Oracle REST Data Services 24.3.1

Release Notes

Version 24.3.1.306.1450

Date: November 2024

Bug Fixes

37124364 ORDS JVM memory footprint (heap size) reduced
37086143 Improved and expanded exception logging for additional conditions that result in 40X Error Response codes
37084280 ORDS would intermittently return a 404 Error Response Code when parsing JSON under high load conditions
36485952 Database Actions: Scheduling dashboard would fail to display Running Jobs when in the Running Jobs view
37133157 Database Actions: After creating a new user, cannot view the Navigator and Files tab in the SQL Worksheet for the new user
37075647 Database Actions: Fixed an error where creating an already-existing APEX workspace would fail but still allow new schema creation

 

Supported Java Versions

Oracle REST Data Services requires Java 11, 17, or 21. The supported Java Runtime Environments are:

  • Oracle Java 11
  • Oracle Java 17
  • Oracle Java 21
  • Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition for Java 11
  • Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition for Java 17
  • Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition for Java 21

Note that GraphQL support requires GraalVM Enterprise Edition for Java 17 or later.

Please consult the documentation for the minimum supported Application Server versions for ORDS.

 

Support

  • Supported by Oracle Support under your current Oracle Database Support license for Oracle REST Data Services production releases.
  • Log Oracle REST Data Services bugs and issues using My Oracle Support.

    • For problems specific to SODA for REST, file a service request using "Oracle XML Developers Kit" as the product.
    • For all other problems, use "Oracle REST Data Services" as the product.
Note - Autonomous Database Shared Subscribers

If you are running a customer-managed ORDS for your Autonomous Transaction Processing, Autonomous Data Warehouse, or Autonomous JSON Database, you must upgrade your customer-managed ORDS to the version used in your Autonomous Database Shared environment. Failure to do so could lead to service disruptions.

To determine the version of ORDS in your Autonomous Database Shared database run this query:

select ords.installed_version from dual;

				

Documentation

General
  • Documentation for this release is provided on the oracle.com web site. Click here to view the documentation and related information.
  • Documentation on using SODA for REST is provided on the oracle.com web site. Click here, navigate to the documentation section and access the book titled 'SODA for REST'.
Getting Started
  • A tutorial on getting started with developing RESTful Services is included in the ORDS product documentation, in the book titled 'Oracle REST Data Services Quick Start Guide'.

 

Known Issues

Oracle Database may report 'ORA-01031: insufficient privileges' for queries that involve CURSOR expressions

In a number of cases, ORDS executes queries which include a CURSOR expression. An issue has been found executing these queries for some schemas in Oracle 18c and Oracle 19c databases. Depending on the roles and privileges involved, the issue does not occur for all schemas, which can give the impression that the issue is intermittent. Refer to RDBMS bug 29049673 for more information. The issue is manifest as follows in the exception returned:

ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1

ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
			

This is a problem with view-merging of nested cursors introduced in Oracle 18.1 database. Please use the following as a workaround:

alter system set "_fix_control"='20648883:OFF';

		
Oracle Database DATE and TIMESTAMP values

ORDS interprets Oracle Database DATE and TIMESTAMP values (which do not possess a time zone) into the time zone of ORDS. These values are then represented in the RFC3339 UTC format.

In a future release Oracle Database DATE and TIMESTAMP values will not by default be interpreted into any time zone. These values will be represented in the ISO 8601 "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss[.sss]" format. Oracle Database TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE and TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE values will remain represented in the RFC3339 UTC format.

SQL Developer Web
  • DATE, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE values downloaded from the Worksheet Query Result in the JSON format are not presented in the Internet Datetime format.
JDBC Array values

ORDS passes array values to the Oracle Database in a number of cases, for example arrays are used to pass the request headers and form fields during PL/SQL Gateway calls. Oracle JDBC Driver 18.3 and later supports an improved mechanism for passing array values, however this feature is only supported on Oracle Database 12c and later. Thus ORDS uses existing deprecated and less efficient APIs for passing array values when connecting to 11G databases, and the improved mechanism when connected to 12c and later. Customers experiencing problems with passing large array sets (for example OutOfMemory exceptions) are encouraged to upgrade from 11G to a newer database version to mitigate these issues.

Autogenerated REST Endpoints
  • AutoRest resources support the OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials flow only.
RESTful Services
  • Application Express workspaces do not support first party authentication, and therefore do not support the /sign-in/ interactive sign in form. Accessing /sign-in/ in APEX workspaces will produce a 404 status.
Support For mod_plsql logmeoff
  • The mod_plsql logmeoff mechanism is not supported reliably by modern browsers and it is not provided by ORDS. The only way to end a HTTP Basic Authentication session is to close the Browser.

 

Feedback

  • At Oracle REST Data Services on oracle.com you will find links to forums and social media channels where you can discuss topics with the ORDS community around the world and leave feedback for the development team.
    • In the forums, be sure to use clear subject lines to initiate a thread. Provide a complete and clear description of the issue, including steps to reproduce the issue.
    • Try to avoid using old, unrelated threads for a new issue.

Important Concepts to Keep In Mind

Revised Command Line Interface and Configuration Directory Structure

Command Line Interface

The java commands serviced from the WAR file are no longer supported. Attempting to run the following:

java -jar ords.war standalone

Will result in an error message, referring you to the docs. Instead you would run:
ords --config /path/to/config serve

Installation & Configuration

The ORDS program or script in the bin directory can be used to perform installs, changes to your configuration, changing the database passwords for your connection pools, and for creating ORDS users. To see a list of commands:

ords --help

    
Configuration Files Directory Layout

If upgrading from a previous version of ORDS, your existing configuration directory for ORDS and the files contained therein will be migrated to a new layout for versions 22.1 and higher.

You may migrate your settings using the ORDS migrate command, or you may perform a 22.1 install which will prompt ORDS to migrate your existing ORDS configuration to the new mapping for you.

ORDS standalone and default pool configuration settings are in a settings.xml file in a global subdirectory.

Connection pools are in a databases subdirectory. The intital database pool is named 'default' and has a '/' mapping pattern.

Subsequent pools will created such that the name of the pool also defines the mapping pattern.

SQL Developer Web

SQL Developer Web (SDW) is an ORDS hosted web application giving Oracle Database users the SQL Developer desktop experience in their browser.

SQL Developer Web provides a development interface for building and maintaining your ORDS based REST APIs, AUTOREST Enabled database objects, OAuth3 Clients, ORDS Privileges and Roles, as well as a SODA for REST graphical interface. For the best possible experience developer REST APIs for ORDS, we recommend you use SQL Developer Web.

For consistent representation of date values in SQL Developer Web, ORDS should be run in the UTC timezone. This is set automatically when using the ords command line interface. When deploying ORDS to Apache Tomcat or WebLogic Server the user.timezone may have to be set explicitly before starting the container.

-Duser.timezone=UTC

		
SQL Developer Web requires the Database API be enabled.

SQL Developer Web's DBMS_SCHEDULER interface requires database version 12.2 or higher.

Upgrading ORDS in the database

If you have previously executed script, ords_installer_privileges.sql, to grant your administrator user privileges to perform the install or upgrade, then you must execute the script again on that same user that you provided because additional grants have been added to this script. Note: This script does not apply to the SYS user account.

 

Earlier Release Versions

For information on Issues Fixed and New Features introduced for earlier versions please refer to the release notes for those versions.