All.
I have used a DLL approach explained on How to securely store Connection String details in VBA
This code is running very well on windows 10 64 bit and MS Office 64 bit. But same copy of the files i am not able to use on Wndows 8.1 Pro and MS Office 64 bit.
DLL generated is converted to host machnines environment by using
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\regasm c:\windows\syswow64\OraConnection.dll /tlb /codebase
But still same error i am facing. About environment variables care has been taken.
My Connection string is
"Provider=OraOLEDB.Oracle; Data Source = ; User ID =; Password=";
In the Succesfull machine i was using Release 12.2.0.1.0 for ODAC 12.2c Release 1 as oracle client.
But saw a latest version of the oracle client as 64-bit ODAC 12.2c Release 1 (12.2.0.1.0) for Windows x64 which was released on 1st June 2017.
Installed the same. And my error was resolved. When i observed system environment variables i saw few things added into it.
E:\app\client\Admin\product\12.2.0\client_1;E:\app\client\Admin\product\12.2.0\client_1\bin;C:\Users\Admin\Oracle\;
I dont know actually what they did. But error was resolved.
Can anybody throw highlight on this?
I'm not sure what the DLL buys you beyond simple obfuscation. All you're doing is making it a bit harder to get to but not actually protecting the privacy of it in any meaningful sense. My normal advice for management of connection strings is to simply don't save user/password. Instead, require the users to input the username/password at runtime and ensure that you have Persist Security Info=false in your OLEDB connection. That way, once it's opened, the full connection string is now inaccessible and there's no reference to a password. That's much more secure than sticking it in a variable in a DLL and crossing your fingers nobody knows how to read a memory dump or attach a debugger.
That said, that's not germane to your question, not able to the use the provider. First thing I'd do is to rule out whether the DLL is causing a problem that you didn't expect by removing it and using the provider directly. If it likewise fails, then you know the DLL has nothing to do with it and you need to work out with Oracle's provider documentation to get to the bottom of the issue.
Related
Want to use an Oracle-ODBC connection in Visual Studio 2017/ SSIS as it's much faster than OLE DB during tests.
Problem:
I follow Oracle's steps to the letter.
Install instant client (v18, also tried v12).
Download/ extract ODBC download in same library. Run odbc_install.exe.
See the Driver in 'ODBC Data Sources/ Admin' in Windows 10.
Add new User Data Source. TNS Service names pull up fine. Test
Connection (User/ Pass) -- it works!! The Connection works!!
I tried this with 64 bit in Oracle, their instant client v18.3 or 12.2 both. All works in Window's "Oracle Source Administrator" via test connections.
I tried this with 32 bit downloads as well. All is good.
Now, open Visual Studio. First tried 64 bit (my Windows OS is 64 bit, but Visual Studio Data Tools is only 32 bit). Had a hunch it wouldn't work.
Error message "system architecture and client is not the same" or such. Gotcha.
Tried the 32 bit Oracle ODBC driver (User Source). I keep getting the same message (tried 18_3 and 12_2 versions).
Now .... SQLORA32.dll is in the very file path it named. It's right there! Why can't it be found? The test connection in ODBC Source Admin works! What is going on here?
And I'm unsure if I have to "register" something via the command line, I had to do that once before, maybe it was an unrelated issue.
To boot, when I tried a 3rd party "Devart Oracle ODBC connector" -- it's a simple 5-second install wizard that works flawlessly instantly. Problem is it's a 30-day trial and costs $150 at least. How can I can get an Oracle-created ODBC connector (Oracle being world-renowned for janky-azz products) to actually work?
Devart, and probably Attunity Oracle ODBC: 5 second installs
Oracle's own: Harder to install than breaking into Fort Knox/ learning Mandarin Chinese. Please advise.
I am answering my own question.
Unfortunately some of us ETL/ BI guys need to go so wide on problems that there's no time to figure out every little detail/ glitch of Oracle's ... whatever they're doing now.
But here's a fix. In Visual Studio 2017/ Data Tools/ the SSIS IDE .... if you want an Oracle ODBC connection (Faster than OLE Db for some reason) --- when you're setting it up, instead of selecting a NAMED "user or system data source" that you created in ODBC Source Administrator, simply using the "Builder" option (to the left of Use Connection String) for a connection string. It does the exact same steps as the ODBC Source Admin, but within Visual Studio. I don't know what the difference is here, but some wizardry/// who knows what is different, and the connection somehow, suddenly, for some reason, works.
We have a number of applications written in VB6 (not .NET) that have been running for almost 20 years.
These applications are running on Windows 2007 64bit servers and connecting to Oracle-11 with a 32bit client.
The connection string contains "Provider=OraOLEDB.Oracle"
So far, so good.
The problem is that we need to convert, for reasons that go beyond the scope of this thread) to Oracle-12 64bit.
After having installed the Oracle 12-client (and disinstalled the Oracle-11 client), we get the following error when trying to open the connection:
"Provider cannot be found. It may not be properly installed."
I'm sure we did install the client and am therefore afraid that VB6 cannot connect to Oracle using the 64bit client.
Apparently easy solutions are unfortunately out of the question:
- Convert to .NET or whatsoever and compile under 64 bit
- Keep the 32bit oracle client.
Any idea how to risolve this?
OLE-DB
Good news and bad; because Visual Basic 6.0 is a 32 bit program with no 64 bit compiler, the 32 bit Oracle Data Access Components software must be installed, even if the database itself is running on a 64 bit server in a 64 bit Oracle Database install, specifically you need the 32 bit Oracle Provider for OLE DB rather than the whole client.
The driver can be found here (Download the ODAC XCopy version):
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/windows/downloads/utilsoft-087491.html
The following thread describes your exact problem and instructions on fixing it:
https://hoopercharles.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/connecting-to-an-oracle-database-with-visual-basic-6-0-on-windows-8-64-bit/
ODBC drivers
Another way to connect is to use ODBC drivers instead, there are pros and cons to each method so google to find them.
First you'll need to install the SQORA32 ODBC driver which comes with the 64 bit client or with the ODAC linked above.
Next, you'll need to create an ODBC connection, instructions can be found here:
https://tensix.com/2012/06/setting-up-an-oracle-odbc-driver-and-data-source/
Finally you need to change your connections strings in VB6 to use the newly created ODBC connections. Something along the lines of the following should work nicely (obviously nameOfDatabase is the name given to your odbc connection):
Provider=MSDASQL;Dsn=nameOfDatabase;Uid=usernameHere;Pwd=passwordHere
Be careful when you set up your DSN, make sure you use the 32 bit ODBC connection manager which can be found in the following location:
c:\windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32.exe
The same program can be found in the system32 folder but that's the 64 bit version....not confusing at all!
(If you can't follow the solution of twoleggedhorse, which is way better.)
You can write a small DLL in .NET 32bit, and make it COM visible so it will be usable by your 32 bits application.
I said in my comment that it seems to be possible in .NET to talk with the DB without an installed client.
To make it through the least painful, you can write it ADO-like (ie a class to replace RecordSet, another for Connection, and so on). Then add it as a reference to your projects and perform a search/replace.
I have deployed a PB App created with PB12.5 Classic. Its a PB winform app. I have managed to deployed it on a test unit to test its performance. I have created a custom runtime packager.
this runtime packager that i have created consists of basic PB runtime DLL, which is the PBDWE125.dll, PBSHR125.dll PBSNC125.dll, PBVM125.dll as per sybase's instruction in infocenter.sybase.com.
i have also packaged microsoft dlls which is the atl71.dll, libjcc.dll, libjtml.dll, msvcp71.dll, msvcp100.dll, msvcr71.dll, msvcr100.dll and nlwnsck.dll.
all of these dlls are installed in C:\Program Files\Sybase\Shared\PowerBuilder.
my problem is, my PB app is running BUT WHEN I TRY TO ESTABLISH CONNECTION my database server it prompt "Transaction not Connected"
is it the PBSNC problem? i tried registering it using regsvr32 and it didnt work. i have used PB runtime packager but still no luck. i have tried the app path registry and link it to the directory stated above and still no luck...
my question is
is there anything that i can do to make this work?
win 7 has c++ runtime libraries installed already right?
what can be the cause of "transaction not connected" error
what can i do to make it work?
note:
i have user access to the database server
i can access the database server
the app is working when the PB IDE is installed
please enlighten me! thank you :D
Does the computer that the app is deployed to have the SQL Server Native Client runtime installed? (I'm assuming you're using SQL Server because you mention PBSNC125.dll.) Here's some info from a blog post I wrote a while back (I was using PB 12 and SQL Server 2008, so things may be different for you.)
Files Required
On your client machines, in addition to the PB runtimes (including PBSNC120.dll, which is for SQL Server), you also need to install the SQL Server Native Client runtime. These come as an msi installer package from Microsoft. When you install the SQL Server client, you'll need to do so as an administrator. Otherwise you'll get a cryptic error message along the lines of "0: -1".
There's a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of the runtime. The 64-bit version won't run on a 32-bit version of Windows and vice versa.
Footnote: My project used PowerBuilder Classic version 12.1 and SQL Server 2008
"Transaction not connected" usually comes from a DataWindow being given a transaction object that isn't connected to the database. It sounds like there isn't much error trapping when you connect to the database, and you're getting a down stream symptom. You need to add error checking to your CONNECT routine, and that will give you more clues as to what is going on.
One of the more common problems with connections on deployment is when programs try to read connection parameters from an INI file, and on deployment the app can't find the INI file, so with no error checking on reading the INI, the program is trying to connect with an empty transaction object and fails. However, the information you've given us is too late to have any clues whether that is the problem or not.
We have one user (a developer) who is experiencing issues with Oracle DataAccess based on whether they are setup as a local administrator on their PC or not.
I dont know the inner workings of Oracle, so im really struggling to figure this one out. My research seems to suggest the problem is around the oracle.dataaccess.dll and maybe linked to the fact that they have Visual Studio 2012 installed.
If the user is configured as a local administrator on thier PC, and they try to run an application they get the following error:
'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Source: Oracle.DataAcess.GetData.GetUserPermissions.wsMS_load
If they are NOT an administrator, the application runs (but they have other problems related to not being as admin - they need admin permissions).
I have a feeling it is something to do with Oracle trying to look at the incorrect version of the .dll. I have read some things about accessing the GAC and getting Oracle to reference a different version of the .dll, but as this stuff does not mean a lot to me I am getting out of my depth.
Your help is appreciated!
I have seen problems with running as admin -vs- a restricted account in the past.
The problems I have seen are related to permissions of oracles install directory on the machine. The quickest way to test for this problem is to tnsping your database using both users on the machine.
If one of them fails they most likely don't have rights to see libraries and config.
However, I have never seen this error message in association with this.
I would have the developer narrow down his code to a few lines that reproduce the problem and then edit the question with those lines. It would greatly increase your chances of get a resolution to the problem.
I had the exact same problem with a VS 2012 and oracle.dataAccess.dll In a software my team developed. When looking dipper to the code and spending lots of hours configuring all kinds of stuff eventually turns out it was a compiling error due to a 64x/86x bit mismatch. Your exception is quite general but I hope this works for you too.
I have installed Cognos BI 8.3 on my machine, which has a Windows 7 OS 64-bit. In IBM's supported environment list for Cognos 8.3, Windows 7 is not listed. On top of that, it says the product will only integrate with 32-bit 3rd party libraries. So, you can already see that I'm already starting on a bad foot. But anyways, this is the machine I have and that is the software I got, so I decided to see if they would work together..
I installed Oracle 10g Express database also in my machine and Apache 2.2 server. Up to there no problems.
Before moving further, I copied ojdbc14.jar to cognos/.../webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib and added the Oracle database in Cognos Configuration. Tested, passed.
With the database started, the Apache server started, and Cognos started, I was successfully able to start Cognos Connection on the computer. So, it looks like the OS is not an issue.
(You can see everything I did by following the steps on this site, which since two days ago seems to be down but I'm thinking will eventually come back up)
Then I decided to try the samples, so I tried to create a data source connection from Cognos to the Oracle database. So, in the admin config console (i.e. Administer Cognos Contents > Configuration), I decided to create a new Oracle data source. I put the credentials, but BAM.. testing fails.
Fail Message:
QE-DEF-0285 The logon failed.
QE-DEF-0323 The DSN(ODBC)/ServiceName is invalid. Either the DSN is missing or the host is inaccessible.
RQP-DEF-0068 Unable to connect to at least one database during a multi-database attach to 1 database(s) in:
testDateSourceConnection
UDA-SQL-0031 Unable to access the "testDataSourceConnection" database.
UDA-SQL-0532 Data Source is not accessible: "XE".
ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified
RSV-SRV-0042 Trace back:
...
From what I have researched, it could be a number of things, but nothing seems to work. Here is what I tried:
Adding ODBC driver. Added the Oracle XE driver, even making sure it was done in the 32-bit ODBC manager (i.e. Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe). That didn't work.
Added ORACLE_HOME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and TNS_ADMIN to my environment variables.
tnsping'ed the XE database and it the ping returned ok.
There are no tnsnames.ora duplicates in the computer.
I tried and I am able to connect to the database via sqlplus. Did I mention that Cognos Config database test also passed?
Installed Oracle XE client. But didn't do much with it because the Oracle server is installed in the computer and also has a client component.
Has anyone come across this problem? I haven't been able to diagnose the problem or make even the slight progress for days. If you would like me to provide more information on any of the solutions I tried, please do ask. If you have a potential solution or, even better, if you have been able to solve this problem before, please let me know how!
Thanks!
One thing to keep in mind : certain portions of Cognos BI are implemented via Java and other portions are implemented via native C++ processes (the BI Bus processes)
Cognos connects to the content store database from the Java process using JDBC.
The BI Bus processes will connect to Oracle using a native oracle client.
So based on your description, I'd say that the problem area is in the native oracle client configuration (or the Cognos service's perspective of it).
You mentioned adding the ORACLE_HOME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and TNS_ADMIN environment variables in windows, and the fact that Oracle Utilities like SQLPlus and TNSPing are working for you.
When you added the environment variables, did you add them to the SYSTEM area for environment variables or the User area...?
If you're running Cognos as a service, its going to be a child process of SERVICES.EXE, which is run as system (this process is also not restarted unless you reboot the machine).
I'd try this :
make sure the above environment variables are defined for the SYSTEM user (in the system area, not the user area)
once you've done this, reboot the machine
See if you can create the database connection now.
If that doesn't work, I'd suggest doing a "run as" of SQLPlus or TNSPING as the SYSTEM user (and see if that works).
In order to use oracle as data source, you must install 32 bit client.
64 bit client will not work.
So if you installed oracle express 64 bit, and you don't want to uninstall it,
you can just install additional 32 bit client, and make sure to set it as your default home.