The following features are new in this release:

• Support for database sharding

  See JDBC Support for Database Sharding

• DRCP support for multiple tagging and proxy session sharing

  See DRCP Tagging

• Support for JDK 8 and JDBC 4.2

  See Support for JDBC 4.2 Standard

• JDBC Driver Support for Fast Application Notification (FAN)

  See Oracle JDBC Support for FAN Events

• Support for Deprioritization of Database Nodes

  See Support for Deprioritization of Database Node

• Support for FAN up events

  See Overview of Oracle RAC Fast Application Notification

• Application Continuity Support for XA Data Source

  See Application Continuity Support for XA Data Sources

• Support for specifying think timeout

  See “Configuring the Default Connection Pool” section in Enabling DRCP on the Server Side

• Support for PL/SQL fix up callback on the server

  See PL/SQL Callback for Session State Fix Up

• Support for network compression

  See Support for Network Data Compression

• Support for feature-specific logging at runtime

  See Support for feature-specific logging at runtime

• Switch Service Enhancement

  Starting from Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.1), you can use the SET CONTAINER statement in the following way, if you want to switch amongst pluggable databases, while continuing to use user services with full service functionality:

  ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER=<container name> SERVICE=<service name>;

• JDBC Support for Binding PL/SQL BOOLEAN type

  Starting from Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.1), Oracle JDBC drivers support binding PL/SQL BOOLEAN type, which is a true BOOLEAN type. PLSQL_BOOLEAN binds BOOLEAN type for input or output parameters when executing a PL/SQL function or procedure. With this feature, now JDBC supports the ability to bind PLSQL_BOOLEAN type into any PL/SQL block from Java.

  See Also:

  JDBC Reference Information

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

• Concrete classes in the oracle.sql package

  The concrete classes in the oracle.sql package are deprecated. Use the new JDBC interfaces instead of these classes.

  See MoS Note 1364193.1 for more information about these interfaces.

• Starting in Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2), the oracle.jdbc.rowset package is deprecated. Oracle recommends that you use the Standard JDBC RowSet package to replace this feature.

  See Also:

  http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/sql/rowset/package-summary.html

• defineColumnType method

  Most of the variants of the defineColumnType method are deprecated. The supported variants are for:

  • LOB to LONG conversions

  • Configure the LOB prefetch size

  See the JDBC Javadoc for more information.

• CONNECTION_PROPERTY_STREAM_CHUNK_SIZE property

  See the JDBC Javadoc for more information.

• Oracle Update Batching

  Oracle update batching was deprecated in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1). Starting in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle update batching is a no operation code (no-op). This means that if you implement Oracle update batching in your application, using the Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) JDBC driver, then the specified batch size is not set and results in a batch size of 1. With this batch setting, your application processes one row at a time. Oracle strongly recommends that you use the standard JDBC batching if you are using the Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) JDBC driver.

  See Standard Update Batching section for more information.

• EndToEndMetrics related APIs

  EndToEndMetrics related APIs are deprecated in this release.

  See JDBC DMS Metrics for more information.

The following features are no longer supported by Oracle: