Does Visual Basic + Oracle + ADO work together well?

Or is ODBC the answer? I need to connect to an oracle database on a seperate machine from a Win2K server using Visual Basic.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

M

VB and Oracle work well together. By using ADO, you are on the right track. You should install the oracle client (from Oracle), and choose the oracle Data Provider from Oracle, not from Microsoft. You should only use ODBC if there is a corporate mandate to do so. By adding the ODBC layer into the mix, you are slowing things down.

If you have never worked with Oracle, don't worry too much it is very similar to MS-SQL, but you will have to convert dates. I believe the command is to_date() but you will have to lookup the syntax.


John R Lick
[email protected]

What would the connection string of the ADO Connection object look like?

Currently for MS-SQL:
Provider=SQLOLEDB.1
Persist Security Info=False
UserID=<USERID>
PWD=<PASS>
Initial Catalog=<DB_NAME>
Data Source=<SERVER>


With the Oracle 7 service, I have the ServiceName and UserName. But what would the Connection String look like?

Here is how you can find one:

Run VB.
In the View menu select the Data View Window. This will display a window with a tree structure, (Data Links being the root.)
right click on the data links root item and select Add a data link.
This will display the Data Link Properties window.
Choose the oracle driver you are looking for (I perfer the one from oracle over the one from Microsoft).
Click the next button. This will take you to the connection tab.
Enter the appropriate information, and click test connection.
Click OK.
Now in the Data View window, right click on the new entry (probably DataLink1) and choose properties. Your connection string will appear in the Name Property.

You can use this as a base, and edit it as need be.


John R Lick
[email protected]

This works good for databases on Oracle 8. But what do I need different for Oracle 7? Should I install the Oracle 7 Client as well? Are the Oracle ODBC Drivers different?

I can't say if it would be different for Oracle 7, but I would expect it would be (at least the provider). What I have done in the past is have a setup program that calls up the same window, and store the connection string (without user & password) in the registry. That way your code doesn't have to care about the string, which will be created based on the oracle client that the client computer has.

I don't have access to the code to call up that window from VB, but if you are interested, please respond, and I will look it up when I get home from work. (Hopefully I still have that code.)



John R Lick
[email protected]

How can I make Oracle connection with the help of batch file. I want my tables to be created in Oracle from a batch file.

Is there any way out ???