You can create and manage connections with the Data Explorer and the FireDAC Connection Editor wizards. See Connection Definitions for more information on creating connections from code and creating persistent, private, or temporary connections.

Before You Connect

To connect to Oracle, you will first need to update the appropriate environment variable. This variable must contain a folder location that includes the Oracle OCI Library assemblies, which are shipped alongside the component. The correct environment variable depends upon your platform:

• Windows: The native libraries should be on your PATH. Note that the VC++ 2017 Redistributable package is required to load the OCI libraries.
• Mac: The native libraries should be on your DYLIB_LIBRARY_PATH.
• Linux: The native libraries should be on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

These native libraries can be found in the lib folder inside the installation directory of the component.

Connecting to Oracle OCI

The following connection types are available:

• Oracle Server
• OracleTNS
• LDAP

Oracle Server

After you have added the appropriate libraries to your PATH, set the following to connect:

• User: The user Id provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• Password: The password provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• Port: The port used to connect to the server hosting the Oracle database.
• ServiceName: The service name of the Oracle database. You can obtain this value by querying global_name (select * from global_name) using the Oracle SQL*PLUS command line.
• Server: The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Oracle database.

OracleTNS

Set the following connection properties prior to connecting:

• User: The user Id provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• Password: The password provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• DataSource: The Oracle Net Services Name, Connect Descriptor (known also as TNS Connect String), or a connection name that identifies the database to which to connect. You should be able to find these values in your tnsnames.ora file.

For example,

DataSource='(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(protocol_address_information))(CONNECT_DATA= (SERVICE_NAME=service_name)))'

LDAP

In this scheme, you need to authenticate to the LDAP server. Set the following connection properties to connect:

• User: The user Id provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• Password: The password provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
• LDAPUri: The LDAP URI used to connect to the LDAP server.
• LDAPUser: The User account for LDAP server.
• LDAPPassword: The password for the LDAP user.

Your connection string should look similar to this:

LDAPUri=ldap://myldap.com:389/SERVICE_EXMPL,cn=OracleContext,dc=example,dc=com; User=ORACLEUSER; Password=OracleUserPassword;

Note that this connection type requires both your Oracle and LDAP usernames and passwords. Your system administrator may allow anonymous LDAP logins, in which case your LDAP username and password are not needed.

Using the FireDAC Connection Editor

Complete the following steps to use the FireDAC Connection Editor to assign a Oracle OCI connection to a TFDConnection object:

1. Open a project and drop a TFDPhysCDataOracleOciDriverLink from the Tool Palette onto the Form Designer.
2. Drop a TFDConnection object onto the Form Designer.
3. Double-click the TFDConnection and select CDataOracleOci in the Driver Id menu.
4. Define the necessary connection properties.
5. To execute ad-hoc SQL statements based on this connection, enter SQL commands on the SQL Script tab.
6. In the Form Designer, select the TFDConnection object and set the Connected property to true.

Using the Data Explorer

Complete the following steps to use the Data Explorer to define persistent connections that can be shared across applications and projects:

1. Click View > Tool Windows > Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand the FireDAC node.
2. Right-click the CData Oracle OCI Data Source node and click Add New Connection.
3. Enter a name for the connection. The FireDAC Connection Editor opens.

Working with Persistent Connections

The connections you define in the Data Explorer can be assigned to a TFDConnection object by specifying the connection name in the TFDConnection object's ConnectionDefName property.

Browsing Data and Metadata

The Data Explorer also provides options for browsing Oracle OCI objects at design time:

• Expand the CData Oracle OCI Data Source node in the Data Explorer to view the defined connections.
• Expand a connection node to find the database objects available for a connection.
• Drill down to a database object to find metadata such as primary keys and foreign keys.
• To display data, double-click a table or view or right-click and click View.