ODBC compatibility problem with server 7.1.5

Question

Hi all,
I am suffering from Windows ODBC driver desasters and hope I am not alone with my problem:
I am developing a client app with Visual Foxpro 5.0a (maybe not relevant to the problem) on Win NT 4.0 SP 6,
which accesses a Oracle 7.1.5 Server (on Alpha VMS) through ODBC.
I used for several years the Version 2.0.x of the Oracle ODBC driver with satisfying results.
Now I have to extent the app to run on Win 95 (sorry, but thats true) and also Win 2000. I am working in a large company
network and have to take as environment what is provided by the systems group, which is SQL-Net8 and Oracle drivers
from the 8.x series (8.1.7x for Win 2000 and some 8.0.x for Win 95).
My problem: While DML commands are just fine with the 8.x drivers on the 7.1 server, I cannot call any stored
procedures on the driver. I am using "ODBC" syntax, i.e. send strings like
"{Call Schema1.Package1.ProcedureA(?Variable1, ?@Variable2)}" to the ODBC driver.
I get the error message "Table/View does not exist", which is garbage, since the same calls work just fine, when
using the 2.x driver.
However, with the 2.x drivers, also the procedures get called ok and IN parameters are passed correctly,
I cannot receive IN OUT parameters! What I get back is what I passed into the procedure plus one arbitrary character.
Needless to say, that the 8.x drivers work just perfect against an 8i Server. However, I cannot migrate my productive
database anytime soon.
Does anybody have an idea which drivers are able to support calling stored procedures on a 7.1.5 server or can point
me to resources here, which handle the problem?
Thanks a lot,
Peter
PS: Yes I have seen the previous thread stating that, 7.1x servers are no certified for new drivers. But I simply hope, some
body recognizes my problem and has a solution. :-)

Answer 1

Thanks for the tip, might well be that this solves my problem (standards always should, or).
But how do I bind the variables in a separate step the standard way? I never saw that in any docs -neither Foxpro nor VB which of course now moved to ADO.
Thanks for an example or a pointer to the literature,
Peter
The standard ODBC syntax for executing a stored procedure is
"{Call Schema1.Package1.ProcedureA(?, ?)}"
The syntax you describe
"{Call Schema1.Package1.ProcedureA(?Variable1, ?@Variable2)}"
isn't familiar to me. I assume it's something Microsoft cooked up for pass-through queries (may be something special for FoxPro) that combines a few steps. You may want to try using the standard syntax and doing the variable binding as a separate step.
I suppose that there might be a problem with the 7.1.5 database and how it handles IN OUT parameters, but that seems unlikely...
Justin