Oracle.ManagedDataAccess Nuget Package Version 12.1.2400 README
===============================================================

Release 12.1.2400 for ODAC 12c Release 4

Release Notes: Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver

October 2015

Copyright (c) Oracle Corporation 2015

This document provides information that supplements the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) documentation. 
You have downloaded Oracle Data Provider for .NET from Oracle, the license agreement to which is available at 
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/licenses/distribution-license-152002.html

TABLE OF CONTENTS
*New Features
*Installation and Configuration Steps
*Installation Changes
*Documentation Corrections and Additions
*Fixed Bugs Since Last ODP.NET NuGet Release
*ODP.NET, Managed Driver Tips, Limitations, and Known Issues

Note: The 32-bit "Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio" download from http://otn.oracle.com/dotnet is 
required for Entity Framework design-time features and for other Visual Studio designers such as the 
TableAdapter Wizard. This NuGet download does not enable design-time tools; it only provides run-time support. 
This version of ODP.NET supports Oracle Database version 10.2 and higher.



New Features since Oracle.ManagedDataAccess Nuget Package Version 12.1.022
==========================================================================
1. .NET Framework 4.6 Certification
ODP.NET, Managed Driver is certified for .NET Framework 4.6.

2. Network Data Encryption
ODP.NET, Managed Driver supports database security network data encryption using Advanced Encryption Standard 
(AES), RC4, or Triple-DES to enable more secure database communication over intranet and cloud access.

3. Secure External Password Store
ODP.NET, Managed Driver supports connection establishment by retrieving password credentials from a client-side 
Oracle wallet.

4. Service Relocation Connection Timeout
Whenever a database service becomes unavailable, an application can encounter numerous connectivity errors. 
To avoid connection attempts to an unavailable service, ODP.NET, Managed Driver blocks any connection attempts 
until the service is up or until the configured time limit expires from the time when the service DOWN event 
was received. This feature is useful for planned outages and service relocations. It works with Oracle RAC and 
Oracle Data Guard.

5. Transaction Guard
ODP.NET, Managed Driver now supports Transaction Guard. Its API and architecture are the same as ODP.NET, 
Unmanaged Driver's in ODAC 12c Release 4 to provide improved developer productivity.

6. Tracing Enhancements
ODP.NET improves and unifies tracing features between managed and unmanaged ODP.NET. Key features include traces 
now output to a Windows temporary files directory and both providers use the same tracing parameters.



Installation and Configuration Steps
====================================
The downloads are NuGet packages that can be installed with the NuGet Package Manager. These instructions apply 
to install ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

1. Un-GAC and un-configure any existing assembly (i.e. Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll) and policy DLL 
(i.e. Policy.4.121.Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll) for the ODP.NET, Managed Driver, version 12.1.0.2
that exist in the GAC.

2. In Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, or 2015 open NuGet Package Manager from an existing Visual Studio project. 

3. Install the NuGet package from an OTN-downloaded local package source or from nuget.org.


   From Local Package Source
   -------------------------
   A. Click on the Settings button in the lower left of the dialog box.

   B. Click the "+" button to add a package source. In the Source field, enter in the directory location where the 
   NuGet package(s) were downloaded to. Click the Update button, then the Ok button.

   C. On the left side, under the Online root node, select the package source you just created. The ODP.NET NuGet 
   packages will appear.


   From Nuget.org
   --------------
   A. In the Search box in the upper right, search for the package with id, "Oracle.ManagedDataAccess". Verify 
   that the package uses this unique ID to ensure it is the offical Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver 
   download.

   B. Select the package you wish to install.


4. Click on the Install button to select the desired NuGet package(s) to include with the project. Accept the 
license agreement and Visual Studio will continue the setup.

5. Open the app/web.config file to configure the ODP.NET connection string and local naming parameters 
(i.e. tnsnames.ora). Below is an example of configuring the local naming parameters:

  <oracle.manageddataaccess.client>
    <version number="*">
      <dataSources>
        <!-- Customize these connection alias settings to connect to Oracle DB -->
        <dataSource alias="MyDataSource" descriptor="(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=ORCL))) " />
      </dataSources>
    </version>
  </oracle.manageddataaccess.client>

After following these instructions, ODP.NET is now configured and ready to use.

NOTE: ODP.NET, Managed Driver comes with two platform specific assemblies:

        i.  Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll (for Distributed Transaction Support)
        ii. Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll (for Kerberos Support)

The Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll assembly is ONLY needed if you are using Distributed Trasactions and the 
.NET Framework being used is 4.5.1 or lower. If you are using .NET Framework 4.5.2 or higher, this assembly does 
not need to be referenced by your application.

The Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll assembly is ONLY needed if you are using Kerberos. Kerberos users will need 
to download MIT Kerberos for Windows 4.0.1 or higher from 
  http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/dist/ 
to utilize ODP.NET, Managed Driver's support of Kerberos.

These asssemblies are located under
      packages\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>\bin\x64
and
      packages\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>\bin\x86
depending on the platform.

If these assemblies are required by your application, your Visual Studio project requires additional changes.

Use the following steps for your application to use the 64-bit version of Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll:

1. Right click on the Visual Studio project.
2. Select Add -> New Folder
3. Name the folder x64.
4. Right click on the newly created x64 folder
5. Select Add -> Existing Item
6. Browse to packages\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>\bin\x64 under your project solution directory.
7. Choose Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll
8. Click the 'Add' button
9. Left click the newly added Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll in the x64 folder
10. In the properties window, set 'Copy To Output Directory' to 'Copy Always'.

For x86 targeted applications, name the folder x86 and add assemblies from the 
packages\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>\bin\x86 folder.

Use the same steps for adding Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll.

To make your application platform independent even if it depends on Oracle.ManagedDataAccessDTC.dll and/or 
Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll, create both x64 and x86 folders with the necessary assemblies added to them.



Installation Changes
====================
The following app/web.config entries are added by including the "Official Oracle ODP.NET, Managed Driver" NuGet package 
to your application:

1) Configuration Section Handler

The following entry is added to the app/web.config to enable applications to add an <oracle.manageddataaccess.client> 
section for ODP.NET, Managed Driver-specific configuration:

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="oracle.manageddataaccess.client" type="OracleInternal.Common.ODPMSectionHandler, Oracle.ManagedDataAccess, Version=4.121.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342" />
  </configSections>
</configuration>

Note: If your application is a web application and the above entry was added to a web.config and the same config 
section handler for "oracle.manageddataaccess.client" also exists in machine.config but the "Version" attribute values 
are different, an error message of "There is a duplicate 'oracle.manageddataaccess.client' section defined." may be 
observed at runtime.  If so, the config section handler entry in the machine.config for 
"oracle.manageddataaccess.client" has to be removed from the machine.config for the web application to not encounter 
this error.  But given that there may be other applications on the machine that depended on this entry in the 
machine.config, this config section handler entry may need to be moved to all of the application's .NET config file on 
that machine that depend on it.

2) DbProviderFactories

The following entry is added for applications that use DbProviderFactories and DbProviderFactory classes. Also, any 
DbProviderFactories entry for "Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client" in the machine.config will be ignored with the following 
entry:

<configuration>
  <system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
      <remove invariant="Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client" />
      <add name="ODP.NET, Managed Driver" invariant="Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client" description="Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver" type="Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client.OracleClientFactory, Oracle.ManagedDataAccess, Version=4.121.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342" />
    </DbProviderFactories>
  </system.data>
</configuration>

3) Dependent Assembly

The following entry is created to ignore policy DLLs for Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll and always use the 
Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll version that is specified by the newVersion attribute in the <bindingRedirect> element.  
The newVersion attribute corresponds to the Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll version which came with the NuGet package 
associated with the application.

<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <publisherPolicy apply="no" />
        <assemblyIdentity name="Oracle.ManagedDataAccess" publicKeyToken="89b483f429c47342" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.121.0.0 - 4.65535.65535.65535" newVersion="4.121.2.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

4) Data Sources

The following entry is added to provide a template on how a data source can be configured in the app/web.config. 
Simply rename "MyDataSource" to an alias of your liking and modify the PROTOCOL, HOST, PORT, SERVICE_NAME as required 
and un-comment the <dataSource> element. Once that is done, the alias can be used as the "data source" attribute in 
your connection string when connecting to an Oracle Database through ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

<configuration>
  <oracle.manageddataaccess.client>
    <version number="*">
      <dataSources>
        <dataSource alias="SampleDataSource" descriptor="(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=ORCL))) " />
      </dataSources>
    </version>
  </oracle.manageddataaccess.client>
</configuration>



Documentation Corrections and Additions
=======================================
This section contains information that corrects or adds to existing ODP.NET documentation, which can be found here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/dotnet/tech-info/index.html

1. ODP.NET Entity Framework Database First and Model First applications using Entity Framework 6 requires .NET 
Framework 4.5 or higher.

2. All Oracle database clients support interrupting database query execution, such as through an ODP.NET command 
timeout. The database server can be interrupted via either TCP/IP urgent data or normal TCP/IP data, called out of band 
(OOB) or in band data, respectively. Windows-based database servers only support in band breaks, whereas all other 
(predominantly UNIX-based) database servers can support OOB or in band breaks. ODP.NET, Managed Driver uses OOB breaks 
by default with database servers that support it. For certain network topologies, the routers or firewalls involved in 
the route to the database may have been configured to drop urgent data or in band the data. If the routers or firewalls 
can not be changed to handle urgent data appropriately, then the ODP.NET, Managed Driver can be configured to utilize 
in band breaks by setting the .NET configuration parameter disable_oob to "on". The default value for disable_oob is 
"off". disable_oob can be set in the <settings> of the .NET config file for <oracle.manageddataaccess.client>. As with 
all ODP.NET, Managed Driver settings, disable_oob can be set in either the .NET config or sqlnet.ora files, whereas it 
can only be set for ODP.NET, Unmanaged Driver in the sqlnet.ora file.



ODP.NET, Managed Driver Tips, Limitations, and Known Issues
===========================================================
This section contains information that is specific to ODP.NET, Managed Driver. 

1. OracleConnection object's OpenWithNewPassword() method invocation will result in an ORA-1017 error with 11.2.0.3.0 
and earlier versions of the database. [Bug 12876992]

2. Stored functions/procedures in a PDB cannot be added to a .NET Entity Framework model. [Bug 17344899]