Oracle Data Provider for .NET can be installed through XCopy or Oracle Universal Installer.
Administrators use XCopy to deploy Oracle Providers for ASP.NET to large numbers of computers for production deployments. The XCopy has a smaller installation size and fine grain control during installation and configuration than Oracle Universal Installer.
Oracle Universal Installer (OUI)
Developers and administrators use Oracle Universal Installer for automated ODP.NET installations. It includes documentation and code samples that are not part of the XCopy.
Note:
This section describes installation using the Oracle Universal Installer. For installation and configuration using the XCopy install, refer to the README.TXT file that is part of the XCopy installation.Additionally, Oracle Data Provider for .NET Dynamic Help is registered with Visual Studio, providing context-sensitive online help that is seamlessly integrated with Visual Studio Dynamic Help. With Dynamic Help, the user can access ODP.NET documentation within the Visual Studio IDE by placing the cursor on an ODP.NET keyword and pressing the F1 function key.
Oracle Data Provider for .NET creates an entry in the machine.config file of the computer on which it is installed, for applications using ADO.NET 2.0 and OracleClientFactory class. This enables the DbProviderFactories class to recognize ODP.NET.
See Also:
Oracle Database Installation Guide for Windows for installation instructionsThe Oracle.DataAccess.dll assembly is installed as follows:
NET Framework 1.x
ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\odp.net\bin\1.x directory
NET Framework 2.0
ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\odp.net\bin\2.x directory
Documentation and the readme.txt file are installed in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\ODP.NET\doc directory.
Samples are provided in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\ODP.NET\Samples directory.
Upon installation, ODP.NET creates entries for configuration and tracing within the Windows Registry. Configuration and tracing registry values apply across all ODP.NET applications running in that Oracle client installation. Individual ODP.NET applications can override some of these values by configuring them within the ODP.NET application itself (for example, FetchSize). The ODP.NET registry values are located under: HKLM\Software\Oracle\ODP.NET\version\.
There is one key for .NET Framework 1.x and one key for .NET Framework 2.0 and higher.
For customers who have numerous applications on a computer that depends on a single version of ODP.NET, the Windows Registry settings for a given version of ODP.NET may not necessarily be applicable for all applications that use that version of ODP.NET. To provide more granular control, ODP.NET Configuration File Support allows developers to specify ODP.NET configuration settings in an application config, web.config, or a machine.config file.
If a computer does not require granular control beyond configuration settings at the ODP.NET version level, there is no need to specify ODP.NET configuration settings through configuration files.The following is an example of a web.config file for .NET Framework 1.x:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<oracle.dataaccess.client>
<add key="DllPath" value="C:\oracle\bin"/>
<add key="FetchSize" value="65536"/>
<add key="StatementCacheSize" value="10"/>
<add key="TraceFileName" value="c:\odpnet1.trc"/>
<add key="TraceLevel" value="63"/>
<add key="TraceOption" value="1"/>
</oracle.dataaccess.client>
</configuration>
The following is an example of a web.config file for .NET Framework 2.0:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<oracle.dataaccess.client>
<settings>
<add name="DllPath" value="C:\oracle\bin"/>
<add name="FetchSize" value="65536"/>
<add name="PromotableTransaction" value="promotable"/>
<add name="StatementCacheSize" value="10"/>
<add name="TraceFileName" value="C:\odpnet2.trc"/>
<add name="TraceLevel" value="63"/>
<add name="TraceOption" value="1"/>
</settings>
</oracle.dataaccess.client>
</configuration>
Through the use of the DllPath configuration parameter, each application can specify the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin location that the dependent unmanaged Oracle Client binaries are loaded from. However, the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME must have the same ODP.NET version installed as the version that the application uses. Otherwise, a version mismatch exception is thrown.
The Oracle.DataAccess.dll searches for dependent unmanaged DLLs (such as Oracle Client) based on the following order:
Directory of the application or executable.
DllPath setting specified by application config or web.config.
DllPath setting specified by machine.config.
DllPath setting specified by the Windows Registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\Software\Oracle\ODP.NET\version\DllPath
Directories specified by the Windows PATH environment variable.
The DllPath registry value takes effect on all supported Windows operating systems, except Windows 2000. On Windows 2000, ODP.NET relies on the application directory and Windows PATH for loading dependent unmanaged DLLs.
Upon installation of ODP.NET, Oracle Universal Installer sets the DllPath Windows Registry value to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin directory where the corresponding dependent DLLs are installed. Developers must provide this configuration information on an application-by-application basis.
When a new ODP.NET version is installed, default values are set in the Windows Registry for the new version. Because the policy DLLs redirect all ODP.NET references to this new ODP.NET version, applications use the default values. Developers can provide a config or web.config file specific to the application to prevent this redirection. The configuration file settings always apply to the application, regardless of whether or not patches or new versions are installed later.
ODP.NET Configuration File Support is only available for 11.1.0.6.0 and later.