Visigenic Technical Note for 32-bit ODBC Windows 95 Oracle driver

From: Rick Rutt <rrutt_at_delphi.com>
Date: Mon, 18 DEC 95 11:24:47 -0500
Message-ID: <hxHnden.rrutt_at_delphi.com>



Here is a technical note I received from Visigenic in Microsoft Word format, that I converted to text.  
  • Rick

Visigenic Technical Note  

Using the Visigenic 32-Bit ODBC Driver for Oracle7 that is included with Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0  

The Visigenic 32-bit Oracle7 driver works on the Windows NT operating system using Oracle NT 3.51 components but is not certified to work in a Windows 95 environment. Visigenic will certify the 32-bit Oracle7 driver when Oracle ships a general release version of the networking components that support Windows 95. When certification is complete, Visigenic will make an upgraded driver available that works with these components. For those users who need to use the 32-bit ODBC Oracle7 driver in a Windows 95 environment today, Visigenic has identified a workaround for development and testing purposes. The following sections describe:  

  • How to use the 32-bit Oracle7 driver on the Windows NT operating system
  • How to use the 32-bit Oracle7 driver on the Windows 95 operating system

Using the 32-bit Oracle7 Driver on the Windows NT Operating System  

In order to function in a Windows NT environment, the 32-bit Oracle7 driver uses the Oracle NT 3.51 networking components. The Oracle7 driver has been tested against the following versions of SQL*Net. Visigenic recommends that you use these versions or later:  

Platform Version of Client Libraries  

Windows NT 3.51			SQL*Net version 1.1
				SQL*Net version 2.1
 
 

Using the 32-bit Oracle7 Driver on the Windows 95 Operating System  

The following workaround shows you how to the 32-bit Oracle7 driver on Windows 95  

Warning: This workaround has not been exhaustively tested and we cannot assure that it will work with all ODBC functions. Oracle neither supports nor acknowledges this configuration. This workaround should be used for development and testing purposes only and not in a production environment.  

This workaround works with SQL*Net 1.1 but will not connect with SQL*Net 2.0 or later versions.  

To use the 32-bit Oracle7 driver, follow these steps:  

  1. Install the Oracle NT 3.51 components. These components are available on either the Oracle7 Server 7.1.3.3.6 CD, the Oracle Workgroup 2000 CD, or the Oracle Products for Windows NT version 7.1 CD.

During the installation process, you will be prompted to either install everything or perform a custom installation.  

2. Choose Custom Install and install the following components.  

  Required Support Files 7.1.3.3.6
  SQL*Net TCP/IP Client 1.1.6.8  

This combination contains the files that the Oracle7 driver will need to work in this environment. These files include:  

  corent23.dll
  msvcrt10.dll
  orant71.dll
  sqltcpnt.dll  

3. Copy the ctl3d32.dll to the Windows/SYSTEM directory. The Oracle7 driver is dependent on one additional file that is not installed by the Oracle installer or by Visual Basic setup-ctl3d32. This file must reside in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and is available
>from the Visigenic FTP server "ftp.visigenic.com". You can also find
ctl3d32.dll on the October '95 MSDN, but make sure that you have the Windows 95 version of the file.  

If you cannot locate this file on the October '95 MSDN, you can ftp the file from visigenic.com.  

To ftp ctld32.dll:
a. Log in to the visigenic ftp.visigenic.com server as the "anonymous"

    user.
b. Download the file as binary from the directory

    /pub/outgoing/win95patch.  

For example, a typical ftp transfer might look like the following:

--------------------------------------------------------- ftp.visigenic.com
Connected to odbc.
220 odbc FTP server (Version wu-2.4(1) Thu Jun 22 11:10:26 PDT 1995) ready. Name (odbc.visigenic.com:guest): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> cd /pub/outgoing/win95patch
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get ctl3d32.dll
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for ctl3d32.dll (26112 bytes). 226 Transfer complete.
local: ctl3d32.dll remote: ctl3d32.dll
26112 bytes received in 0.24 seconds (1e+02 Kbytes/s) ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.

If your name server is unable to resolve the name "ftp.visigenic.com", but you have an Internet connection, you can use the IP address as the argument to the ftp command: 204.179.99.14.  

4. After you have finished installing the Oracle NT 3.51 components and copied ctl3d32.dll to the appropriate directory, start the registry editor (regedit) with the /v option.  

During the installation process, ORACLE entries are made in the registry. These entries need to be removed.  

Search through the registry and remove any ORACLE entries. These entries should be found under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder in the SOFTWARE folder. This will clean up the registry and force the system to use the environment variable "PATH" to find the Oracle components.  

Note: A side effect of removing the registry entries is that some taskbar menu items created by the Oracle installer will no longer function. These are not important to the functioning of ODBC and can be removed at your discretion.  

5. Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder in the SOFTWARE folder, search for a folder called ODBC.  

Other registry entries specific to the Visigenic Oracle7 driver may need to be edited. The ODBC folder contains another folder called ODBCINST.INI. The ODBCINST.INI folder contains additional folders-including ODBC Drivers and Visigenic Oracle7.  

  1. The ODBC Drivers folder must contain at least one entry with Name set to "Visigenic Oracle7" and Data set to "Installed". Each entry consists of a Name and the corresponding Data. Make sure that there is an entry with Name set to "Visigenic Oracle7" and Data set to "Installed".
  2. The Visigenic Oracle7 folder must contain at least two entries with the following settings:
	For the first entry, Name must be set to "Driver" and Data must be
	set to "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vsorac32.dll".
	For the second entry, Name must be set to "Setup" and Data must be
	set to "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vsorac32.dll".
 

If the Visigenic Oracle7 folder does not exist in the ODBCINST.INI folder, you must create it.  

Note: The entries in the ODBCINST.INI folder should match the odbcinst.ini entries located in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Since the registry does not automatically import information from this file, you cannot edit this file and expect the changes to be reflected in the registry.  

6. Once all the registry entries are either removed or edited, add the Oracle installation directory \bin to the search path.  

Edit the autoexec.bat file that is located in the root directory (if one is not already present, then create it), and add the directory to the path. For example if Oracle has been installed in c:\orant, then add the following line.  

   PATH=c:\orant\bin;%PATH%  

7. Add a "services" file to your windows directory.  

If you had previously connected to Oracle under Windows 3.1, this file will normally be included in your Windows 3.1 tcp/ip connectivity directory (which is specific to your tcp/ip connectivity software). In that directory there should be a file named "services" (or services.txt). Copy this file into your windows directory. This file should be named "services" with no file extension.    

The following example is taken from a Visigenic internal configuration. The number of entries and the numeric values in your services file will be different. In either case, the file must contain a reference to "orasrv".  



c:\windows\services:  
sqlexec		1525/tcp			(not required)
orasrv		1526/tcp			(required entry)
informixse	1527/tcp			(not required)
online7		1537/tcp			(not required)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

If you cannot find the "services" file or do not know how to interpret the entries in it, please speak to your system administrator.  

8. Reboot and run.    

After rebooting, use the SQL*Net 1.1 connection string syntax -- not the SQL*Net 2.1 syntax-- when trying to connect to a data source. The connection string format is:  

t:{server name}:{database name}  

where "t" signifies connections using the tcp/ip protocol.  

For example, using tcp/ip with a server named "mickey" and the database instance of "ora1", the following connect string would be used:  

t:mickey:ora1  

-- 
==============================================================================
 Phil Perucci ......... pperucci_at_access.digex.net ........ Systems Integrator 
 "Visit the Hydrologic Information Center at http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/~hic"
==============================================================================
Received on Tue Dec 19 1995 - 14:54:13 CET

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