An asterisk (*) indicates support that was added in a hotfix or software patch subsequent to a release.

Refer to the following resources for additional information:

• Product Compatibility Guide: Provides the latest data source and platform support information. 
• Fixes: Describes the issues resolved since general availability.  

Version 8.0.0

Enhancements

• The driver is now compiled with a Visual Studio 2022 compiler for the Windows platforms. As a result, you must have Microsoft Visual C/C++ runtime version 14.40.33810 or higher on your machine to run the driver.
• For AIX platforms, the ICU library files that are installed with the product have been upgraded to version 74.1. As a part of this upgrade, the ICU library file names have changed. For the 32-bit driver, the ICU file name has changed from libivicu28.a to libivicu.a. For the 64-bit driver, the ICU file name has changed from libddicu28.a to libddicu.a. This upgrade does not apply to the other UNIX platforms. This upgrade is available starting in build 08.02.1072 of the ICU library files.*
• For Windows platforms, the ICU library files that are installed with the product have been upgraded to version 74.1. As a part of this upgrade, the ICU library file names have changed. For the 32-bit driver, the ICU file name has changed from ivicu28.dll to ivicu.dll. For the 64-bit driver, the ICU file name has changed from ddicu28.dll to ddicu.dll. This upgrade is available starting in build 08.02.1072 of the ICU library files.*
  
• For Linux platforms, the ICU library files that are installed with the product have been upgraded to version 74.1. In addition, the ICU library file names have changed for Linux platforms. For the 32-bit driver on Linux, the ICU file name has changed from libivicu28.so to libivicu.so. For the 64-bit driver on Linux, the ICU file name has changed from libddicu28.so to libddicu.so. This upgrade does not apply to UNIX platforms. This upgrade is available starting in build 08.02.0965 of the ICU library files.*
• A Password Encryption Tool, called ddencpwd, is now included with the product package. It encrypts passwords for secure handling in connection strings and odbc.ini files. At connection, the driver decrypts these passwords and passes them to the data source as required. See Password Encryption Tool (UNIX/Linux only) for details.*
• The installer program has been enhanced to support Azul Zulu JRE 11. As a result of this change, the installer has ended support for platforms that do not support Java SE 8 or higher. The installer supports the following operating systems after the enhancement:
  • Windows 8.1 or higher
  • Windows Server 2012 RC2 or higher
  • UNIX/Linux: Any operating system on a machine using a JRE that is Java SE 8 or higher (LTS version), including Oracle JDK, OpenJDK, and IBM SDK (Java) distributions.
  Important: These changes do not affect the operating system requirements of the driver.*
• The driver has been enhanced to allow you to configure how collections are mapped in the relational view of your data. By configuring the new Schema Format (SchemaFormat) config option, you can determine whether the driver normalizes collections and collections labeled FROZEN. Refer to SchemaFormat (config option) for details.
• The driver has been enhanced to support connection failover and client load balancing when connecting to a cluster. You can enable this new functionality by specifying a comma-separated list of member nodes using the new Cluster Nodes (ClusterNodes) connection option. Refer to Using failover in a cluster and Cluster Nodes for details.
  Available in driver version 08.00.0216 (B0706, U0505, J000324)
• The drivers using base version B0649 and later have been enhanced to include timestamp in the internal packet logs by default. If you want to disable the timestamp logging in packet logs, set PacketLoggingOptions=1. The internal packet logging is not enabled by default. To enable it, set EnablePacketLogging=1.*
• The driver has been enhanced to support the Duration data type, which maps to the SQL_VARCHAR ODBC type. Currently, the Duration type is supported only in simple columns, and not in Collection types. Refer to Data types for details.*
• The Driver Manager for UNIX/Linux has been enhanced to support setting the Unicode encoding type for applications on a per connection basis. By passing a value for the SQL_ATTR_APP_UNICODE_TYPE attribute using SQLSetConnectAttr, your application can specify the encoding at connection. This allows your application to pass both UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded strings with a single environment handle.
  The valid values for the SQL_ATTR_APP_UNICODE_TYPE attribute are SQL_DD_CP_UTF8 and SQL_DD_CP_UTF16. The default value is SQL_DD_CP_UTF8.
  This enhancement is available in build 08.02.0449 of the driver manager.
• The driver has been enhanced to support all the data consistency levels for read and write operations that are supported by Apache Cassandra data stores. Data consistency levels are configured using the Read Consistency and Write Consistency connection options. Refer to the user's guide and reference for descriptions of these options. Refer to Read Consistency and Write Consistency for details.*

Changed Behavior

• The installer program now requires you to install a JRE that is Java SE 11 or higher before running the installer. In earlier versions, the JRE used by the installer program was included in the product. However, to avoid potential security vulnerabilities, the installer program no longer includes a JRE. Instead, the installer program uses the JRE in your environment to allow for the most secure version of a JRE to be used.

  Notes:

  • This change does not affect the JVM requirements for the driver. For the latest driver requirements, refer to the Product Compatibility Guide.
  • The installer program cannot remove the already installed JRE files from the install directory automatically. Remove them manually.
  • To install the 32-bit drivers on 64-bit Windows platforms and start the SQL engine service, the installer requires the 32-bit version of Java SE 11 or higher installed on your machine and defined on your path.
• The product package no longer includes the ODBC Cursor library file (odbccurs.so) because it has some known security vulnerabilities that could potentially expose you to security risks.*
  Note: The installer program cannot remove the ODBC Cursor library file automatically while installing a new version of the driver. Remove it manually.
• The installer program has been updated to no longer install common components for drivers that do not use them. As a result, the installer program no longer installs the following common components for the Apache Cassandra driver:*
  • OpenSSL library files, such as ivopenssl30.so, ddopenssl30.so, fips.so, and openssl.cnf.
  • Curl library files, such as libivcurl28.so and libddcurl28.so.

  If the files are not used by any other DataDirect driver on your machine, you can safely remove them from existing product directories.

Features

• Supports SQL read-write access to Apache Cassandra data sources. Refer to Supported SQL functionality for details.
• Supports CQL Binary Protocol.
• The driver supports the core SQL-92 grammar.
• The driver supports all ODBC Core functions and some Level 1 and Level 2 features. Refer to ODBC compliance for details.
  
• Supports user id and password authentication. Refer to Authentication Method for details.
• Supports Cassandra data types, including the complex types Tuple, user-defined types, Map, List and Set. Refer to Data types for details.
• Generates a normalized view of Cassandra data. Tuple and user-defined types are flattened into a relational parent table, while collection types are mapped as relational child tables. Refer to Complex type normalization for details.
• Supports Native and Refresh escape sequences to embed CQL commands in SQL-92 statements. Refer to Native and Refresh escape clauses for details.
• Supports Cassandra's tunable consistency functionality with the ReadConsistency and WriteConsistency connection options. Refer to Read Consistency and Write Consistency for details.
  
• Supports the handling of large result sets through the FetchSize, NativeFetchSize, and ResultMemorySize connection options. Refer to Fetch Size, Native Fetch Size, and Result Memory Size for details.
• Supports applications that do not support unbounded data types through the ASCIISize, DecimalPrecision, DecimalScale, VarintPrecision, and VarcharSize connection options. Refer to Ascii Size, Decimal Precision, Decimal Scale, Varchar Size, and Varint Precision for details.