Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From Oracle OCI connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New Oracle OCI Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

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 add-in. 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 add-in.

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.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to Oracle OCI you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

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