PHP4 Oracle TNS problem

[Anon]

Hello everyone!
I just installed PHP4 on my WinNT box with Apache and I'm trying to connect to Oracle. The error message I get is as follows:

Warning: _oci_open_server: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve service name in c:\Files\htdocs/directory_add/add.php on line 41

I've seen that a lot of people are having this problem and I have found just this one reply to maybe solve the problem:

please set all oracle-relates environment variables before you start your apache
process! do not use SetEnv in httpd.conf not PutEnv() in your php-script to set eny of those!

However, I don't have a clue where to set this enviroment variable. I've gone to the Enviroment variable in Win NT by right clicking on My Computer and going to properties etc. and actually creating a new variable ORACLE_SID=C:\path-to-tnsname.ora but that still doesn't work.

Any suggestions or how I can get this to work?

Thanks,
Jay Paulson

[Anon]

Well I've done more research on this problem and I have now tried loading php as a module however apache crashes when I try to do this. So I'm having to use the php.exe to run all my scripts.

I've read just about every post on here and it really seems a lot of people are having a ton of problems with this and I have yet to come across an solution. If anyone knows anything about this or has found a solution please contact me because this is very important in the development of our applications for our company! 🙂

Thanks,
Jay Paulson

[Anon]

You MUST, at most, install the Oracle client tools on the NT side!!

[Anon]

I encounter the same problem but I haven't and experience about it .

sorry.. I haven't got and idea about this problem.
if you learn about it can you send the message ?

thanks in advanced.

[Anon]

Thanks for all the great help! I still haven't found a fix for this problem, however I have found this post on the php general mailing list:

<http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-general&m=96687657322530&w=2>

I'm trying to get the 8.1.6 client right now but for some reason it is not around. Once I get it I will install it and do what this says etc and get back to you all.

Other things I have tried:
I've tried setting the

$db = "db.world = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL= TCP)(Host= xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)(Port= xxxx)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SID = db)))";

and then logging in, but this doesn't work. I've tried running php as a module however when I uncomment the php_oci8.dll in the php.ini apache crashes (does anyone know how to dynamically load dll's while in modular mode of php?? the dl("whatever.dll") function doesn't work). However, when i comment out all the dll's in the php.ini file php runs fine without any problems i just can't connect to Oracle for obvious reasons. Anyway, just got the 8.1.6 client disc so i'll be back in a bit to update you on how this goes.

Jay Paulson

[Anon]

Okay everyone!! I got it up and working FINALLY so here's what I did step by step, but first here's my confiuration of everything so you all will know what I was dealing with.

WinNT
Apache 3.1.12
PHP4.0.3pl1
Oracle client 8.1.6.0.0

I was running Oracle client 8.0.5 and uninstalled it and put 8.1.6 on. Anyway, here's what I did.

1. Installed 8.1.6 custom install for the client and the Oracle Utilities for NT. I placed this install in C:\Oracle

2. Next I installed Apache 3.1.12 in C:\apache (to get apache up and running correctly i just follow this tutorial <http://www.thickbook.com/extra/php_apachephp4_win.phtml> it's really good on how to install apache with php4 and it only took me like 5 minutes to do).

3. After the install I installed PHP4.0.3pl1 in C:\php4 (to get php4 up and running correctly as a cgi program i just follow this tutorial <http://www.thickbook.com/extra/php_apachephp4_win.phtml> it's really good on how to install php4 and it only took me like 5 minutes to do).

4. I next went into the php.ini file and uncommented the php_oci.dll and the php_oracle.dll files.

5. Then I next went into apache's http.conf file and where it says:

   Section 1: Global Environment

   #

   The directives in this section affect the overall operation of Apache,

   such as the number of concurrent requests it can handle or where it

   can find its configuration files.

   #

I set these enviroment variables like so:

SetEnv TNS_ADMIN /Oracle/Ora81/Network/Admin
SetEnv ORACLE_HOME /Oracle/Ora81

For the tnsnames.ora file you have to set the TNS_ADMIN variable to where that is located on your local computer which you are running PHP4 on (in my case I installed the oracle client to C:\Oracle so I had to set the TNS_ADMIN to C:\Oracle\Ora81\Network\Admin. If you install the oracle client somewhere else then it would be my guess you would set the TNS_ADMIN variable to C:\TheDirOfOracle\Ora81\Network\Admin).

For the ORACLE_HOME variable you have to set it to where you install the Oracle client and in my case that was C:\Oracle (I had to add the Ora81 to the end of that (C:\Oracle\Ora81) in order to point it to the right spot so my guess would be if you installed the oracle client into a different directory you would set the ORACLE_HOME variable to C:\TheDirOfOracle\Ora81).

6. After I saved the http.conf file I went to "Services" which is in the control panel and just restarted Apache there.

7. I then took a look at my phpinfo file that I had made to see if the TNS_ADMIN and the ORACLE_HOME variables were set and they were.

8. Finally, I wrote a small program to connect to my database and it worked!

$db = "nameofdb";
$connID = OCILogon("user", "pass", $db);
if ($connID > 0) {
echo "Connected to Oracle!";
}
else {
echo "Connection Failed!";
}

I hope this helps everyone out! Let me know if this works for you all!

Jay Paulson

[adolf]

sorry..
follow your description..
but i still cann't work..
i use oracle 8.05
and have the same error message.
my oracle installed dictionary is e:\orant
and i try several ways to modify relative file but still failed.
can you more detial decritbe your method,
thansk.