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 <reference id="ref.oci8">
  <title>Oracle 8 functions</title>
  <titleabbrev>OCI8</titleabbrev>

  <partintro>
   <section id="oci8.intro">
    &reftitle.intro;
    <para>
     These functions allow you to access Oracle9, Oracle8 and Oracle7 databases.
     It uses the Oracle Call Interface (OCI).
    </para>
    <para>
     This extension is more flexible than the
     <link linkend="ref.oracle">old Oracle</link>
     extension. It supports binding of global and local PHP variables
     to Oracle placeholders, has full LOB, FILE and ROWID support
     and allows you to use user-supplied define variables.
     You are recommended to use this extension instead of
     <link linkend="ref.oracle">old Oracle</link> extension where
     possible.
    </para>
   </section>

   <section id="oci8.requirements">
    &reftitle.required;
   <para>
    You will need the Oracle client libraries to use this extension.
    Windows users will need at least Oracle version 8.1 to use the 
    <filename>php_oci8.dll</filename> dll.
   </para>
   <para>
    Before using this extension, make sure that you have set up your
    Oracle environment variables properly for the Oracle user, as well
    as your web daemon user. The variables you might need to set are as
    follows:
    <itemizedlist>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       ORACLE_HOME
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       ORACLE_SID
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       LD_PRELOAD
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       LD_LIBRARY_PATH
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       NLS_LANG
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
      <simpara>
       ORA_NLS33
      </simpara>
     </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
   </para>
   <para>
    After setting up the environment variables for your webserver user,
    be sure to also add the webserver user (nobody, www) to the oracle
    group.
   </para>
   <note>
    <title>If your webserver doesn't start or crashes at startup</title>
    <para>
     Check that Apache is linked with the pthread library: 
    </para>
    <para>
     <informalexample>
      <screen>
<![CDATA[
# ldd /www/apache/bin/httpd 
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x4001c000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4002f000)
    libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x4004c000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4007a000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4007e000)
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
]]>
      </screen>
     </informalexample>
    </para>
    <para>
     If the libpthread is not listed you have to reinstall Apache:
    </para>
    <para>
     <informalexample>
      <screen>
<![CDATA[
# cd /usr/src/apache_1.3.xx
# make clean
# LIBS=-lpthread ./config.status
# make
# make install
]]>
      </screen>
     </informalexample>
    </para>
    <para>
      Please note that on some systems like UnixWare it is libthread 
      instead of libpthread. PHP and Apache have to be configured 
      with EXTRA_LIBS=-lthread.
    </para>
   </note>
   </section>

   &reference.oci8.configure;

   <section id="oci8.configuration">
    &reftitle.runtime;
    &no.config;
   </section>

   <section id="oci8.resources">
    &reftitle.resources;
    <para>
    </para>
   </section>

   &reference.oci8.constants;

   <section id="oci8.examples">
   &reftitle.examples;
    <para>
    <example>
     <title>OCI Hints</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
// by sergo at bacup dot ru

// Use option: OCI_DEFAULT for execute command to delay execution
OCIExecute($stmt, OCI_DEFAULT);

// for retrieve data use (after fetch):

$result = OCIResult($stmt, $n);
if (is_object($result)) $result = $result->load();

// For INSERT or UPDATE statement use:

$sql = "insert into table (field1, field2) values (field1 = 'value',
 field2 = empty_clob()) returning field2 into :field2";
OCIParse($conn, $sql);
$clob = OCINewDescriptor($conn, OCI_D_LOB);
OCIBindByName($stmt, ":field2", &$clob, -1, OCI_B_CLOB);
OCIExecute($stmt, OCI_DEFAULT);
$clob->save("some text");
OCICommit($conn);

?>
]]>
     </programlisting>
    </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     You can easily access stored procedures in the same way as you
     would from the commands line.
    <example>
     <title>Using Stored Procedures</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
// by webmaster at remoterealty dot com
$sth = OCIParse($dbh, "begin sp_newaddress( :address_id, '$firstname',
 '$lastname', '$company', '$address1', '$address2', '$city', '$state',
 '$postalcode', '$country', :error_code );end;");

// This calls stored procedure sp_newaddress, with :address_id being an
// in/out variable and :error_code being an out variable. 
// Then you do the binding:

   OCIBindByName($sth, ":address_id", $addr_id, 10);
   OCIBindByName($sth, ":error_code", $errorcode, 10);
   OCIExecute($sth);

?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
    </example>
    </para>
   </section>

  </partintro>

&reference.oci8.functions;

 </reference>
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