Work Item / Issue Reference

AB#47087

Summary

Release mssql-python v1.13.0.

Version bump to 1.13.0. Updates mssql_python/__init__.py, setup.py, PyPI_Description.md, and the README "Important Note" section. Bundled mssql_py_core bumped from 0.1.7 to 0.1.8 (no source/API changes — dev-nightly to stable pin).

Enhancements

• ODBC driver ships exclusively via mssql-python-odbc (Phase 2) — The libs/ fallback introduced in v1.12.0 has been removed. mssql-python now hard-depends on mssql-python-odbc==18.6.2.1; pip install mssql-python still pulls the driver package transparently. Smaller wheels; driver binaries managed independently (REFACTOR: remove bundled ODBC driver from mssql-python wheel; require mssql-python-odbc (Phase 2) #693).
• Apache Arrow bulk copy — New Cursor.bulkcopy_arrow(table_name, source) method for high-performance bulk loading from pyarrow.Table / RecordBatch / Arrow C Data Interface sources; classic bulkcopy() now raises TypeError for Arrow inputs and steers users to the new method (FEAT: Support for Apache Arrow in Bulk Copy API #665).
• token_provider= parameter for Azure Identity credentials — connect() accepts any credential with a .get_token(scope) method (DefaultAzureCredential, AzureCliCredential, ManagedIdentityCredential, …). Mutually exclusive with Authentication= in the connection string (FEAT: Add "token_provider= " parameter for custom Azure Identity credential support #603, issue Azure Entra Auth Options #577).
• Identity-aware connection pooling with token-expiry refresh — Pool now keys on security context, preventing cross-identity connection leaks; token acquisition deferred to pool-misses; connections with near-expiry tokens refreshed automatically (FEAT: token-expiry capture and identity-aware pool key #660, issues Connection pool should separate identities for access-token and integrated auth connections #651, Entra ID access token is acquired on every connect(), even on a pool hit #659).

Bug Fixes

• Silent zero-row executemany batches on late NULLs — Fixed numeric array parameter binding paths (TINYINT/SMALLINT/INT/FLOAT) that left indicator slots uninitialized when a NULL appeared partway through the batch (FIX: Initialize numeric array indicators in executemany #702, issue executemany() sporadically fails to insert rows, throws no exception #670).
• SQL_WVARCHAR output converter applied as catch-all to non-string columns — Fallback now gated on str/bytes mapped types (FIX: gate SQL_WVARCHAR output-converter fallback to string/binary columns (#691) #692, issue BUG: SQL_WVARCHAR output converter is applied as an unconditional catch-all to non-string columns (INT/DECIMAL/DATE) #691).
• Integer-keyed output converters silently never fired — add_output_converter(SQL_DECIMAL, ...) and other integer SQL type code keys now dispatch correctly (pyodbc parity) (FIX: dispatch output converters on integer ODBC SQL type codes (#684) #690, issue add_output_converter documents/accepts an integer SQL type, but dispatch keys on the Python type (integer keys silently never fire) #684).
• RecordBatchReader.Close() for Arrow result sets — Cursor.arrow_reader() now returns a wrapper whose .close() releases server-side resources and leaves the parent cursor usable (FIX: Implementing RecordBatchReader.Close() functionality for Arrow #644, issue Question: RecordBatchReader.close() behavior #643).
• AttributeError in Cursor.__del__ on partially-initialized cursor — __init__ sets closed/hstmt before any raise; __del__ uses correct sys.is_finalizing() guard (FIX: prevent AttributeError in __del__ on partially-initialized Cursor #646, issue Test Failures in the pipeline #642).

Version Bump

• mssql_python/__init__.py: __version__ = "1.13.0"
• setup.py: version="1.13.0"
• PyPI_Description.md: ## What's new in v1.13.0 section refreshed
• README.md: "Important Note" updated for Phase 2 (no more libs/ fallback, mssql-python-odbc==18.6.2.1)