If you connect to Oracle through .NET please help!

[D. Patrick]

I need to connect to an Oracle database. I've never done it before. I
see that with framework 1.1 you had to download ODP.NET from Oracle's site
in order for the framework classes to even work. I tried that quickly, but
the file is 400 MB, and the the installation asks for all kinds of things in
order to install. Now I'm very confused.

a) Do you still need ODP.NET with framework 2.0?
b) Do you need to download and install other Oracle files, too?
c) Do the answers to the ODP.NET questions about service names and host
names even matter when I'm going to be using a connection string inside my
code? Is my connection string somehow tied to those answers?
d) Can you refer to the server's IP address in your connection string
instead of the server name?

I can't find any good articles about this, and so your help above is
appreciated.

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

D

In fact you do it almost the same as with an SQLServer. But there are
differences. The guys who are the most busy with Oracle are in the
newsgroup.

Microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet

Not that you are not welcome here, in this newsgroup are as well some active
dealing with that, but in the newsgroup I showed, are more and there are
AFAIK some changes for 2.0.

Cor

 

[Guest]

you do not need the oracle ODP.NET, you can use the MS .NET framework one
look in the vs docs help:-
Oracle Databases
Connections

 

[Carlos J. Quintero [VB MVP]]

Hi,

..NET applications can connect to Oracle using:

- Native ADO.NET providers from Microsoft or from Oracle (ODP.NET). Notice
that Microsoft DOES provide a .NET provider for Oracle. The only thing is
that for .NET Framework 1.0 you had to download it from the web, it didn´t
ship with VS for lack of time.

- The ADO.NET Provider for OLEDB with any OLEDB provider for Oracle.
- The ADO.NET Provider for ODBC with any ODBC driver for Oracle.

So, using .NET 2.0. you have to evaluate the Microsoft .NET Framework
Provider for Oracle agains ODP.NET.

In both cases the Oracle client libraries are required. AFAIK, only
DataDirect Technologies provides Oracle drivers/providers that can connect
directly to Oracle using the TNS protocol instead of the client libraries.

About connection strings, etc. refer to the docs of your provider of choice.
Basically Oracle provides name resolution based on file (TNSNAMES.ORA) or
based on server directory. In some cases I think that you can use the server
name or IP and other info instead of the service alias.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio
You can code, design and document much faster:
http://www.mztools.com

 

[Paul Clement]

¤ I need to connect to an Oracle database. I've never done it before. I
¤ see that with framework 1.1 you had to download ODP.NET from Oracle's site
¤ in order for the framework classes to even work. I tried that quickly, but
¤ the file is 400 MB, and the the installation asks for all kinds of things in
¤ order to install. Now I'm very confused.
¤
¤ a) Do you still need ODP.NET with framework 2.0?

It was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET provider for Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET
provider requires a minimum version of the 9i client.

¤ b) Do you need to download and install other Oracle files, too?

You need to install and configure the Oracle client software.

¤ c) Do the answers to the ODP.NET questions about service names and host
¤ names even matter when I'm going to be using a connection string inside my
¤ code? Is my connection string somehow tied to those answers?

Not sure how to answer this question. The information in your connection string will depend upon the
Oracle client software configuration. You can find a few examples at:

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

¤ d) Can you refer to the server's IP address in your connection string
¤ instead of the server name?

Oracle uses host names that resolve to an IP address. The host names are specified in the
tnsnames.ora configuration file and used in the connection string.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

 

[D. Patrick]

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:53:04 GMT, "D. Patrick"

¤ I need to connect to an Oracle database. I've never done it before.
I
¤ see that with framework 1.1 you had to download ODP.NET from Oracle's
site
¤ in order for the framework classes to even work. I tried that quickly,
but
¤ the file is 400 MB, and the the installation asks for all kinds of
things in
¤ order to install. Now I'm very confused.
¤
¤ a) Do you still need ODP.NET with framework 2.0?

It was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET provider for
Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET
provider requires a minimum version of the 9i client.

¤ b) Do you need to download and install other Oracle files, too?

You need to install and configure the Oracle client software.

¤ c) Do the answers to the ODP.NET questions about service names and host
¤ names even matter when I'm going to be using a connection string inside
my
¤ code? Is my connection string somehow tied to those answers?

Not sure how to answer this question. The information in your connection
string will depend upon the
Oracle client software configuration. You can find a few examples at:

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

¤ d) Can you refer to the server's IP address in your connection string
¤ instead of the server name?

Oracle uses host names that resolve to an IP address. The host names are
specified in the
tnsnames.ora configuration file and used in the connection string.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

<< [ODP.NET] was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET
provider for Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET provider requires a minimum version of
the 9i client.>>

Are you saying that I can access Oracle without installing any Oracle
software? That was my goal, but it didn't work. I received an exception
saying I must at least have the Oracle 8.1 client softare installed. I was
using the System.Data.OracleClient classes in framework 1.1. When I
installed ODP.NET, that exception went away, but I still couldn't connect.

It seems that I must have some Oracle software installed (to use the
tnsnames.ora file), right? Although please prove me wrong.

 

[Al Reid]

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:53:04 GMT, "D. Patrick"

¤ I need to connect to an Oracle database. I've never done it before.
I
¤ see that with framework 1.1 you had to download ODP.NET from Oracle's
site
¤ in order for the framework classes to even work. I tried that quickly,
but
¤ the file is 400 MB, and the the installation asks for all kinds of
things in
¤ order to install. Now I'm very confused.
¤
¤ a) Do you still need ODP.NET with framework 2.0?

It was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET provider for
Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET
provider requires a minimum version of the 9i client.

¤ b) Do you need to download and install other Oracle files, too?

You need to install and configure the Oracle client software.

¤ c) Do the answers to the ODP.NET questions about service names and host
¤ names even matter when I'm going to be using a connection string inside
my
¤ code? Is my connection string somehow tied to those answers?

Not sure how to answer this question. The information in your connection
string will depend upon the
Oracle client software configuration. You can find a few examples at:

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

¤ d) Can you refer to the server's IP address in your connection string
¤ instead of the server name?

Oracle uses host names that resolve to an IP address. The host names are
specified in the
tnsnames.ora configuration file and used in the connection string.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

<< [ODP.NET] was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET
provider for Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET provider requires a minimum version of
the 9i client.>>

Are you saying that I can access Oracle without installing any Oracle
software? That was my goal, but it didn't work. I received an exception
saying I must at least have the Oracle 8.1 client softare installed. I was
using the System.Data.OracleClient classes in framework 1.1. When I
installed ODP.NET, that exception went away, but I still couldn't connect.

It seems that I must have some Oracle software installed (to use the
tnsnames.ora file), right? Although please prove me wrong.

In my experience, you will need to install the "Oracle Client Tools" on all PCs that will run your application. Once the Oracle
client tools are installed, you configure the TNSNames.ora file either manually or with the oracle provided SQL*NET configuration
utility. I find that it is better to skip the SQL*NET utility and copy the TNSNames.ora file from a single location and, thus,
insuring that the files are all the same across all PC's. In fact, in many of my apps I copy the current TNSNames file from a
network directory during initialization of the app. That way, any changes to the TNSNames.ora file are automatically distributed to
the local PC's.

I hope this helps.

 

[D. Patrick]

message

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:53:04 GMT, "D. Patrick"

¤ I need to connect to an Oracle database. I've never done it before.
I
¤ see that with framework 1.1 you had to download ODP.NET from Oracle's
site
¤ in order for the framework classes to even work. I tried that
quickly,
but
¤ the file is 400 MB, and the the installation asks for all kinds of
things in
¤ order to install. Now I'm very confused.
¤
¤ a) Do you still need ODP.NET with framework 2.0?

It was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET provider
for
Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET
provider requires a minimum version of the 9i client.

¤ b) Do you need to download and install other Oracle files, too?

You need to install and configure the Oracle client software.

¤ c) Do the answers to the ODP.NET questions about service names and
host
¤ names even matter when I'm going to be using a connection string
inside
my
¤ code? Is my connection string somehow tied to those answers?

Not sure how to answer this question. The information in your
connection
string will depend upon the
Oracle client software configuration. You can find a few examples at:

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

¤ d) Can you refer to the server's IP address in your connection string
¤ instead of the server name?

Oracle uses host names that resolve to an IP address. The host names
are
specified in the
tnsnames.ora configuration file and used in the connection string.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)

<< [ODP.NET] was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET
provider for Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET provider requires a minimum version
of
the 9i client.>>

Are you saying that I can access Oracle without installing any Oracle
software? That was my goal, but it didn't work. I received an exception
saying I must at least have the Oracle 8.1 client softare installed. I
was
using the System.Data.OracleClient classes in framework 1.1. When I
installed ODP.NET, that exception went away, but I still couldn't
connect.

It seems that I must have some Oracle software installed (to use the
tnsnames.ora file), right? Although please prove me wrong.

In my experience, you will need to install the "Oracle Client Tools" on
all PCs that will run your application. Once the Oracle
client tools are installed, you configure the TNSNames.ora file either
manually or with the oracle provided SQL*NET configuration
utility. I find that it is better to skip the SQL*NET utility and copy
the TNSNames.ora file from a single location and, thus,
insuring that the files are all the same across all PC's. In fact, in
many of my apps I copy the current TNSNames file from a
network directory during initialization of the app. That way, any changes
to the TNSNames.ora file are automatically distributed to
the local PC's.

I hope this helps.

The problem is that the client tools is a 1.3 GB (when unzipped) chunk of
code. It seems so crazy to do all that when I just want simply connectivity
for some simple "SELECT __ FROM TABLE" calls to an oracle database.

 

[Al Reid]

The problem is that the client tools is a 1.3 GB (when unzipped) chunk of
code. It seems so crazy to do all that when I just want simply connectivity
for some simple "SELECT __ FROM TABLE" calls to an oracle database.

Well, as crazy as it may sound, It is required. On my machine, using the Administrative user option, it consumes 325MB.
Application user install is somewhere around 200MB. If you don't want to install Oracle client tools on the PC's then you need to
look into using building an n-tier solution using remoting or web services.

 

[Paul Clement]

¤
¤ << [ODP.NET] was never required since Microsoft released their own .NET
¤ provider for Oracle. Oracle's ODP.NET provider requires a minimum version of
¤ the 9i client.>>
¤
¤ Are you saying that I can access Oracle without installing any Oracle
¤ software? That was my goal, but it didn't work. I received an exception
¤ saying I must at least have the Oracle 8.1 client softare installed. I was
¤ using the System.Data.OracleClient classes in framework 1.1. When I
¤ installed ODP.NET, that exception went away, but I still couldn't connect.
¤

No, the Oracle client software must be installed and configured. That is, unless you're using a
third-party library such as DataDirect. The ODP.NET library is a separate install.


Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)