuming the Oracle home name is odachome:

uninstall.bat odp.net2 odachome

Or to uninstall all ODAC products:

uninstall.bat all odachome

Building an application for ODP.NET

You can use the Visual Studio IDE to build your application, or you can use the csc.exe command-line compiler executed from the Visual Studio command prompt. The following example uses csc.exe (where the input is all one command line):

C:\Temp> csc /out:myapp.exe /reference:C:\app\mydir\path\
Oracle.DataAccess.dll myapp.cs

Microsoft (R) Visual C# 2005 Compiler version 8.00.50727.3053
for Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 2005 Framework version 2.0.50727
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001-2005. All rights reserved.

The location of the Oracle.DataAccess.dll assembly and dependent libraries is according to your type of Oracle installation and the .NET version (2.x or 4) of the ODP.NET assembly. Refer to Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide and the ODP.NET README file for information.

Configuring TimesTen connections for an ODP.NET application

ODP.NET 11.2 releases support multiple simultaneous connections to TimesTen and Oracle databases. Existing applications written for the ODP.NET interface can access TimesTen with a minimal set of changes to their application code.

In a TimesTen environment, ODP.NET uses OCI to interact with the TimesTen database. Therefore, an ODP.NET application can connect to TimesTen using either the tnsnames or the easy connect naming method, as with Oracle Database. See "Configuring Naming Methods" in Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide for information about the tnsnames and easy connect naming methods beyond what is provided below.

This section covers the following topics:

- Using the tnsnames naming method to connect

- Using the easy connect naming method to connect

- Configuring whether to use tnsnames or easy connect naming method

- Setting TimesTen connection attributes in ODP.NET connection strings

Notes:

- TimesTen does not support distributed transactions through OCI. Therefore, an ODP.NET application cannot use distributed transactions in a TimesTen connection.

- Error messages associated with connections to TimesTen from an ODP.NET application are based on the TimesTen OCI error message implementation. TimesTen OCI errors are propagated to the ODP.NET application as OracleException objects.

Using the tnsnames naming method to connect

TimesTen supports tnsnames syntax. You can use a TimesTen tnsnames.ora entry in the same way you would use an Oracle tnsnames.ora entry.

The syntax of a TimesTen entry in the tnsnames.ora file is as follows:

tns_entry = (DESCRIPTION =
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = dsn)
(SERVER = timesten_direct | timesten_client)))

Where tns_entry is an arbitrary TNS name you assign to the entry. Note the following:

- DESCRIPTION and CONNECT_DATA are required as shown.

- For SERVICE_NAME, dsn must be a TimesTen data source name (DSN) that is defined in the ODBC Data Source Administrator and is visible to the user running the ODP.NET application.

- For SERVER, timesten_direct specifies a direct connection to a TimesTen database, while timesten_client specifies a client/server connection. If you specify timesten_direct, then dsn must be a TimesTen Data Manager DSN. If you specify timesten_client, then dsn must be a TimesTen Client DSN.

The following is a sample tnsnames.ora entry for a direct connection to the TimesTen database referenced by the DSN my_dsn:

my_tnsname = (DESCRIPTION =
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = my_dsn)
(SERVER = timesten_direct)))

To connect as user scott with password tiger to the my_dsn TimesTen database that is referenced by the my_tnsname entry in the tnsnames.ora file, specify the following connection string in your ODP.NET application:

"User Id=scott;Password=tiger;Data Source=my_tnsname"

To connect as the current operating system user to my_dsn that is referenced by the my_tnsname entry in the tnsnames.ora file, specify the following connection string in your ODP.NET application. The current operating system user must be either the TimesTen instance administrator or a defined TimesTen external user.

"User Id=/;Data Source=my_tnsname"

Using the easy connect naming method to connect

TimesTen supports easy connect syntax, which allows connections to be made without configuring a tnsnames.ora entry. The syntax of a TimesTen easy connect string is as follows:

host/service_name:server

Note the following:

- A host name must be specified to satisfy easy connect syntax, but is otherwise ignored by TimesTen. The name localhost is typically used by convention.

- For service_name, specify a TimesTen DSN that is defined in the ODBC Data Source Administrator and is visible to the user running the ODP.NET application.

- For server, timesten_direct specifies a direct connection to a TimesTen database, while timesten_client specifies a client/server connection. If you specify timesten_direct, then service_name must be a TimesTen Data Manager DSN. If you specify timesten_client, then service_name must be a TimesTen Client DSN.

To establish a direct connection as user scott with password tiger to the TimesTen database referenced by the my_dsn DSN, specify the following connection string in your ODP.NET application:

"User Id=scott;Password=tiger;Data Source=localhost/my_dsn:timesten_direct"

To establish a direct connection as the current operating system user to the TimesTen database referenced by my_dsn, specify the following connection string in your ODP.NET application. The current operating system user must be either the TimesTen instance administrator or a defined TimesTen external user.

"User Id=/;Data Source=localhost/my_dsn:timesten_direct"

Configuring whether to use tnsnames or easy connect naming method

If a sqlnet.ora file is present, it specifies the naming methods that will be tried and the order in which they will be tried. ODP.NET will look for a sqlnet.ora file with the following precedence:

1. If the TNS_ADMIN environment variable has been set, it will look in that specified location.

2. If TNS_ADMIN has not been set, it will look in the Oracle Database default location as noted in "Parameters for the sqlnet.ora File" in Oracle Database Net Services Reference.

If sqlnet.ora is found, you can use only naming methods that are indicated there. If sqlnet.ora is not found, you can use either the tnsnames or easy connect naming method.

In TimesTen, sample copies of the tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files are in the tt_install_dir\network\admin\samples directory, where tt_install_dir is the TimesTen installation root directory. The following is the sqlnet.ora file that TimesTen provides, which supports both the tnsnames naming method and the easy connect naming method:

# To use ezconnect syntax or tnsnames, the following entries must be
# included in the sqlnet.ora configuration.
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, EZCONNECT)

With this setting, ODP.NET will first look for tnsnames syntax in your connection strings. If it cannot find tnsnames syntax, it will look for easy connect strings.

Important:
Oracle Database network libraries are provided with ODP.NET. ODP.NET does not use the copy of the Oracle Database network libraries provided with the Instant Client shipped with TimesTen. (That location, for reference, is tt_install_dir\ttoracle_home\instantclient_11_2 for the Oracle Database 11.2 Instant Client shipped with TimesTen 11.2.2 releases, or instantclient_11_1 for the Oracle Database 11.1 Instant Client shipped with TimesTen 11.2.1 releases.)

Setting TimesTen connection attributes in ODP.NET connection strings

You can set TimesTen connection attributes within the Password setting of your ODP.NET connection string, with syntax as follows:

- Components of the Password setting, including the password setting itself and any TimesTen connection attribute settings, are delimited by semi-colons.

- Whenever the Password setting has semi-colons, the entire setting must be quoted.

- Because the ODP.NET connection string as a whole is quoted, the begin quotation mark and end quotation mark of the Password setting must each be preceded by the "\" escape character.

The following example specifies lion as the password for user scott in TimesTen. It also sets the TimesTen OraclePWD connection attribute, which specifies the password tiger for user scott in Oracle Database, for use of Oracle In-Memory Database Cache (IMDB Cache).

"Data Source=mysource;User Id=scott;Password=\"lion;OraclePwd=tiger\"";

The next example again specifies lion as the password for scott in TimesTen. This time, it sets the TimesTen OracleNetServiceName connection attribute as well as the OraclePWD connection attribute. OracleNetServiceName specifies the Oracle ID in Oracle Database, with the OraclePWD setting specifying the corresponding password tiger. Finally, this example sets the TimesTen passthrough level to 1.

"Data Source=mysource;User ID=scott;Password=\"lion;OraclePwd=tiger;
OracleNetServiceName=mytest-pc.example.com;passthrough=1\"";

(For general information about TimesTen connection attributes, refer to "Connection Attributes" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference. For information about IMDB Cache and passthrough levels, refer to Oracle In-Memory Database Cache User's Guide.)

Note:
As always, you can also set TimesTen connection attributes in your TimesTen DSN definition in ODBC Data Source Administrator, as shown in "Managing TimesTen Databases" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Operations Guide. This is not secure, however, so is not advisable for password settings such as the OraclePWD attribute.

Testing your ODP.NET installation with TimesTen

Perform the following steps to test ODP.NET with TimesTen in a .NET 2.x or 4 environment. (Remember that for .NET 4 you must install Visual Studio 2010 and work in Visual Studio Command Prompt 2010.)

You must have a TimesTen installation, including the Quick Start sample programs, to perform these tests.

1. Where tt_install_dir is the TimesTen installation root directory, execute the build_sampledb.bat script from the tt_install_dir\quickstart\sample_scripts\createdb\ directory. This creates a TimesTen database, sampledb_1122, with users and objects.

2. Copy the ODP.NET sample program DemoODP.cs to your system. It is located in the following TimesTen Quick Start directory:

tt_install_dir\quickstart\sample_code\odp.net\

3. Create a tnsnames.ora file that contains the following:

SAMPLEDB_1122 =(DESCRIPTION=(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = SAMPLEDB_1122)(SERVER = timesten_direct)))

4. Open Visual Studio Command Prompt and set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to specify the location of the tnsnames.ora file you created. For example:

>set TNS_ADMIN=c:\mytnsdir\sqlnet

5. Navigate to the directory where DemoODP.cs was placed and compile the DemoODP program. For example:

csc /out:DemoODP.exe /reference:C:\path\Oracle.DataAccess.dll DemoODP.cs

Notes:

- The location of the Oracle.DataAccess.dll assembly and dependent libraries is according to your type of Oracle installation and the .NET version (2.x or 4) of the ODP.NET assembly. Refer to Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide and the ODP.NET README file for information.

- The name of the TimesTen sample database in TimesTen 11.2.2 releases is sampledb_1122. The name in TimesTen 11.2.1 releases is sampledb_1121.

6. Execute DemoODP as follows. (The database name, user name, and password are determined automatically during execution of build_sampledb.bat.)

DemoODP -db sampledb_1122 -user appuser -passwd welcome1

This should produce the following output:

Start Test
The employee who got the 10% pay raise was CLARK

Employees in department #50:
7944, ITMGR, MANAGER, 7839, 10/08/2010 10:34:20 AM, 2500, <NULL>, 50
7945, DVLPR1, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7946, DVLPR2, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7947, DVLPR3, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7948, DVLPR4, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7949, DVLPR5, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7950, DVLPR6, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7951, DVLPR7, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7952, DVLPR8, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7953, DVLPR9, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
7954, DVLPR10, DEVELOPER, 7944, 10/08/2010 12:00:00 AM, 2000, <NULL>, 50
Test finished

Development considerations for ODP.NET with TimesTen

This section discusses points to be aware of when developing applications to use ODP.NET in a TimesTen environment, covering the following topics:

- Effects of transaction commits on result sets and REF CURSORs

- Support for TimesTen built-in procedures

- Known issues and limitations

- Troubleshooting

- The ttSrcScan utility

Effects of transaction commits on result sets and REF CURSORs

When processing result sets generated from executing statements and creating REF CURSORs, the behavior when transactions in TimesTen connections are committed differs from that when transactions in Oracle Database connections are committed. When a transaction is committed in TimesTen while a result set of an OracleDataReader object is open, the result set will be closed automatically, unlike in an Oracle database. This applies to explicit commits, autocommit, and implicit commits.

In TimesTen, an implicit commit occurs after a DDL statement. In ODP.NET, an implicit commit also occurs when an OracleCommand object is executed without there first being an OracleTransaction object instantiated from the command connection. An explicit commit occurs when the Commit method is called on an OracleTransaction object. In either case, if a commit occurs in a TimesTen connection before a result set that is open in the transaction is completely processed, the "Function sequence error" exception may be thrown.

This difference in behavior is likely to occur when the execution of an OracleCommand object is interleaved with the processing of a result set associated with another OracleCommand object. To avoid the "Function sequence error" exception, the execution and processing of a result set should be contained exclusively within the context of an OracleTransaction object. This will prevent a commit from occurring before all rows of the result set are retrieved.

The occurrence of a "Function sequence error" exception may depend on the value of the FetchSize property of an OracleCommand, OracleRefCursor or OracleDataReader object. If the FetchSize property is not explicitly set or if it is set to a large value, then many rows may be fetched by the application before the "Function sequence error" exception is thrown.

Support for TimesTen built-in procedures

You can call TimesTen built-in procedures directly from TimesTen OCI only for built-ins that do not return a result set. Therefore, this restriction also applies to ODP.NET when used with TimesTen.

Use an OracleCommand instance to call a built-in, as in the following example. This assumes an OracleConnection instance conn with a connection to TimesTen has been established. Call the Dispose method to free resources when you have finished using the OracleCommand instance.

// switching to passthrough 1 mode using ttOptSetFlag built-in function
string switchModeStmt = "call ttOptSetFlag('passthrough', 1)";
OracleCommand switchCmd = new OracleCommand(switchModeStmt, conn);
switchCmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
switchCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
switchCmd.Dispose();

For built-in procedures that do return a result set, the result set would not be accessible through ODP.NET. However, if you call the built-in from a PL/SQL program, you could access the result set as a REF CURSOR through PL/SQL.

Known issues and limitations

This section discusses limitations that are known as of release time.

- In TimesTen version 11.2.1.6.1, an attempt to write to protected memory may occur if you call PL/SQL procedures when statement caching is enabled (BugDB 10231354). To resolve this problem, upgrade to TimesTen version 11.2.1.7.0 or later.

- The self-tuning statement cache will disable itself if it detects that not enough memory is available for its operations. Note that when an application uses a direct (as opposed to client/server) connection to TimesTen, the entire database is loaded into memory, thereby reducing memory available for the statement cache and making this behavior more likely.

Troubleshooting

This section discusses solutions for various exceptions you may encounter.

- Exception "ORA-44818: PL/SQL feature not installed in this TimesTen database"
Enable PL/SQL for the TimesTen database by setting the PLSQL connection attribute to 1 in the ODBC Data Source Administrator. ODP.NET applications cannot connect to TimesTen databases that are not PL/SQL-enabled.

- Exception "TimesTen database version is less than the minimum required version of 11.2.1.6.1"
Change the service name in the tnsname.ora entry or easy connect string to reference a TimesTen database of version 11.2.1.6.1 or greater. TimesTen ODP.NET applications cannot connect to TimesTen database versions prior to 11.2.1.6.1.

- Exception "ORA-12154: TNS: Could not resolve the connect identifier specified" or "ORA-12541: TNS: No listener"
To connect to a TimesTen database from an ODP.NET application, the Data Source attribute in the ODP.NET connection string must be set either to the TNS name of a TimesTen entry in the tnsnames.ora file or to a TimesTen easy connect string.

If the tnsnames naming method is used to connect, verify that an entry in the tnsnames.ora file is associated with a TimesTen DSN. Also verify that the TNS_ADMIN environment variable is set to the directory where the tnsnames.ora file is located.

If the easy connect naming method is used to connect, verify that service_name is set to a TimesTen DSN and that server is set to either timesten_direct or timesten_client, depending on whether the DSN configures a direct connection or a client/server connection.

- Exception "ORA-29158: Unable to open library"
If you are connecting to a TimesTen database, verify either that the entry in the tnsnames.ora file is associated with a TimesTen DSN or that service_name in the easy connect string is set to a TimesTen DSN.

This error may also occur due to a path issue, if ODP.NET cannot find the TimesTen ODBC driver, which is located in the TimesTen tt_install_dir\bin directory. (Also see the next troubleshooting item.)

- Exception "ORA-29159: Unable to read library"
In addition to the steps for ORA-29158 above, verify that the server setting in the tnsnames.ora file entry or easy connect string is timesten_direct or timesten_client, as appropriate for the type of TimesTen DSN.

See "Connecting to a TimesTen database from OCI" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database C Developer's Guide for information about tnsnames.ora and easy connect.

- Exception "The application has failed to start because ttcommonxxxx.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix the problem"
This indicates that the location of the TimesTen shared libraries at tt_install_dir\bin is not in the PATH environment variable setting.

Note:
Instead of "xxxx", the DLL file name will indicate the TimesTen release. In TimesTen 11.2.2 releases the file name is ttcommon1122.dll. In TimesTen 11.2.1 releases it is ttcommon1121.dll.

- Exception "Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt."
See "Known issues and limitations".

The ttSrcScan utility

If you have an existing ODP.NET program and want to see whether it uses ODP.NET features that TimesTen does not support, you can use the ttSrcScan command line utility (version 11.2.1.8.0 or higher) to scan your program for unsupported functions, types, type codes, attributes, modes, and constants. This is a standalone utility that can be run without TimesTen or Oracle being installed and runs on any platform supported by TimesTen. It reads source code files as input and creates HTML and text files as output. If the utility finds unsupported items, then they are logged and alternatives are suggested. You can find the ttSrcScan executable in the quickstart/sample_util directory in your TimesTen installation.

Specify an input file or directory for the program to be scanned and an output directory for the ttSrcScan reports. Other options are available as well. See the README file in the sample_util directory for information.

ODP.NET namespace and class support with TimesTen

This reference section documents support for ODP.NET namespaces and classes in a TimesTen environment.

ODP.NET implements the classes, enumerations, interfaces, delegates, and structures of the Oracle.DataAccess.Client and Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespaces. The Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace contains implementations of core ADO.NET classes, enumerations for ODP.NET, and ODP.NET-specific classes. The Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace provides classes, structures, and exceptions for Oracle native types that can be used with ODP.NET. See Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide for information about these namespaces beyond what is provided below. You must have access to them in your program as follows:

using Oracle.DataAccess.Client;
using Oracle.DataAccess.Types;

The following sections list TimesTen support for the ODP.NET classes, enumerations and types of the Oracle.DataAccess.Client and Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespaces that are documented for ODP.NET 11.2 releases:

- Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace support

- Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace support

Note:
When connecting to a TimesTen database from an ODP.NET application, your application can use only ODP.NET features that correspond to features that TimesTen supports. This is reflected in what is supported for the namespaces discussed here.
For example, you cannot use Oracle Streams Advanced Queueing because TimesTen does not support this feature. OracleException objects are thrown when attempting to use ODP.NET features that are not supported by TimesTen. These exceptions are based on corresponding TimesTen OCI error messages.

Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace support

The following tables list support for delegates, classes, and enumerations of the Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace.

Table 1 Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace delegate support

Delegate Name

Supported?

OnChangeEventHandler

No

OracleAQMessageAvailableEventHandler

No

OracleFailoverEventHandler

No

OracleHAEventHandler

No

OracleInfoMessageEventHandler

Yes

OracleRowsCopiedEventHandler

No

OracleRowUpdatedEventHandler

Yes

OracleRowUpdatingEventHandler

Yes

Table 2 Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace class support

Class Name

Supported?

Notes

OracleAQAgent

No

OracleAQDequeueOptions

No

OracleAQEnqueueOptions

No

OracleAQMessage

No

OracleAQMessageAvailableEventArgs

No

OracleAQQueue

No

OracleBulkCopy

No

OracleBulkCopyColumnMapping

No

OracleBulkCopyColumnMappingCollection

No

OracleClientFactory

Yes

OracleCommand

Yes

See "OracleCommand class support" for information about TimesTen support for properties and public methods of this class.

OracleCommandBuilder

Yes

OracleConnection

Yes

See "OracleConnection class support" for information about TimesTen support for properties and public methods of this class.

OracleConnectionStringBuilder

Yes

OracleDataAdapter

Yes

OracleDataReader

Yes

See "OracleDataReader class support" for information about TimesTen support for properties and public methods of this class.

OracleDataSourceEnumerator

Yes

OracleDependency

No

OracleError

Yes

OracleErrorCollection

Yes

OracleException

Yes

OracleFailoverEventArgs

No

OracleGlobalization

No

OracleHAEventArgs

No

OracleInfoMessageEventArgs

Yes

OracleNotificationEventArgs

No

OracleNotificationRequest

No

OracleParameter

Yes

OracleParameterCollection

Yes

OraclePermission

Yes

OraclePermissionAttribute

Yes

OracleRowsCopiedEventArgs

No

OracleRowUpdatedEventArgs

Yes

OracleRowUpdatingEventArgs

Yes

OracleTransaction

Yes

See "OracleTransaction class support" for information about TimesTen support for properties and public methods of this class.

OracleXmlQueryProperties

No

OracleXmlSaveProperties

No

Table 3 Oracle.DataAccess.Client namespace enumeration support

Enumeration Name

Supported?

FailoverEvent

No

FailoverReturnCode

No

FailoverType

No

OracleAQDequeueMode

No

OracleAQMessageDeliveryMode

No

OracleAQMessageState

No

OracleAQMessageType

No

OracleAQNavigationMode

No

OracleAQNotificationGroupingType

No

OracleAQNotificationType

No

OracleAQVisibilityMode

No

OracleBulkCopyOptions

No

OracleCollectionType

No

OracleDBShutdownMode

No

OracleDBStartupMode

No

OracleDbType

Yes

OracleHAEventSource

No

OracleHAEventStatus

No

OracleNotificationInfo

No

OracleNotificationSource

No

OracleNotificationType

No

OracleParameterStatus

Yes

OracleRowidInfo

No

OracleXmlCommandType

No

The rest of this section presents the following:

- OracleCommand class support

- OracleConnection class support

- OracleDataReader class support

- OracleTransaction class support

OracleCommand class support

The following tables list support for properties and methods of the OracleCommand class.

Table 4 OracleCommand class property support

Property Name

Supported?

AddRowid

No

AddToStatementCache

Yes

ArrayBindCount

Yes

BindByName

No

CommandText

Yes

CommandTimeout

No

CommandType

Yes

Connection

Yes

DesignTimeVisible

No

FetchSize

Yes

InitialLOBFetchSize

No

InitialLONGFetchSize

No

Notification

No

NotificationAutoEnlist

No

Parameters

Yes

RowSize

Yes

Transaction

Yes

UpdatedRowSource

Yes

XmlCommandType

No

XmlQueryProperties

No

XmlSaveProperties

No

Table 5 OracleCommand class method support

Method Name

Supported?

Cancel

No

Clone

Yes

CreateParameter

Yes

Dispose

Yes

ExecuteNonQuery

Yes

ExecuteReader

Yes

ExecuteScalar

Yes

ExecuteStream

No

ExecuteToStream

No

ExecuteXmlReader

No

OracleConnection class support

The following tables list support for properties and methods of the OracleConnection class.

Table 6 OracleConnection class property support

Property Name

Supported?

IsAvailable

No

ActionName

No

ClientId

No

ConnectionString

Yes

ConnectionTimeout

Yes

Database

No

DatabaseDomainName

No

DatabaseName

No

DataSource

Yes

HostName

No

InstanceName

No

ModuleName

No

ServerVersion

Yes

ServiceName

No

State

Yes

StatementCacheSize

Yes

Table 7 OracleConnection class method support

Method Name

Supported?

Notes

ClearPool

Yes

ClearAllPools

Yes

BeginTransaction

Yes

ChangeDatabase

No

Clone

Yes

Close

Yes

CreateCommand

Yes

EnlistDistributedTransaction

No

TimesTen does not support distributed transactions through OCI. Therefore, an ODP.NET application cannot use distributed transactions in a TimesTen connection.

EnlistTransaction

No

See EnlistDistributedTransaction.

FlushCache

No

GetSchema

Yes

Returns metadata collections of tables, columns, users, and other objects that allow application developers to discover and enumerate database information. This information is specific to TimesTen and may differ from corresponding metadata collections returned from Oracle Database. For example, TimesTen does not support the JavaClasses and XMLSchemas metadata collections because these object types are not supported by TimesTen.

GetSessionInfo

Yes

Open

Yes

OpenWithNewPassword

No

PurgeStatementCache

Yes

SetSessionInfo

No

OracleConnectionType, an enumeration and public OracleConnection class property, allows an ODP.NET application to determine whether a particular connection object is associated with a TimesTen database connection, an Oracle database connection, or no physical connection at all. The property has the following signature:

public OracleConnectionType ConnectionType

It returns one of the following values from the OracleConnectionType enumeration:

OracleConnectionType.Undefined: No connection is associated with the OracleConnection object

OracleConnectionType.Oracle: The OracleConnection object is associated with an Oracle database

OracleConnectionType.TimesTen: The OracleConnection object is associated with a TimesTen database

OracleDataReader class support

The following tables list support for properties and methods of the OracleDataReader class.

Table 8 OracleDataReader class property support

Property Name

Supported?

Depth

Yes

FetchSize

Yes

FieldCount

Yes

HasRows

Yes

HiddenFieldCount

Yes

IsClosed

Yes

Item

Yes

InitialLOBFetchSize

No

InitialLONGFetchSize

No

RecordsAffected

No

RowSize

Yes

VisibleFieldCount

Yes

Table 9 OracleDataReader class method support

Method Name

Supported?

Close

Yes

Dispose

Yes

GetBoolean

No

GetByte

Yes

GetBytes

Yes

GetChar

Yes

GetChars

Yes

GetDataTypeName

Yes

GetDateTime

Yes

GetDecimal

Yes

GetDouble

Yes

GetEnumerator

No

GetFieldType

Yes

GetFloat

Yes

GetGuid

No

GetInt16

Yes

GetInt32

Yes

GetInt64

Yes

GetName

Yes

GetOracleBFile

No

GetOracleBinary

Yes

GetOracleBlob

No

GetOracleBlobForUpdate

No

GetOracleClob

No

GetOracleClobForUpdate

No

GetOracleDate

Yes

GetOracleDecimal

Yes

GetOracleIntervalDS

No

GetOracleIntervalYM

No

GetOracleRef

No

GetOracleString

Yes

GetOracleTimeStamp

Yes

GetOracleTimeStampLTZ

No

GetOracleTimeStampTZ

No

GetOracleXmlType

No

GetOracleValue

Yes

GetOracleValues

Yes

GetOrdinal

Yes

GetProviderSpecificFieldType

Yes

GetProviderSpecificValue

Yes

GetProviderSpecificValues

Yes

GetSchemaTable

Yes

GetString

Yes

GetTimeSpan

No

GetValue

Yes

GetValues

Yes

GetXmlReader

No

IsDBNull

Yes

NextResult

No

Read

Yes

OracleTransaction class support

The following tables list support for properties and methods of the OracleTransaction class.

Table 10 OracleTransaction class property support

Property Name

Supported?

IsolationLevel

Yes

Connection

Yes

Table 11 OracleTransaction class method support

Class Name

Supported?

Notes

Commit

Yes

Dispose

Yes

Rollback

Yes

Rollback (string)

No

TimesTen does not support transaction savepoints.

Save

No

TimesTen does not support transaction savepoints.

Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace support

The following tables list support for structures, exceptions, classes, interfaces, and enumerations of the Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace.

Table 12 Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace structure support

Structure Name

Supported?

OracleBinary

Yes

OracleDate

Yes

OracleDecimal

Yes

OracleIntervalDS

No

OracleIntervalYM

No

OracleString

Yes

OracleTimeStamp

Yes

OracleTimeStampLTZ

No

OracleTimeStampTZ

No

Table 13 Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace exception support

Class Name

Supported?

OracleTypeException

Yes

OracleNullValueException

Yes

OracleTruncateException

Yes

Table 14 Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace class support

Class Name

Supported?

OracleArrayMappingAttribute

No

OracleBFile

No

OracleBlob

No

OracleClob

No

OracleCustomTypeMappingAttribute

No

OracleObjectMappingAttribute

No

OracleRef

No

OracleRefCursor

Yes

OracleUdt

No

OracleXmlStream

No

OracleXmlType

No

Table 15 Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace interface support

Interface Name

Supported?

IOracleArrayTypeFactory

No

OracleCustomType

No

IOracleCustomTypeFactory

No

INullable

Yes

Table 16 Oracle.DataAccess.Types namespace enumeration support

Enumeration Name

Supported?

OracleUdtFetchOption

No

OracleUdtStatus

No

Documentation Accessibility

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info or visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs if you are hearing impaired.

Oracle Data Provider for .NET Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Support User's Guide, 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Windows

E21641-02

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