13 Migrating Oracle Text Applications

13.3.1 New Filter (INSO_FILTER versus AUTO_FILTER)

With Oracle Text 11g Release 1 and later, the INSO_FILTER filter type has been replaced by the AUTO_FILTER filter type. To maintain compatibility with existing Oracle Text applications, INSO_FILTER functionality is supported by AUTO_FILTER, and the INSO_FILTER filter type is being retained, although its behavior has been changed to match that of AUTO_FILTER.

For most users, the change in filter types has no significant effect, and most users do not need to change their applications or otherwise take any steps to migrate to the new filter type. The most significant differences produced by this change are as follows:

• AUTO_FILTER supports a different set of document types than INSO_FILTER. For a list of supported document types, see the Supported File Formats appendix of Oracle Text Reference.

• Display characteristics of HTML output from the new filter may differ from those output by the old filter.

• A different set of platforms support the AUTO_FILTER type than support INSO_FILTER. For a list of supported platforms, see the Supported File Formats appendix of Oracle Text Reference.

Along with the change from INSO_FILTER to AUTO_FILTER, several related changes are also part of the filter migration:

• The INSO_TIMEOUT and INSO_OUTPUT_FORMATTING attributes of MAIL_FILTER have been replaced by the AUTO_FILTER_TIMEOUT and AUTO_FILTER_OUTPUT_FORMATTING attributes, respectively.

• The INSOFILTER directive used in the mail configuration file of MAIL_FILTER has been replaced with the AUTO_FILTER directive.

• The PL/SQL constant TRACE_IDX_INSO_FILTER for tracing, used in procedures such as CTX_OUTPUT.ADD_TRACE, has been replaced by the TRACE_IDX_AUTO_FILTER filter.

• The system-defined preference CTXSYS.INSO_FILTER has been replaced by the CTXSYS.AUTO_FILTER preference.

• The default values of DEFAULT_FILTER_FILE and DEFAULT_FILTER_BINARY system parameters has been changed from CTXSYS.INSO_FILTER to CTXSYS.AUTO_FILTER for new installations and databases upgrading to this release, if these default values have not been modified. For databases upgrading to this release which have modified these default values, the modified default values will continue to be used.

For backward compatibility, INSO_FILTER, as well as most of its associated filter types, constants, and attributes have been retained in this release; however, users should use AUTO_FILTER in new applications and update their older applications whenever possible.