Problem connecting using OCI8

Question

I am getting an error when attempting to connect to a 9i r2 database using OCI8. When I connect using the thin driver all works fine. Are different drivers or installation procedures needed to use OCI8? I am working with BLOB's and wanted to use OCI because I understand it is more efficient thatn the thin driver for this data type.
The two url's which are used are listed below.
dbUrl1 "jdbc:oracle:oci8:@svr:1521:orcl"
Fails with the following error: 500 Internal Server Error : java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: oracle.jdbc.oci8.OCIEnv.envCharSetId
dbUrl2 "jdbc:oracle:thin:@svr:1521:orcl"
Works fine.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Wayne

Answer 1

Hi Lars-Inge
I too am working through this same issue. I wasn't using the OracleDataSource object for connecting but rather the DriverManager's getConnection method as seen here:
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbUrl, dbUser, dbPass);
My dbUrl is: String dbUrl = "jdbc:oracle:oci9:@OraSid";
Using this approach, I get an "invalid URL" SQL Exception. So I tried the approach from your post using an ods object. Here too, I'm getting a SQL exception "java.sql.SQLException: Invalid Oracle URL specified: OracleDataSource.makeURL". Here is what my connection code looks like:
OracleDataSource ods = new OracleDataSource();
ods.setUser("user");
ods.setPassword("password");
ods.setDriverType("oci9");
ods.setDatabaseName("OraSid");
ods.setPortNumber(1521);
ods.getConnection();
Am I missing something that's causing the SQL Exception?
Thanks,
Rajesh Vasisht