What is the difference between the OCI and ORA extension modules?

PHP offers two extension modules that can be used to connect to Oracle:

• The normal Oracle functions (ORA); and
• the Oracle Call-Interface functions (OCI).

OCI should be used whenever possible since it is optimised and provides more
options.

ORA does not include support for CLOBs, BLOBs, BFILEs,
ROWIDs, etc. and should not be used.