Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

The following are changes in Oracle Database Development Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2):

New Features

Dropping an edition has been enhanced to postpone dropping each editioned object it contains until after the object is no longer inherited by a usable descendent edition.
See : Dropping an Edition
The PL/SQL Basic Block Coverage feature helps you insure some quality predictability and consistency by assessing how well your tests actually test your code. See : Using PL/SQL Basic Block Coverage to Maintain Quality
PL/Scope reports on SQL Identifier and Statement metadata for SQL statements, tables, views and sequences appearing in PL/SQL source code.
See : Using PL/Scope
PL/SQL DEPRECATE pragma, See: Deprecating Packages, Subprograms, and Types
Sharding is the ability to partition data horizontally across independent databases. Each database in this configuration is called a shard. All the shards together make up a single logical database that is called a sharded database. See : Oracle Database Administrator’s Guide for more information about developing applications in a sharded database.
Added new MAX_TXN_THINK_TIME parameter to configure DRCP. See Configuring DRCP for more information.
Support for sharing proxy sessions in DRCP with other applications. See Sharing Proxy Sessions for more information.
Support for shared connections in both PDB and non-PDB environments using DRCP. See About Database Resident Connection Pool for more information.
Support for receiving FAN event notifications. See About Receiving FAN Event Notifications for more information.
Transaction Guard support for Oracle XA Transactions. See Using Transaction Guard for more information about Transaction Guard.

Deprecated Features

List of deprecated features in Oracle® Database SecureFiles and Large Objects 12c, Release 2 (12.2)

The following features are deprecated in this release, and may be desupported in a future release:

Oracle SQL Extensions (oracle.sql.*) are deprecated in favor of standard Java classes or oracle.jdbc extension types.
The DBMS_DEBUG package is deprecated. Use DBMS_DEBUG_JDWP package instead.
See Debugging PL/SQL and Java for more information.

Security Update for Native Encryption

Oracle provides a patch that you can download to address necessary security enhancements that affect native network encryption environments in Oracle Database release 11.2 and later.

This patch is available in My Oracle Support note 2118136.2.

The supported algorithms that have been improved are as follows:

Encryption algorithms: AES128, AES192 and AES256
Checksumming algorithms: SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512

Algorithms that are deprecated and should not be used are as follows:

Encryption algorithms: DES, DES40, 3DES112, 3DES168, RC4_40, RC4_56, RC4_128, and RC4_256
Checksumming algorithm: MD5

If your site requires the use of network native encryption, then you must download the patch that is described in My Oracle Support note 2118136.2. To enable a smooth transition for your Oracle Database installation, this patch provides two parameters that enable you to disable the weaker algorithms and start using the stronger algorithms. You will need to install this patch on both servers and clients in your Oracle Database installation.

An alternative to network native encryption is Transport Layer Security (TLS), which provides protection against person-in-the-middle attacks.