ODBC driver for Oracle 9i stored procedure. 2

[chenkang]

Hello, all

This is kind of emergency. we developed our project on Crystal Report 8 and Oracle 8i. All of our reports use oracle stored procedure, which return a ref cursor. We use "CR Oracle 8 ODBC Driver" and everything follows document "scr_oracle_stored_procedures.pdf", all reports work fine.

Now we need to upgrade our database server to Oracle 9i. however, I don't know which driver we can use. we don't want to re-code our application. Just want to change ODBC driver. Sounds like Crystal Report 9 has data connectivity for Oracle 9i. Is there any other way/driver we can make our existing report work with Oracle 9i without upgrade Crystal report.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Kang

 

[lyanch]

I use the native connection with Oracle 9i and Crystal 8.5. The ODBC connection seemed to have some problems with the timestamp datatype. The native connection doesn't like it either, but at least it doesn't crash when it encounters it (it thinks its a 10 char string). We started with 9i so I can't comment on 8i to 9i changes, just that at least 8.5 works with 9i (although not supported). I would try just pointing your ODBC connection to the new database. If it hasn't been having any problems, it will probably work. There are updates to ODBC drivers as well as native drivers available from Crystal if it doesn't.

Lisa

 

[chenkang]

Thanks, Lisa.

Since I haven't use Oracle Native driver before, I have several questions hope you can help me out.

1. The Native driver should come with Oracle client instead of Crystal report, right? To use it, we have to install oracle client first, right? If we installed the Oracle 9i client, does it mean we have the latest Oracle native driver? Suppose no updated version can be found from crystal decisions web site.

2. What's the way to use Oracle Native driver in crystal report? I did it like this: Menu "Database"->"Add Database to Report"->"More Data Sources"-> "Oracle Server". Is that correct?

Thanks for your help.

Kang

 

[lyanch]

Looks right to me. The "native" driver actually comes from Crystal, it however depends on the client.. so you really need both. I haven't updated my oracle client and/or the driver to the best of my knowledge. I wouldn't start looking unless you have problems.

Lisa

 

[synapsevampire]

<nodding at Lisa>

I just went through this, and since the Timestamp can now have a timezone, the CR ODBC driver may choke.

BTW, I went through a few steps to convert this data type because we were using the timestamp with timezone, you can either use a SQL Expression from Crystal to parse it, or do something with it in a SP/View, I believe that's how I resolved it.

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com