Connect to Oracle Data from PowerBuilder via ADO.NET

This article demonstrates using the CData ADO.NET Provider for Oracle in PowerBuilder, showcasing the ease of use and compatibility of these standards-based controls across various platforms and development technologies that support Microsoft .NET, including Appeon PowerBuilder.

This article shows how to create a basic PowerBuilder application that uses the CData ADO.NET Provider for Oracle to perform reads and writes.

1. In a new WPF Window Application solution, add all the Visual Controls needed for the connection properties. Below is a typical connection string:

   User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Port=1521;

   To connect to Oracle, you'll first need to update your PATH variable and ensure it contains a folder location that includes the native DLLs. The native DLLs can be found in the lib folder inside the installation directory. Once you've done this, set the following to connect:

   • Port: The port used to connect to the server hosting the Oracle database.
   • User: The user Id provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
   • Password: The password provided for authentication with the Oracle database.
   • Service Name: The service name of the Oracle database.
2. Add the DataGrid control from the .NET controls.
3. Configure the columns of the DataGrid control. Below are several columns from the Account table:

   
   <DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="False" Margin="13,249,12,14" Name="datagrid1" TabIndex="70" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
   <DataGrid.Columns>
       <DataGridTextColumn x:Name="idColumn" Binding="{Binding Path=Id}" Header="Id" Width="SizeToHeader" />
       <DataGridTextColumn x:Name="nameColumn" Binding="{Binding Path=CompanyName}" Header="CompanyName" Width="SizeToHeader" />
   		...
   	</DataGrid.Columns>
   </DataGrid>
   

4. Add a reference to the CData ADO.NET Provider for Oracle assembly.

Connect the DataGrid

Once the visual elements have been configured, you can use standard ADO.NET objects like Connection, Command, and DataAdapter to populate a DataTable with the results of an SQL query:

System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCIConnection conn 
conn = create System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCIConnection(connectionString)

System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCICommand comm 
comm = create System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCICommand(command, conn)

System.Data.DataTable table
table = create System.Data.DataTable

System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCIDataAdapter dataAdapter
dataAdapter = create System.Data.CData.OracleOCI.OracleOCIDataAdapter(comm)
dataAdapter.Fill(table)	
datagrid1.ItemsSource=table.DefaultView

The code above can be used to bind data from the specified query to the DataGrid.