2 Installing .NET Products

This chapter contains:

What You Need
Installing .NET Products
Configuring a NET Connect Alias

What You Need

This section lists the products and database schemas you need to run the examples provided in this guide.

Oracle Database

You must have Oracle Database installed, either locally or on a remote computer.

Note:

This samples in this guide all require Oracle Database 11g client. However, you may use any Oracle Database 9i Release 2 or higher as they are supported with this client.

You can administer the database with the user interface, Enterprise Manager, which can run scripts and queries, and more.

Sample Data

The sample data used in this book is contained in the HR schema, one of the Oracle Sample Schemas. The Sample Schemas are included as part of the Oracle Database installation.

Oracle Data Access Components

Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) is a collection of tools that include:

Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio
Oracle Data Provider for .NET
Oracle Providers for ASP.NET
Oracle Provider for OLE DB
Oracle Objects for OLE
Oracle ODBC Driver
Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server
Oracle SQL*Plus
Oracle Instant Client

Oracle Database Extensions for .NET

Oracle Database Extensions for .NET is installed as part of the Oracle Database installation on Windows. The ODAC installation provides an upgrade to Oracle Database Extensions for .NET, as indicated in Step # 8 of the section "Installing .NET Products".

Visual Studio 2008

Before proceeding with instructions in this book, you must install Visual Studio 2008.

Installing .NET Products

These steps demonstrate how to install Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (ODT) and Oracle Data Provider for .NET and other ODAC products once Visual Studio is installed.

Note:

Please note that as new versions of Oracle .NET products are released, the install process may change slightly from what is shown in this guide. The screenshots are based on Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) version 11.1.0.6.21.

To install:

In your Internet browser, navigate to the following location, and download ODAC with Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio:
```
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/odpnet/index.html
```
Extract all the files from the zip file to a folder in your file system.
Double-click Setup.exe.

Oracle Installer launches. A screen appears briefly to detect required dependencies and then the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) Welcome screen appears.

Description of the illustration install01.gif
Click Next.

The Select a Product to Install screen appears

Description of the illustration install02.gif
Select the first option.

This option, ODAC for Oracle Client, installs only products that are used in a client Oracle home. The second option, ODAC for Oracle Server, allows you to install directly into an Oracle home that contains an Oracle database.
Click Next.

The Install Location window appears, allowing you to chose the installation location. By default, a new client Oracle home is created. For the purposes of this guide, accept the default which will create a new Oracle home.

Description of the illustration install03.gif
Click Next.

The installer performs prerequisite check. The status for each should be succeeded.

Description of the illustration install04.gif
Click Next.

The Available Product Components screen appears.

Please be sure that the following are checked:
- Oracle Data Provider for .NET 1.x
- Oracle Data Provider for .NET 2.0
- Oracle Providers for ASP.NET 11.0
- Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio 11.0
- Oracle Instant Client 11
Description of the illustration install05.gif
Click Next.

A screen appears reminding you that you must run the SQL scripts located in ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\client_1\ASP.NET\SQL if you wish to use Oracle Providers for ASP.NET.
Click Next.

The Summary window appears.

Description of the illustration install06.gif
Click Install to complete the installation.

The end of the installation screen appears. It reminds you again to install the ASP.NET scripts. Do this if you plan to use the Oracle Providers for ASP.NET.
Click Exit.

Configuring a NET Connect Alias

The tnsnames.ora file defines database server addresses so that the Oracle client can use a short version of the name to connect to databases. Your DBA may have already provided you with an preconfigured tnsnames.ora file.

Otherwise, you need to navigate to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin\sample directory and copy the tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files located to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin directory.

You may use the following connect descriptor in your tnsnames.ora file and change the values shown in italics for your specific environment:

Example 2-1 tnsnames.ora connect descriptor

address name =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(Host = hostname)(Port = port))
   )
 (CONNECT_DATA =
   (SERVICE_NAME = sid)
 )
)

Where:

sid: Is the database service name

hostname: Is the database computer name

port: Is the port to use to communicate to the database

address name: Is a user-defined short name for the connect descriptor. This short name will be used in the connection string to your .NET application.

Example 2-2 shows a sample tnsnames.ora file.

Example 2-2 Sample tnsnames.ora File

ORCL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = ORCL)
    )
  )