[cx-oracle-users] How is cursor.callfunc() supposed to work?

[James C. M. <Jam...@or...>]

Hi everybody,
I'm migrating a collection of python scripts from one db
(Oracle backend, but we get to use some Siebel middleware)
to another (raw Oracle 11g).

I've been trying to use the cursor.callfunc() method with
one of the API calls that we're allowed to use, but no matter
what variation of arguments I supply, I just cannot get the
method to work.


cursor.callfunc('package.api.functionname', cx_Oracle.NUMBER, [], { \
     'ID' : 13741059,
     'comments' : 'Fixed in rev:csetid',
     'commenttype' : 'N',
     'opaqueid' : 'NULL',
     'error_code' : 0,
     'error_mesg' : 'NULL'} )

This would fail with

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
cx_Oracle.DatabaseError: ORA-06550: line 1, column 13:
PLS-00306: wrong number or types of arguments in call to 'FUNCTIONNAME'
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored


The same issue occured when I used positional params instead
of keyword params.

Yes, I have checked and rechecked that I am supplying all the
args to the function which are mandatory, as well as those which
are merely optional. I also found Anthony's post from 2002
(http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-September/788482.html)
which mentions setinputsizes(), and tried using that route as well.
No joy there either



I eventually fell back to using a Statement ala



cursor.execute("""
DECLARE
outnum NUMBER;
outmsg VARCHAR2(5000);
BEGIN
package.api.functionname(
     ID => 13741059,
     comments => 'Fixed in changeset: 14209:585efc418ca7',
     commenttype => 'N',
     opaqueid => NULL,
     error_code => bugoutnum,
     error_mesg => bugoutmsg);
END;
""")
connection.commit()

... which worked.


So ... should I try to use cursor.callfunc() in the future,
or just stick with statements like the above?

I'm using cx_Oracle 5.1.1, Oracle Instant Client 11.2, running
with python2.6 on Solaris 11.


Pointers to where (and how) I misread the docs would be greatly
appreciated.

Thankyou in advance,
James C. McPherson
--
Oracle
http://www.jmcp.homeunix.com/blog