Changes in This Release for Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference

This preface contains:

• Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

The following are changes in Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2).

• New Features

• Deprecated Features

• Desupported Features

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

• Data Guard Database Compare

  The new DBMS_DBCOMP package lets you perform block comparison to detect lost writes or database inconsistencies between a primary database and one or more physical standby databases.

  See DBMS_DBCOMP

• Enhanced Java Debug Wire Protocol

  See DBMS_DEBUG_JDWP and DBMS_DEBUG_JDWP_CUSTOM

• Enhanced support for unified auditing, fine-grained auditing, and Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) column encryption for the creation of transparent sensitive data protection policies.

  See DBMS_TSDP_PROTECT

• New package to perform Oracle File System operations (make, mount, and unmount)

  See DBMS_FS

• New package to manage foreground prespawned processes.

  See DBMS_PROCESS

• New package to identify interconnected databases and trace the system change number (SCN) flow across distributed databases.

  See DBMS_TNS

• New DBMS_HADOOP package that provides a PL/SQL procedure called CREATE_EXTDDL_FOR_HIVE(), that creates an Oracle external table for a given hive table.

  See DBMS_HADOOP

• New DBMS_HANG_MANAGER package provides a method of changing some Hang Manager configuration parameters.

  See DBMS_HANG_MANAGER

• New package to validate data in tables used by analytic views and hierarchies.

  See DBMS_HIERARCHY

• New DBMS_JSON package provides an interface for data-guide operations.

  See DBMS_JSON

• New package to format the output of queries to the DBA_FGA_AUDIT_TRAIL, DBA_AUDIT_TRAIL, UNIFIED_AUDIT_TRAIL, and V$XML_AUDIT_TRAILauditing views

  See DBMS_AUDIT_UTIL

• New DBMS_INMEMORYADMIN package to manage In-Memory FastStart (IM FastStart)

  See DBMS_INMEMORY_ADMIN

• New DBMS_PDB_ALTER_SHARING

  See DBMS_PDB_ALTER_SHARING

• Error Handling Improvements for Oracle GoldenGate Integrated Replication

  See DBMS_APPLY_ADM

  Materialized Views: Refresh Statistics History

  See DBMS_MVIEW_STATS

• Enhancements for DBMS_DATA_MINING package

  The following new algorithm settings are added:

  • DBMS_DATA_MINING — Algorithm Settings: ALGO_EXTENSIBLE_LANG

  • DBMS_DATA_MINING — Algorithm Settings: Explicit Semantic Analysis

  New procedures to support partitioned models are added:

  • ADD_PARTITION Procedure

  • COMPUTE_CONFUSION_MATRIX_PART Procedure

  • COMPUTE_LIFT_PART Procedure

  • COMPUTE_ROC_PART Procedure

  • CREATE_MODEL2 Procedure

  • DROP_PARTITION Procedure

• Enhancements to the DBMS_DST package:

  See FIND_AFFECTED_TABLES Procedure (new parameter: parallel)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_LOB package:

  See

  • ISREMOTE Function (new)

  • CLOB2FILE Procedure (this procedure is removed from the DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR package and added to the DBMS_LOB package)

  The transfer of the DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR subprogram CLOB2FILE to the DBMS_LOB package.

• New DBMS_PLSQL_CODE_COVERAGE package to collect PL/SQL Basic Block Coverage data

  See DBMS_PLSQL_CODE_COVERAGE

• New Oracle Multimedia packages

  See

  • ORD_AUDIO

  • ORD_DOC

  • ORD_IMAGE

  • ORD_VIDEO

• New SDO_NFE package

  See SDO_NFE

• The following enhancements for the DBMS_REDACT package:

  Addition of the DBMS_REDACT.NULLIFY function to create or alter Data Redaction policies that return null values, using DBMS_REDACT.ADD_POLICY or DBMS_REDACT.ALTER_POLICY. Also, the expression parameter for these procedures supports more functions.

  See

  • ADD_POLICY Procedure

  • ALTER_POLICY Procedure

  New procedures to support the management of named policy expressions:

  See

  • CREATE_POLICY_EXPRESSION Procedure

  • APPLY_POLICY_EXPR_TO_COL Procedure

  • UPDATE_POLICY_EXPRESSION Procedure

  • DROP_POLICY_EXPRESSION Procedure

• Enhancements to the DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE package, to enable you to create a capture run to define the period of time during which a privilege capture takes place:

  See

  • CAPTURE_DEPENDENCY_PRIVS Procedure (new)

  • ENABLE_CAPTURE Procedure (updated)

  • DELETE_RUN Procedure (new)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_SERVICE package:

  See

  • CREATE_SERVICE Procedure (new parameters: FAILOVER_RESTORE, DRAIN_TIMEOUT, and STOP_OPTION)

  • MODIFY_SERVICE Procedure (new parameters: DRAIN_TIMEOUT, FAILOVER_RESTORE, and STOP_OPTION)

  • STOP_SERVICE Procedure (new parameters: DRAIN_TIMEOUT and STOP_OPTION)

  • DBMS_SERVICE new constants (FAILOVER_RESTORE_NONE, FAILOVER_RESTORE_BASIC, STOP_OPTION_NONE, STOP_OPTION_IMMEDIATE, and STOP_OPTION_TRANSACTIONAL)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_SPM package:

  See

  • CONFIGURE Procedure (new)

  • LOAD_PLANS_FROM_AWR Function

    (new)

  • SET_EVOLVE_TASK_PARAMETER Procedure (new parameter FIND_ALTERNATE_PLANS added to the procedure)

• The DBMS_SQL package has been enhanced to support more bind variable types. The DESC_REC4 RECORD Type and DESC_TAB4 TABLE Type are introduced to support longer identifiers.

  See

  • BIND_VARIABLE Procedures

  • VARIABLE_VALUE Procedures

  • BIND_VARIABLE_PKG Procedure(new)

  • VARIABLE_VALUE_PKG Procedure(new)

  • DBMS_SQL DESC_REC4 Record Type (new)

  • DBMS_SQL DESC_TAB4 Table Type (new)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_SQLDIAG package:

  See CREATE_SQL_PATCH Function

• Enhancements to the DBMS_SQLPA package:

  See SET_ANALYSIS_TASK_PARAMETER Procedures (new parameters: EXECUTE_TRIGGERS, NUM_ROWS_TO_FETCH, and REPLACE_SYSDATE_WITH)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_XDB_CONFIG package, to enable you to get and set remote HTTP and HTTPS port values, and to enable a global port value.

  See

  • GETREMOTEHTTPPORT Function (new)

  • GETREMOTEHTTPSPORT Function (new)

  • ISGLOBALPORTENABLED Function (new)

  • SETGLOBALPORTENABLED Procedure (new)

  • SETREMOTEHTTPPORT Procedure (new)

  • SETREMOTEHTTPSPORT Procedure (new)

  • DBMS_XDB_CONFIG Constants (new constants: XDB_ENDPOINT_RHTTP and XDB_ENDPOINT_RHTTPS)

• Enhancements to the DBMS_XMLSTORAGE_MANAGE package:

  See

  • REFPARTITIONEXCHANGEIN Procedure (new)

  • REFPARTITIONEXCHANGEOUT Procedure (new)

• The transfer of the DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR subprograms CLOB2FILE and READ2CLOB to the DBMS_LOB package.

  See Summary of DBMS_LOB Subprograms

• DBMS_STATS preference for automatic column group statistics

  See SET_GLOBAL_PREFS Procedure

• Scan rate and In-Memory Column Store (IM column store) statistics

  See SET_TABLE_STATS Procedure

• New DBMS_STATS preference to override preference settings

  See SET_GLOBAL_PREFS Procedure

• DBMS_STATS monitoring statistics no longer need to be saved to disk

  See FLUSH_DATABASE_MONITORING_INFO Procedure

• Active Data Guard support for SQL Tuning Advisor

  See CREATE_TUNING_TASK Functions

• Real-Time Database Operations monitoring enhancements

  See BEGIN_OPERATION Function

• Optimizer Statistics Advisor, which diagnoses problems in the existing practices for gathering statistics, and then generates a report of findings and recommendations.

  See DBMS_STATS Operational Notes

• New DBMS_STATS preference APPROXIMATE_NDV_ALGORITHM

  See SET_GLOBAL_PREFS Procedure

• New plsql_mode parameter, which allows you to specify a PL/SQL capture mode with the DBMS_WORKLOAD_CAPTURE package

  See START_CAPTURE Procedure

• New plsql_mode parameter, which allows you to specify a PL/SQL replay mode with the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package

  See

  • INITIALIZE_CONSOLIDATED_REPLAY Procedure

  • INITIALIZE_REPLAY Procedure

  • PROCESS_CAPTURE Procedure

• New rac_inst_list parameter for the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package, which enables you to specify a list of Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) instances that will be used for replay

  See INITIALIZE_REPLAY Procedure

• New parameters for the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package

  See

  • rac_mode: This parameter specifies replay options in an Oracle RAC environment.

  • query_only: This parameter replays only the read-only queries of a workload capture.

    See PREPARE_REPLAY Procedure

• New procedure for the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package that enables you to modify the DBA_WORKLOAD_GROUP_ASSIGNMENTS view, which provides information about workload captures and their assigned instances

  See ASSIGN_GROUP_TO_INSTANCE Procedure

• New procedure for the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package that enables you to specify SQL statements to be skipped or replaced during database replay

  See SET_SQL_MAPPING Procedure

• New procedures for the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT package. TRANSFER_UNIFIED_AUDIT_RECORDS enables you to transfer unified audit records from the common logging interface (CLI) swap table to an internal unified audit relational table. This internal table, new for this release, is required for better read performance of the unified audit trail. ALTER_PARTITION_INTERVAL changes the unified audit internal relational table’s partition interval.

  See the following topics for more information:

  • TRANSFER_UNIFIED_AUDIT_RECORDS Procedure

  • ALTER_PARTITION_INTERVAL Procedure

• New load_details parameter for the DBMS_WORKLOAD_REPLAY package that enables you to load the divergence and track commits data for a replay

  See GET_REPLAY_INFO Function

• Enhancements to DBMS_AQADM package:

  See

  • ALTER_QUEUE_TABLE Procedure (updated)

  • ALTER_SHARDED_QUEUE Procedure (updated)

  • CREATE_EXCEPTION_QUEUE Procedure (new)

  • CREATE_QUEUE_TABLE Procedure (updated)

  • CREATE_SHARDED_QUEUE Procedure (updated)

  • DROP_SHARDED_QUEUE Procedure (updated)

  • GET_QUEUE_PARAMETER Procedure (new)

  • SET_QUEUE_PARAMETER Procedure (new)

  • UNSET_QUEUE_PARAMETER Procedure (new)

  See DBMS_AQADM

• New procedure for the  DBMS_DBFS_CONTENT package

  See

  • ISPATHLOCKED Procedure

• Enhancements to DBMS_DBFS_CONTENT package:

  See

  • LOCKPATH Procedure (updated)

  • UNLOCKPATH Procedure (updated)

• New procedure for the  DBMS_DBFS_CONTENT_SPI package

  See

  • ISPATHLOCKED Procedure

• Enhancements to DBMS_DBFS_CONTENT_SPI package:

  See

  • LOCKPATH Procedure (updated)

  • UNLOCKPATH Procedure (updated)

• Modification for the DBMS_RLS.ADD_POLICY procedure. If you plan to include the INSERT statement type, then you must ensure that the update_check parameter is set to TRUE.

  See

  • ADD_POLICY Procedure

Deprecated Features

List of deprecated features in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference.

The following features are deprecated in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), and may be desupported in a future release:

• Deprecation of the DBMS_DEBUG package

  Use DBMS_DEBUG_JDWP instead.

• Deprecation of the DBMS_JOB package

  Oracle recommends that you migrate to DBMS_SCHEDULER, which provides a richer set of features and capabilities.

• Deprecation of the following form DBMS_LOB.LOADFROMFILE Procedure.

  Use DBMS_LOB.LoadClobFromFile or DBMS_LOB.LoadBlobFromFile instead.

• Deprecation of the UTL_FILE_DIR initialization parameter

  Use directory objects instead.

• Deprecation of Oracle Multimedia SQL/MM Still Image Standard Support, including the Oracle Multimedia SQL/MM Still Image TYPES

  Oracle recommends that you replace SQL/MM still image with ORDImage for image processing.

• Deprecation of Oracle Multimedia DICOM support, including the ORDDicom TYPE, the ORD_DICOM package, and the ORD_DICOM_ADMIN package

  There is no replacement for DICOM support in Oracle Database.

• Deprecation of the following from the DBMS_UTILITY package:

  • DBMS_UTILITY.GET_PARAMETER_VALUE function

  • DBMS_UTILITY.ANALYZE_PART_OBJECT procedure

  There are no replacements for these subprograms.

• Deprecation of the DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR.CLOB2FILE procedure

  Use DBMS_LOB.CLOB2FILE instead.

• Deprecation of the DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR.READ2CLOB function

  Use DBMS_LOB.LOADCLOBFROMFILE instead.

• Deprecation of the following from the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT package:

  • DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.FLUSH_UNIFIED_AUDIT_TRAIL procedure

  • AUDIT_TRAIL_WRITE mode of the AUDIT_TRAIL_PROPERTY parameter of the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.SET_AUDIT_TRAIL_PROPERTY procedure

  There is no replacement because there is no longer any need to manually write audit records to disk. Starting with this release, audit records are written directly to an internal relational table, bypassing the common logging infrastructure queues.

Desupported Features

List of desupported features in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference.

The following features are desupported in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2):

• Desupport of Advanced Replication

  The Oracle Database Advanced Replication feature is desupported in its entirety. The desupport of this feature includes all functionality associated with this feature: multimaster replication, updateable materialized views, hierarchical materialized views, and deployment templates. Read-only materialized views are still supported with basic replication.

  Oracle recommends that you replace your use of Advanced Replication with Oracle GoldenGate.

• Desupport of the following subprograms from the DBMS_XDB_ADMIN package:

  • CREATEREPOSITORYXMLINDEX

  • XMLINDEXADDPATH

  • XMLINDEXREMOVEPATH

  • DROPREPOSITORYXMLINDEX

  There is no replacement.