Changes in This Release for Oracle Spatial Developer's Guide
The preface contains:
Changes in Oracle Database Release 21c
The following are major Release 21c new features and changes for core Spatial capabilities covered in this document:
New SQL Function: SDO_TOLERANCE
You can use the SDO_TOLERANCE SQL function to find the tolerance value associated with a spatial column in a table. For information, see SDO_TOLERANCE SQL Function.
New SQL Functions: Min/Max of X/Y/Z Dimensions of a Geometry
You can use several SQL functions to find the minimum and maximum X, Y, and Z dimension values for data in a spatial column in a table. For information, see SQL Functions for Min/Max of X/Y/Z Dimensions of a Geometry.
Expanded Information about Sharded Database Support
Significant additional information about Spatial support for sharded database technology is provided in Sharded Database Support by Oracle Spatial.
SPATIAL_VECTOR_ACCELERATION Default Value Changed to TRUE
The default value of the SPATIAL_VECTOR_ACCELERATION system parameter has been changed to TRUE. (In previous releases the default had been FALSE.) This parameter is explained in SPATIAL_VECTOR_ACCELERATION System Parameter.
Oracle Locator Information Removed
In previous versions, the ability to use the full set of Oracle Spatial required Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, whereas a subset of those features called Oracle Locator did not require Enterprise Edition. Now, however, all Oracle Spatial capabilities are available with both Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2.
Therefore, references to Oracle Locator, including distinctions between it and Oracle Spatial, have been removed from this version of the manual.
WFS-Related Changes for Release 21c
Effective with release 21c (and not for releases 19c and earlier), WFS metadata has moved from the MDSYS schema to a user schema, and each database can have multiple schemas configured for WFS.
See Data Source Setup for the WFS Engine (the last step), Dropping WFS Support (Release 21c or Later Only), and Updating a WFS Instance from an Oracle Database for a Release Before 21c to Release 21c or Later for details.
Database In-Memory Spatial Support
You can now specify INMEMORY SPATIAL to a spatial column, in order to enable the in-memory spatial feature.
See Database In-Memory Support by Oracle Spatial for more information.