MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide
This section highlights substantial changes per major Connector/ODBC release series, especially useful when updating legacy code. The connector release model changed after version 8.0, and now releases one version. The latest Connector/ODBC version supports all active MySQL Server versions.
Information about each Connector/ODBC version; for release notes, see the Connector/ODBC release notes.
Connector/ODBC 8.x: 8.1.0 is the first GA release version that supersedes the 8.0 series. MySQL connector releases use the latest Innovation release number. For example, when MySQL Server released versions 5.7.43, 8.0.34, and 8.1.0, this connector released connector version (8.1.0) that connects to all three MySQL Server versions.
This is the first series without 32-bit support, which ended for all MySQL products.
Connector/ODBC 8.0: added MySQL Server 8.0 support, including caching_sha2_password and the related GET_SERVER_PUBLIC_KEY connection attribute.
As of 8.0.35, 32-bit Connector/ODBC builds exist for Windows. The 8.0 series no longer includes new functionality but it does contain bug fixes. You're encouraged to use the latest Connector/ODBC version and not the 8.0 series if you do not need 32-bit builds.
Connector/ODBC 5.3: functions with MySQL Server versions between 4.1 and 5.7. It does not work with 4.0 or earlier releases, and does not support all MySQL 8 features. It conforms to the ODBC 3.8 specification and contains key ODBC 3.8 features including self-identification as a ODBC 3.8 driver, streaming of output parameters (supported for binary types only), and support of the SQL_ATTR_RESET_CONNECTION connection attribute (for the Unicode driver only). Connector/ODBC 5.3 also introduces a GTK+-based setup library, providing GUI DSN setup dialog on some Unix-based systems. The library is currently included in the Oracle Linux 6 and Debian 6 binary packages. Other new features in the 5.3 series include file DSN and bookmark support.
Connector/ODBC 5.3.11 added caching_sha2_password support by adding the GET_SERVER_PUBLIC_KEY connection attribute.
Connector/ODBC 5.2: upgrades the ANSI driver of Connector/ODBC 3.51 to the 5.x code base. It also includes new features, such as enabling server-side prepared statements by default. At installation time, you can choose the Unicode driver for the broadest compatibility with data sources using various character sets, or the ANSI driver for optimal performance with a more limited range of character sets. It works with MySQL versions 4.1 to 5.7.
Connector/ODBC 5.1: is a partial rewrite of the of the 3.51 code base, and is designed to work with MySQL versions 4.1 to 5.7.
Connector/ODBC 5.1: also includes the following changes and improvements over the 3.51 release:
Improved support on Windows 64-bit platforms.
Full Unicode support at the driver level. This includes
support for the SQL_WCHAR data type,
and support for Unicode login, password and DSN
configurations. For more information, see
Microsoft
Knowledgebase Article #716246.
Support for the SQL_NUMERIC_STRUCT
data type, which provides easier access to the precise
definition of numeric values. For more information, see
Microsoft
Knowledgebase Article #714556
Native Windows setup library. This replaces the Qt library based interface for configuring DSN information within the ODBC Data Sources application.
Support for the ODBC descriptor, which improves the handling and metadata of columns and parameter data. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article #716339.
Connector/ODBC 3.51, also known as the MySQL ODBC 3.51 driver, is a 32-bit ODBC driver. Connector/ODBC 3.51 has support for ODBC 3.5x specification level 1 (complete core API + level 2 features) to continue to provide all functionality of ODBC for accessing MySQL.
The manual for versions of Connector/ODBC older than 5.3 can be located in the corresponding binary or source distribution.
Versions of Connector/ODBC earlier than the 3.51 revision were not fully compliant with the ODBC specification.
From this section onward, the primary focus of this guide is the Connector/ODBC 5.3 driver.
Version numbers for MySQL products are formatted as X.X.X. However, Windows tools (Control Panel, properties display) may show the version numbers as XX.XX.XX. For example, the official MySQL formatted version number 5.0.9 may be displayed by Windows tools as 5.00.09. The two versions are the same; only the number display formats are different.