OCI8

&reftitle.intro; These functions allow you to access Oracle 10, Oracle 9, Oracle 8 and Oracle 7 databases using the Oracle Call Interface (OCI). They support binding of PHP variables to Oracle placeholders, have full LOB, FILE and ROWID support, and allow you to use user-supplied define variables.

&reftitle.required; You will need the Oracle client libraries to use this extension. Windows users will need at least Oracle version 8.1 to use the php_oci8.dll dll. The most convenient way to install all the required files is to use Oracle Instant Client, which is available from here: &url.oracle.instant.client;. Instant Client does not need ORACLE_SID or ORACLE_HOME environment variables set. You still may need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and NLS_LANG, though. 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. These variables should be set up before you start your web-server. The variables you might need to set are as follows: ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_SID LD_PRELOAD LD_LIBRARY_PATH NLS_LANG For less frequently used Oracle environment variables such as TNS_ADMIN, TWO_TASK, ORA_TZFILE, and the various Oracle globalization settings like ORA_NLS33, ORA_NLS10 and the NLS_* variables refer to Oracle documentation. After setting up the environment variables for your webserver user, be sure to also add the webserver user (nobody, www) to the oracle group. Check that Apache is linked with the pthread library: /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) ]]> If the libpthread is not listed you have to reinstall Apache: 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.

&reference.oci8.ini; &reference.oci8.constants;

&reftitle.examples; '; while ($row = oci_fetch_array($stid, OCI_RETURN_NULLS)) { print ''; foreach ($row as $item) { print ''.($item?htmlentities($item):' ').''; } print ''; } print ''; oci_close($conn); ?> ]]> ]]> save("A very long string"); oci_commit($conn); // Fetching CLOB data $query = 'SELECT myclob FROM mytable WHERE mykey = :mykey'; $stid = oci_parse ($conn, $query); oci_bind_by_name($stid, ":mykey", $mykey, 5); oci_execute($stid, OCI_DEFAULT); print ''; while ($row = oci_fetch_array($stid, OCI_ASSOC)) { $result = $row['MYCLOB']->load(); print ''; } print '

'.$result.'

'; ?> ]]> You can easily access stored procedures in the same way as you would from the command line. ]]>

The oci8 extension provides you with 3 different functions for connecting to Oracle. It is up to you to use the most appropriate function for your application, and the information in this section is intended to help you make an informed choice. Connecting to an Oracle server is a reasonably expensive operation, in terms of the time that it takes to complete. The oci_pconnect function uses a persistent cache of connections that can be re-used across different script requests. This means that you will typically only incur the connection overhead once per php process (or apache child). If your application connects to Oracle using a different set of credentials for each web user, the persistent cache employed by oci_pconnect will become less useful as the number of concurrent users increases, to the point where it may start to adversely affect the overall performance of your Oracle server due to maintaining too many idle connections. If your application is structured in this way, it is recommended that you either tune your application using the oci8.max_persistent and oci8.persistent_timeout configuration settings (these will give you control over the persistent connection cache size and lifetime) or use oci_connect instead. Both oci_connect and oci_pconnect employ a connection cache; if you make multiple calls to oci_connect, using the same parameters, in a given script, the second and subsequent calls return return the existing connection handle. The cache used by oci_connect is cleaned up at the end of the script run, or when you explicitly close the connection handle. oci_pconnect has similar behaviour, although its cache is maintained separately and survives between requests. This caching feature is important to remember, because it gives the appearance that the two handles are not transactionally isolated (they are in fact the same connection handle, so there is no isolation of any kind). If your application needs two separate, transactionally isolated connections, you should use oci_new_connect. oci_new_connect always creates a new connection to the Oracle server, regardless of what other connections might already exist. High traffic web applications should try to avoid using oci_new_connect, especially in the busiest sections of the application.

Type Mapping SQLT_NTY Maps a native collection type from a PHP collection object, such as those created by oci_new_collection. SQLT_BFILEE Maps a native descriptor, such as those created by oci_new_descriptor. SQLT_CFILEE Maps a native descriptor, such as those created by oci_new_descriptor. SQLT_CLOB Maps a native descriptor, such as those created by oci_new_descriptor. SQLT_BLOB Maps a native descriptor, such as those created by oci_new_descriptor. SQLT_RDD Maps a native descriptor, such as those created by oci_new_descriptor. SQLT_NUM Converts the PHP parameter to a 'C' long type, and binds to that value. SQLT_RSET Maps a native statement handle, such as those created by oci_parse or those retrieved from other OCI queries. SQLT_CHR and any other type Converts the PHP parameter to a string type and binds as a string. Type Mapping SQLT_RSET Creates an oci statement resource to represent the the cursor. SQLT_RDD Creates a ROWID object. SQLT_BLOB Creates a LOB object. SQLT_CLOB Creates a LOB object. SQLT_BFILE Creates a LOB object. SQLT_LNG Bound as SQLT_CHR, returned as a string SQLT_LBI Bound as SQLT_BIN, returned as a string Any other type Bound as SQLT_CHR, returned as a string

&reference.oci8.functions;