This article discusses the symptoms and solutions for two problems some WebObjects 4 developers may encounter with Oracle 8.1.5, also known as Oracle 8i.

Question 1: I'm using WebObjects 4 to connect to an Oracle 8.1.5 or Oracle 8i database on Windows NT. Although SQL*Plus has no problems, EOModeler can't see the database and my application can't connect at runtime; it appears that I am using an invalid SID.

Answer: A registry entry required by EOF is not created during the Oracle 8.1.5 installation procedure. In the Windows NT registry, make sure that under:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE

the key

ORACLE_HOME

exists and has the string value of:

C:\Oracle\Ora81

replacing "C:\Oracle\Ora81" with the correct path to your Oracle install directory.

Question 2: I'm using WebObjects 4 to connect to an Oracle 8.1.5 or Oracle 8i database on Solaris. My WebObjects applications won't compile or don't seem to be able to access the database.

Answer: When compiling a WebObjects application using Oracle 8.1.5 or Oracle 8i database for Solaris, you must add the following entry to OTHER_LIBS in your Makefile.preamble::

-L$(ORACLE_HOME)/lib -lclntsh -lcommon8 -lcore8 -lnls8

Also, keep this line COMMENTED in your Makefile.preamble:

#include $(MAKEFILEDIR)/pdo-eoadaptor-linking.make

Your application should now compile and run correctly against Oracle 8.1.5.