Database drivers changes

New and desupported database drivers.

Relax Microsoft ODBC for SQL Server Wide Char setting

The dbmsnc* ODI driver build with Microsoft ODBC for SQL Server uses CHAR/VARCHAR type binding, or NCHAR/NVARCHAR type binding for ODBC SQL parameters. This feature is controlled by the dbi.database.dbname.snc.widechar FGLPROFILE setting, which had to be set manually in earlier Genero version. Since version 3.10, in a regular configuration, there is no need to set the snc.widechar parameter: According to the context (app locale and database collation), the ODI driver will automatically use the appropriate character type for ODBC bindings. See Wide Char mode of SNC driver.

Before Genero version 5.01.06, for an app using a UTF-8 locale, the ODI driver was reporting a runtime error -6319 at connection time, if snc.widechar=false (assuming CHAR/VARCHAR columns usage), but the SQL Server database collation for CHAR/VARCHAR columns is not UTF-8. In fact, this configuration is unexpected, because UTF-8 characters manipulated by the Genero application cannot be stored in a non-UTF-8 database.

Starting with Genero version 5.01.06 (change FGL-6509), to simplify migration from non-UTF-8 to UTF-8, the ODI driver allows the connection, and only reports a warning in the FGLSQLDEBUG output, when the app the locale is UTF-8, snc.widechar=false, and the DB collation is not UTF-8.

Important:

Setting FGLPROFILE dbi.database.dbname.snc.widechar to false is strongly discouraged and done at your own risk, when using a UTF-8 application locale with a non-UTF-8 database collation for CHAR/VARCHAR column storage: Any UTF-8 characters that cannot be represented in the database's collation will be converted to a question mark (?) when strings are sent to the database.

For more details on UTF-8 support with Genero and SQL Server, read carefully CHAR and VARCHAR data types.

Minimum versions of ODBC clients for SQL Server

Starting with Genero version 5.01.06, the SQL Server ODI drivers require the following ODBC client versions:
  • dbmsnc_18: Microsoft ODBC 18.5.2 or +
  • dbmesm_1: Easysoft ODBC 2.3.0 or +
  • dbmftm_0: FreeTDS ODBC 1.5.168 or +

For more details, see Database driver specification (driver), Prepare the runtime environment - connecting to the database.

New database server versions supported in Genero 5.01:

New database clients supported in Genero 5.01:

  • The new dbmmys_8_4 ODI driver for Oracle MySQL 8.4 LTS:
    Note:

    The MySQL 8.2 and 8.3 versions are Innovation Releases (IR), while MySQL versions 8.0 and 8.4 are Long-Term Support releases (LTS). The dbmmys_8_2 driver provided in previous Genero versions has been desupported in favor to MySQL 8.4 with the new dbmmys_8_4 ODI driver, requiring libmysqlclient.so.24. If you need to access a MySQL 8.2 or 8.3 server, install MySQL Connector client with libmysqlclient.so.24 and use the dbmmys_8_4 ODI driver.

For more details, see Database driver specification (driver).

Deprecated ODI drivers in Genero 5.01:

The following ODI database drivers will be removed in a future version:

  • dbmesm* : Easysoft ODBC for SQL Server.

    On Linux and Windows®, use Microsoft ODBC for SQL server. For other platforms, use FreeTDS.

  • dbmsnc_17: ODI driver for Microsoft ODBC driver 17 for SQL Server

Desupported databases server versions in Genero 5.01:

Desupported database server versions:

  • None

Changes in earlier versions

Make sure to check the upgrade notes of earlier versions, to not miss changes introduced in maintenance releases. For more details, see Database drivers changes in BDL 5.00.

Notable changes introduced in maintenance releases:
  • No particular change to consider.