Introduced in Oracle8i Release 2, the Oracle Provider for OLE DB gives ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) developers high performance and efficient access to Oracle databases. Because it is a native OLE DB provider, it offers data access optimizations and access to Oracle-specific database features, such as support for LOBs, PL/SQL stored procedures, and REF CURSORs. All these Oracle features and data access optimizations are generally not available in other third-party Oracle OLE DB providers. By adhering closely to the latest Microsoft OLE DB specification, the Oracle provider allows ADO developers to take full advantage of OLE DB without having to sacrifice use of Oracle database functionality.

Oracle7, Oracle8, and Oracle8i database servers can all be used in conjunction with the Oracle OLE DB provider.The latest features in the Oracle8i Release 3 OLE DB provider are highlighted in this paper.

The Oracle Provider for OLE DB was built to improve data access performance and reliability for ADO developers. It enhances performance by using direct Oracle8 Call Interface (OCI) connections, rather than utilizing ODBC as a bridge to OCI. Figure 1 demonstrates typical data access using the OLE DB-ODBC Bridge.

Figure 2 shows data access using the Oracle provider.

Oracle's data access strategy has been built to handle the high-volume, high-load of Internet application environments. The Oracle Provider for OLE DB leverages Oracle's proven Internet infrastructure to ensure a highly reliable, fast-performing and secure data access.

• Scrollable and updateable rowsets
• ANSI SQL supported by Oracle and the ODBC SQL syntax
• OS authentication, which allows Oracle to authorize users via the operating system's security mechanisms
• Several schema rowsets
• Updateable rowsets created using joins (available with the client cursor engine)
• Transactions support
  • Local and distributed transactions which provide explicit, commit, and abort
  • Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS)-coordinated transactions
  • Autonomous transactions
• Database links support
• Unicode support

• PL/SQL stored procedures/functions
  • Stored procedures/functions returning a rowset
  • Non-Packaged stored procedures/functions retuning rowset support
• LOBs (LONG, LONG RAW, BLOB, CLOB, NCLOB, and BFILE)
• Oracle8i Password Expiration feature

New Features in Oracle8i Release 3

New features in the latest OLE DB Provider include:

The Oracle Provider for OLE DB provides high performance and reliable access to Oracle databases for ADO- or OLE DB-enabled applications. Current ADO and OLE DB programmers should be able to easily migrate to the Oracle provider since it complies with the latest OLE DB and ADO specifications and allows access to Oracle-specific features.