I have a very simple application on .Net that connect to Oracle using ODP (was compiled with Oracle.DataAccess dll 10.2).
I want to check "connection prerequisite" (application will be able to connect to DB) before installing this aplication on other computers?
How can I check that ODP.NET version 10.2 or higher is installed on target host (registry check is not enopugh)?
I know that I can check ODP entries in registry - but this will not check Oracle Client and compatibility between client and ODP.
Also, if ODP was installed by ODAC XCopy installation - registry may be not updated by new ODP entry.
And - if I am installing on the computer, DB was installed on, Oracle Client can be not installed separately.
And one more issue: When I tried to run "test connection" method from installation, that use referenced dll on machine, that has only ODAC (with ODP) 11, - "Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleException The provider is not compatible with the version of Oracle client at Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleInit.Initialize()
at Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection..cctor()" error message was thrown (policies for both ODAC 10.2 and 11 are exists in GAC (assembly), pointing to Oracle.DataAccess 11 from ODP 2x bin).
So, How and which components can I check to ensure appropriate versions of ODP and Oracle Client were installed and application will be connected?
Thank you in advance!
You can use the DataProvider Factory Classes from .Net. This will show all data providers that are available to your current .Net installation / process. I have a blog post here on how to do it. I put it in place to prevent our users from using versions of Oracle that were not supported with .Net 4.0.
http://blog.tsells.com/2011/05/12/oracle-11g-release-2-and-net-framework-4-0-and-version-checking/
I recently found out that Oracle is not supporting the .net 4.0 framework with any version of the Oracle Provider for .Net prior to 11.2.0.2. (See Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP) Supported Configurations [ID 726240.1] from oracle support for more details).
Since the prior versions work (10.2, 11.1, 11.2.0.1) then I needed a way to prevent end users from using the wrong version. I searched the net and could not find any one who was able to do this so I did some digging. After some testing I came up with the following code.
System.Data.Common.DbProviderFactory factory =
System.Data.Common.DbProviderFactories.GetFactory("Oracle.DataAccess.Client");
if (factory == null)
return false;
Type t = factory.GetType();
int majorversion = t.Assembly.GetName().Version.Major;
// Do not allow any major versions less than 4
if (majorversion < 4)
return false;
This code will use the same data provider that is registered with the .net framework version you are using. This ensures you are not out of sink in your environment and allows you to inspect the version of the dll installed. For this example – I am just checking that ODP is 4.0 or higher (first release of odp for .net 4).
Related
There are a lot of ODAC download at the Oracle website but I want to know what is the right ODAC to download for my VS 2013? I have a Windows 7 64-bit OS.
And also, do I need to install ODAC on BOTH my laptop (where I will create my project) and to the Oracle database server?
When I'm trying to connect to my Oracle database, it throws me this error:
System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater
so I read other blogs saying that I should install ODAC, but these blogs example are using either VS2005 or VS2008, but mine is VS2013
Start with easy answers:
No, you don't have to install any ODAC on Oracle database server (most likely they might be installed anyway by default)
It does not matter at all which Visual Studio you have, regarding Oracle installation they are all the same.
Now regarding your error:
"Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle", i.e. System.Data.OracleClient is deprecated for ages, you should not use it in new projects. You should use the Oracle provider "Oracle Data Provider for .NET" (ODP.NET), so by downloading ODAC from Oracle you have been on the right path.
When you like to use ODP.NET you also have to install an Oracle Client, otherwise it does not work (this requirement is also valid for System.Data.OracleClient, that's the actual error you get).
You can either install "Oracle Instant Client" and ODP.NET or download full Oracle Client where you can make a "Custom" installation. There you have to enable component "Oracle Data Provider for .NET" at least.
It is important to have everywhere the same architecture, i.e. Oracle Client, ODP.NET and your application must be all the same - either x86 or x64 ("AnyCPU" means x64 on nowadays 64-bit Windows). In case you have to support both x86 and x64 follow this instruction to install x86 and x64 on one machine.
Another possibility is to use the "ODP.NET Managed Driver", this one is just a single .dll and does not require any further Oracle client installation. Unlike "ODP.NET" the "ODP.NET Managed Driver" does not depend on the architecture, i.e. it works for both x86 and x64.
It does not matter whether your database is 32-bit or 64-bit. This applies for everything mentioned above.
Ok - I have VS 2012 and VS 2013 installed on a 32-bit developer machine running Windows 7 Enterprise and am attempting to connect to an Oracle 9 database. I can install version 12.1.0.24 without a problem, and I can connect to most databases using ODP.NET Managed and Unmanaged drivers through Server Data Connections tool, etc. Problem is that I also have to build applications that connect to legacy Oracle DB Server instances, and really need an older version of the VS Tools and ODP.NET / ODAC, ie 11.2.3.20. This seemingly installs correctly, but when you try to build a new data connection, the default Data Provider is ".NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle" There is an option for "Oracle Data Provider for .NET", but there is seemingly no way to specify a tnsnames.ora location, and the only option available in the "Data Source Name" combo is "(Local Database)."
Furthermore no option for picking Managed or Unmanaged for the Provider is available. Can somebody please tell me the proper thing to do to get this to work? Are there machine-wide configurations I have to make manually, that the installer for 12.1.0.24 does automatically?
Usually there is no need to install more than one Oracle Client (resp. one each for 32-bit and 64-bit). You can connect to older database with 12.1 client (for Managed Driver the Database must be 10.2 or newer).
Most likely you messed up your Oracle installation, remove them all and install one version from scratch.
In order to make you application independent from installed Oracle Client open *.csproj, resp. *.vbproj file and edit reference to ODP.NET like this:
<Reference Include="Oracle.DataAccess">
<SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
<Private>False</Private>
</Reference>
Attributes like Version=... or processorArchitecture=... are not required. Your application will load the correct Oracle.DataAccess.dll depending on selected architecture and target .NET framework (provided that it is installed properly)
"Oracle.DataAccess" and "Oracle.ManagedDataAccess" are different assemblies, so you cannot use them seamless - unless you use DbProviderFactory and such stuff.
I am working on an internal tool for our product. Our product uses oracle database and have evolved over time from .net framework 2.0 to 4.5 and Oracle 10 to 12.2.
The aim of the tool is to write a single application which works across different versions of the product.
I have solved the problem of multiple .net framework versions by using the following entries in app.config
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
As the oracle managed .net driver is supported for framework >=4.0, I can not use this as I have to support .net framework 3.5 also.
As I have to use unmanaged odp.net driver, I was thinking about the following scenario
My tool would use the lowest version of oracle.dataaccess.dll and target .net 3.5.
Following #1 above makes me refer to 2.xx.... version of the oracle.dataaccess.dll.
When I run this application on a machine with only .net framework 4 installed, what would be the behavior? Would it load 4.xx... version of oracle.dataaccess dll when running under the context of .net framework 4?
The best solution for this would have been availability of oracle managed driver for .net 3.5 version but I found that it is not available.
Please provide your valuable inputs.
Satish
UPDATE :
I have written a sample application targeting .net framework 3.5. In this sample app, I will build a connection string and just open a connection and close it.
This application runs successfully when there are no <supportedRuntime> tags in the app.config.
When we add any <supportedRuntime> tags in the app.config, I am getting a type initializer exception for oracle related types. I have tried this with the supported run time tags
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
individually and both combined. But I am still getting the issue. Can anyone suggest how to resolve this issue?
ODP.NET unmanaged driver exist in following versions:
1.x (.NET Framework 1.0.3705/1.1.4322), available up to Oracle Client 11.1.
2.0 (.NET Framework 2.0.50727), introduced with Oracle Client 10.2
4.0 (.NET Framework 4.0.30319), introduced with Oracle Client 11.2
If your compile target is .NET version 3 or 3.5 then the application will try to load ODP.NET version 2.0 (and will raise an exception if it is not found on the machine). Actually I am not sure if it would also accept ODP.NET version 4.0.
If your compile target is .NET version 4 or higher then the application will try to load ODP.NET version 4.0 (and will raise an exception if it is not found on the machine).
You can do several solutions:
Provide a copy of Oracle.DataAccess.dll which matches your version and put it in your application directory.
Use late binding, i.e. instead of
var con = new Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection();
use
var DLL = Assembly.Load(String.Format("Oracle.DataAccess, Version={0}.{1}.*.*, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342", frameworkVersion, oracleVersion));
var type = DLL.GetType("Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection", true, false);
dynamic con = Activator.CreateInstance(type)
However, this syntax is only available from .NET Framework version 4.0 on, I do not know how to write this in version 3.0/3.5.
Note, use con.GetType().Assembly.FullName and con.GetType().Assembly.Location in order to see which DLL was really loaded.
I know that the request may look somehow weird but I am trying to develop a .Net application using EF and Visual Studio 2010 against a ORACLE 10g DB.
Initially I tried with EF4 which is the embedded one in VS2010 and with ODP11 I am able to make it work. But due to some specific bugs in EF4 (StoreGeneratedPattern bug) I want to go to EF5 or EF6.
While "googleing" a bit I was able to Install EF6 using the nugets and adding the context generator for EF using the following explanation:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/jj206878.aspx
The problem here is that the system is not able to find a proper ODP provider for Entity Framework as I only have ODP11 installed.
Again after investigating a bit :) I saw I need ODP12 which will have full support to EF. My problem here is that all servers will be working with OraClient 11g against a Ora10g DB... I know there is no major problem (at least for the use I need) to use Ora11Client with a Ora10Server but what about ODP? I cannot change the Oracle client and I am wondering whether I can face any issue by having my application developed with ODP12 and being executed in a machine with Ora11g Client.
Is anyone having some advice on this?
Thanks a lot in advance!!
It's my understanding that the managed driver for 12 (Oracle.ManagedDataAccess and Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.EntityFramework available on NuGet) will connect to 10.2 and above and does not require ANY client installed on the computer as it contains the client it needs. It just gets installed in the app's bin directory. Be aware though that it doesn't seem to currently work with .NET 4.0 in case you're still targeting that. The 4.0 version of Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.EntityFramework shows up on NuGet as a beta version and is actually compiled against .NET 4.5.
ODP.NET 12.x has a dependency on the Oracle 12 client software so you cannot use it with the 11 client stack. You can use ODP.NET 12 to connect to databases going back to version 10.2.
You can embed the ODP.NET, unmanaged client stack in your app by using the Xcopy download, or you could use the ODP.NET, Managed Driver which is just one DLL and less than 10 MB in size.
Oracle has the concept of an "Oracle Home" (subdirectories) to allow multiple versions of software to run side by side. So that version 11 Client on your servers can exist alongside with the version 12 software you deploy there.
After quite some time developing with Oracle Client 9.2.0.7, and the ODP.NET to go with it, targeting .NET 1.1, we are upgrading our code line to .NET 3.5 and we are also considering upgrading the Oracle Client version.
I wonder if there are any "gotchas" as to whether specific versions should be used/not used?
For example Oracle Client 9.2.0.4 was known to be buggy with .NET and the upgrade to 9.2.0.7 was non optional.
Apparently the current Oracle Client version is 11.1.0.7.0 (from here). Has anyobody had specific issues with this version and would recommend other version? Sometimes installing the latest release isn't the best choice...
Take a look at the following document from Metalink, it might help. It contains a matrix of ODP Driver Version, Supported Operating System, SQL*Net, RDBMS, .NET Framework, and Visual Studio.
Subject: Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP) Supported Configurations
Doc ID: 726240.1
If all you need to do is talk to Oracle, then you can use my instructions found here for the Oracle 11 Client XCopy deploy.
The latest version is the only version that you can use if you have visual studio 2008 unless you don't want any of the snazzy add ins that Oracle provides with it (such as SQLPlus and such). I use the latest version to connect to a 10g database just fine.