LXXIII. Oracle 8 functions

Introduction

These functions allow you to access Oracle8 and Oracle7 databases. It uses the Oracle8 Call-Interface (OCI8)

This extension is more flexible than the standard Oracle extension. It supports binding of global and local PHP variables to Oracle placeholders, has full LOB, FILE and ROWID support and allows you to use user-supplied define variables.

Requirements

You will need the Oracle8 client libraries to use this extension. Windows users will need at least Oracle version 8.1 to use the php_oci8.dll dll.

Before using this extension, make sure that you have set up your Oracle environment variables properly for the Oracle user, as well as your web daemon user. The variables you might need to set are as follows:

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • ORACLE_SID

  • LD_PRELOAD

  • LD_LIBRARY_PATH

  • NLS_LANG

  • ORA_NLS33

After setting up the environment variables for your webserver user, be sure to also add the webserver user (nobody, www) to the oracle group.

If your webserver doesn't start or crashes at startup: Check that Apache is linked with the pthread library:

# ldd /www/apache/bin/httpd 
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x4001c000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4002f000)
    libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x4004c000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4007a000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4007e000)
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

If the libpthread is not listed you have to reinstall Apache:

# cd /usr/src/apache_1.3.xx
# make clean
# LIBS=-lpthread ./config.status
# make
# make install

Please note that on some systems like UnixWare it is libthread instead of libpthread. PHP and Apache have to be configured with EXTRA_LIBS=-lthread.

Installation

You have to compile PHP with the option --with-oci8[=DIR], where DIR defaults to your environmment variable ORACLE_HOME.

Runtime Configuration

This extension has no configuration directives defined in php.ini.

Resource Types

Predefined Constants

The constants below are defined by this extension, and will only be available when the extension has either been compiled into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime.

OCI_DEFAULT (integer)

OCI_DESCRIBE_ONLY (integer)

OCI_COMMIT_ON_SUCCESS (integer)

OCI_EXACT_FETCH (integer)

SQLT_BFILEE (integer)

SQLT_CFILEE (integer)

SQLT_CLOB (integer)

SQLT_BLOB (integer)

SQLT_RDD (integer)

OCI_B_SQLT_NTY (integer)

OCI_SYSDATE (integer)

OCI_B_BFILE (integer)

OCI_B_CFILEE (integer)

OCI_B_CLOB (integer)

OCI_B_BLOB (integer)

OCI_B_ROWID (integer)

OCI_B_CURSOR (integer)

OCI_B_BIN (integer)

OCI_FETCHSTATEMENT_BY_COLUMN (integer)

OCI_FETCHSTATEMENT_BY_ROW (integer)

OCI_ASSOC (integer)

OCI_NUM (integer)

OCI_BOTH (integer)

OCI_RETURN_NULLS (integer)

OCI_RETURN_LOBS (integer)

OCI_DTYPE_FILE (integer)

OCI_DTYPE_LOB (integer)

OCI_DTYPE_ROWID (integer)

OCI_D_FILE (integer)

OCI_D_LOB (integer)

OCI_D_ROWID (integer)

Examples

Example 1. OCI Hints

<?php
// by sergo at bacup dot ru

// Use option: OCI_DEFAULT for execute command to delay execution
OCIExecute($stmt, OCI_DEFAULT);

// for retrieve data use (after fetch):

$result = OCIResult($stmt, $n);
if (is_object ($result)) $result = $result->load();

// For INSERT or UPDATE statement use:

$sql = "insert into table (field1, field2) values (field1 = 'value',
 field2 = empty_clob()) returning field2 into :field2";
OCIParse($conn, $sql);
$clob = OCINewDescriptor($conn, OCI_D_LOB);
OCIBindByName ($stmt, ":field2", &$clob, -1, OCI_B_CLOB);
OCIExecute($stmt, OCI_DEFAULT);
$clob->save ("some text");
OCICommit($conn);

?>

You can easily access stored procedures in the same way as you would from the commands line.

Example 2. Using Stored Procedures

<?php
// by webmaster at remoterealty dot com
$sth = OCIParse ( $dbh, "begin sp_newaddress( :address_id, '$firstname',
 '$lastname', '$company', '$address1', '$address2', '$city', '$state',
 '$postalcode', '$country', :error_code );end;" );

// This calls stored procedure sp_newaddress, with :address_id being an
// in/out variable and :error_code being an out variable. 
// Then you do the binding:

   OCIBindByName ( $sth, ":address_id", $addr_id, 10 );
   OCIBindByName ( $sth, ":error_code", $errorcode, 10 );
   OCIExecute ( $sth );

?>

Table of Contents
ocibindbyname --  Bind a PHP variable to an Oracle Placeholder
ocicancel -- Cancel reading from cursor
ocicloselob -- Closes lob descriptor
ocicollappend -- Append an object to the collection
ocicollassign -- Assign a collection from another existing collection
ocicollassignelem -- Assign element val to collection at index ndx
ocicollgetelem -- Retrieve the value at collection index ndx
ocicollmax --  Return the max value of a collection. For a varray this is the maximum length of the array
ocicollsize -- Return the size of a collection
ocicolltrim -- Trim num elements from the end of a collection
ocicolumnisnull -- Test whether a result column is NULL
ocicolumnname -- Returns the name of a column
ocicolumnprecision -- Tell the precision of a column
ocicolumnscale -- Tell the scale of a column
ocicolumnsize -- Return result column size
ocicolumntype -- Returns the data type of a column
ocicolumntyperaw -- Tell the raw oracle data type of a column
ocicommit -- Commits outstanding transactions
ocidefinebyname --  Use a PHP variable for the define-step during a SELECT
ocierror -- Return the last error of stmt|conn|global
ociexecute -- Execute a statement
ocifetch -- Fetches the next row into result-buffer
ocifetchinto -- Fetches the next row into an array
ocifetchstatement -- Fetch all rows of result data into an array
ocifreecollection -- Deletes collection object
ocifreecursor --  Free all resources associated with a cursor
ocifreedesc -- Deletes a large object descriptor
ocifreestatement --  Free all resources associated with a statement
ociinternaldebug --  Enables or disables internal debug output
ociloadlob -- Loads a large object
ocilogoff -- Disconnects from Oracle server
ocilogon -- Establishes a connection to Oracle
ocinewcollection -- Initialize a new collection
ocinewcursor --  Return a new cursor (Statement-Handle)
ocinewdescriptor --  Initialize a new empty LOB or FILE descriptor
ocinlogon -- Establishes a new connection to Oracle
ocinumcols --  Return the number of result columns in a statement
ociparse -- Parse a query and return an Oracle statement
ociplogon --  Connect to an Oracle database using a persistent connection
ociresult -- Returns column value for fetched row
ocirollback -- Rolls back outstanding transactions
ocirowcount -- Gets the number of affected rows
ocisavelob -- Saves a large object
ocisavelobfile -- Saves a large object file
ociserverversion -- Return a string containing server version information
ocisetprefetch -- Sets number of rows to be prefetched
ocistatementtype -- Return the type of an OCI statement
ociwritelobtofile -- Saves a large object file
ociwritetemporarylob -- Writes temporary blob