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Create the Oracle E-Business Suite connection URI

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The Microsoft BizTalk Adapter for Oracle E-Business Suite connection URI contains properties that the adapter uses to establish a connection to Oracle E-Business Suite, and essentially the underlying Oracle database. The Oracle E-Business adapter supports two ways of connecting to the underlying Oracle database: using tnsnames.ora and without using tnsnames.ora. Based on the kind of connectivity approach, the format of the connection URI is also different. This topic provides information about the Oracle connection URI and also provides links to other topics that explain how to specify a URI in different programming scenarios.

Oracle E-Business Suite is an application layer that interfaces with an underlying Oracle database, and is categorized into different applications such as Financials and HR, based on the different needs within an organization. Each of these applications provides various “forms” that enable users to enter data into the underlying Oracle database. Access to these forms is restricted by associating users with an application context that comprises the organization ID to which a user belongs, the “responsibility” associated with the user, and the name of the Oracle E-Business Suite application that the user wants to invoke. Even though the adapter connects directly to the underlying database and does not use forms to interface with the Oracle E-Business Suite, setting the application context is mandatory when performing operations on the Oracle E-Business Suite artifacts. So, to connect to the Oracle E-Business suite, and the underlying Oracle database, using the Oracle E-Business adapter, you must:

  • Specify a connection URI to connect to Oracle E-Business Suite and the underlying Oracle database. While establishing a connection, you can choose to specify the credentials for Oracle E-Business Suite or the underlying Oracle database.

  • Set the application context for the user. The Oracle E-Business adapter exposes certain binding properties that accept the credentials and the responsibility. For more information about these binding properties, see Read about the BizTalk Adapter for Oracle E-Business Suite binding properties. For more information about setting the application context, see Set application context.

    This section provides information about how to specify the connection URI to connect to the underlying database using tnsnames.ora and without using tnsnames.ora. It also provides information about using the connection URI to connect to Oracle E-Business Suite.

Connect using tnsnames.ora

Important

  • For this approach, you must add the net service name entry in the tnsnames.ora file on the computer with the adapter client installed. For information about the net service name entry, see Configure the Oracle client for the E-Business Suite adapter.
    • Due to an Oracle Client limitation, the DataSourceName parameter (net service name) in the connection URI cannot contain more than 39 characters if you are performing operations in a transaction. Therefore, make sure that the value specified for the DataSourceName parameter is less than or equal to 39 characters if you will be performing operations in a transaction.

The connection URI can contain an Oracle net service name that is used to identify the Oracle E-Business Suite service with which you want to connect. The Oracle client resolves the Oracle net service name that you provide in the connection URI to connection information for an Oracle E-Business Suite service, according to a hierarchy of Oracle naming methods that you configure it to use. One common naming method is called local naming. In local naming, the Oracle client uses a file called tnsnames.ora to resolve the Oracle net service name.

A typical endpoint address URI in WCF is represented as: scheme://userauthparams@hostinfoparams, where:

  • scheme is the scheme name.

  • userauthparams is a name-value collection of parameters required for user authentication by the endpoint.

  • hostinfoparams is information required to establish the connection to the host; for example, a net service name.

    The Oracle E-Business adapter connection URI adheres to this basic format and is implemented as follows:

oracleebs://User=[USER_NAME];Password=[PASSWORD]@[NET_SERVICE_NAME]

The following table explains the properties contained in the connection URI.

Connection URI Property Category Description
[USER_NAME] userauthparams The user name to use for authentication. The Oracle E-Business adapter exposes a ClientCredentialType binding property that specifies the type of Oracle client credential that the client specifies to establish a connection. The possible values for the ClientCredentialType binding property are Database and EBusiness. Depending on the value for this binding property, you must specify relevant credentials. For more information, see Oracle Credentials and the Connection URI. Note: You must set the AcceptCredentialsInUri binding property to true to specify the user name and password in the connection URI. Note: The Oracle E-Business adapter does not preserve the case of the value that you enter for the user name when it connects to Oracle E-Business Suite. The user name is passed to Oracle E-Business Suite using the standard rules of SQL*Plus. However, if you want the case of the user name to be preserved or if you want to enter a user name containing special characters, you must specify the value within double quotes.
[PASSWORD] userauthparams The password to use for authentication. The Oracle E-Business adapter exposes a ClientCredentialType binding property that specifies the type of Oracle client credential that the client specifies to establish a connection. If the ClientCredentialType property is set to Database, the clients must specify the password for an Oracle database user. If the ClientCredentialType property is set to EBusiness, the clients must specify the password for an Oracle E-Business Suite user. Note: The Oracle E-Business adapter does not preserve the case of the value that you enter for the password when it connects to Oracle E-Business Suite. The user name is passed to Oracle E-Business Suite using the standard rules of SQL*Plus. However, if you want the case of the password to be preserved or if you want to enter a password containing special characters, you must specify the value within double quotes.
[NET_SERVICE_NAME] hostinfoparams A net service name that is specified in the tnsnames.ora file on the computer where the Oracle E-Business adapter is installed. For information about net service names and tnsnames.ora, see Configure the Oracle client for the E-Business Suite adapter.

Connect without using tnsnames.ora

Important

  • For this approach, you need not have the net service name entry in the tnsnames.ora. Also, you do not even need to have the tnsnames.ora file on the computer with the adapter client installed.
    • This mode of connectivity is not supported if you are performing operations in a transaction. This is due to a limitation of Oracle Client.

A typical endpoint address URI in WCF is represented as: scheme://userauthparams@hostinfoparams, where:

  • scheme is the scheme name.

  • userauthparams is a name-value collection of parameters required for user authentication by the endpoint.

  • hostinfoparams is information required to establish the connection to the host; for example, server name, port number, etc.

    The Oracle E-Business adapter connection URI adheres to this basic format and is implemented as follows:

oracleebs://User=[USER_NAME];Password=[PASSWORD]@[SERVER_NAME]:[PORT_NUMBER]/[SERVICE_NAME]/[SERVICE_TYPE]

The following table explains the properties contained in the connection URI.

Connection URI Property Category Description
[USER_NAME] userauthparams The user name to use for authentication. The Oracle E-Business adapter exposes a ClientCredentialType binding property that specifies the type of Oracle client credential that the client specifies to establish a connection. The possible values for the ClientCredentialType binding property are Database and EBusiness. Depending on the value for this binding property, you must specify relevant credentials. For more information, see Oracle Credentials and the Connection URI. Note: You must set the AcceptCredentialsInUri binding property to true to specify the user name and password in the connection URI. Note: The Oracle E-Business adapter does not preserve the case of the value that you enter for the user name when it connects to Oracle E-Business Suite. The user name is passed to Oracle E-Business Suite using the standard rules of SQL*Plus. However, if you want the case of the user name to be preserved or if you want to enter a user name containing special characters, you must specify the value within double quotes.
[PASSWORD] userauthparams The password to use for authentication. The Oracle E-Business adapter exposes a ClientCredentialType binding property that specifies the type of Oracle client credential that the client specifies to establish a connection. If the ClientCredentialType property is set to Database, the clients must specify the password for an Oracle database user. If the ClientCredentialType property is set to EBusiness, the clients must specify the password for an Oracle E-Business Suite user. Note: The Oracle E-Business adapter does not preserve the case of the value that you enter for the password when it connects to Oracle E-Business Suite. The user name is passed to Oracle E-Business Suite using the standard rules of SQL*Plus. However, if you want the case of the password to be preserved or if you want to enter a password containing special characters, you must specify the value within double quotes.
[SERVER_NAME] hostinfoparams Name of the server on which the Oracle E-Business Suite is running. This is mandatory.
[PORT_NUMBER] hostinfoparams The Oracle Net Listener port. The default value 1521.
[SERVICE_NAME] hostinfoparams The Oracle database service name. This is mandatory.
[SERVICE_TYPE] hostinfoparams The type of Oracle service. The possible values are Dedicated or Shared. A dedicated service uses a dedicated server process to serve only one user process. A shared service uses a shared server process that can serve multiple user processes. Default is Dedicated.

Oracle Credentials and the Connection URI

By default, the Oracle E-Business adapter throws an exception when the Oracle credentials are specified in the connection URI. This is because these credentials are represented as plain text in the connection URI, and this poses a security risk. You can set the AcceptCredentialsInUri binding property to control whether the connection URI can contain credentials for the Oracle database. If the AcceptCredentialsInUri property is false, which is the default, the Oracle E-Business adapter throws an exception if the connection URI contains Oracle credentials; if the property is true, no exception is thrown.

Important

Due to the security risks posed by passing credentials in strings as plain text, you should avoid specifying Oracle database connection credentials in the connection URI. For more information about how to more securely provide credentials for the Oracle database, see Secure your Oracle EBS applications.

You may also choose to specify either the database credentials or the Oracle E-Business Suite credentials for establishing a connection to Oracle E-Business Suite. The adapter exposes three binding properties to enable this behavior: ClientCredentialType, OracleUserName, OraclePassword.

The possible values for the ClientCredentialType binding property are Database and EBusiness.

  • If the ClientCredentialType property is set to Database, the clients must specify the database credentials.

  • If the ClientCredentialType property is set to EBusiness, the clients must specify the Oracle E-Business Suite credentials. In this case, the adapter clients must also specify the database credentials for the OracleUserName and OraclePassword binding properties.

Important

In scenarios where the adapter clients specify the database credentials to connect to Oracle E-Business Suite by setting the ClientCredentialType binding property to Database, but invoke an Oracle E-Business Suite artifact, the values specified for OracleUserName and OraclePassword binding properties are used for setting the application context. Setting the application context is mandatory for invoking artifacts in Oracle E-Business Suite. For more information about setting the application context, see Set application context.

Using Reserved Characters in the Connection URI

The Oracle E-Business adapter does not support specifying a connection URI that has special characters for any of the parameter values. If the connection parameter values contain special characters, make sure you do one of the following:

  • If you are specifying the URI in Visual Studio using Add Adapter Service Reference Plug-in or Consume Adapter Service Add-in, you must specify them as-is in the URI Properties tab, that is, without using any escape characters. If you specify the URI directly in the Configure a URI field and the connection parameters contain reserved characters, you must specify the connection parameters using proper escape characters.

  • If you are specifying the URI while creating a send or receive port in BizTalk Server Administration console, and the connection parameters contain reserved characters, you must specify the connection parameters using proper escape characters.

Using the Connection URI to Connect to Oracle E-Business Suite

The following is an example of a connection URI for Oracle E-Business adapter using tnsnames.ora.

oracleebs://ADAPTER

In this example, ADAPTER is a net service name that is associated with the SERVICE NAME and connection information for the target Oracle database in tnsnames.ora.

The following is an example of a connection URI for Oracle E-Business adapter without using tnsnames.ora.

oracleebs://yourOracleServer:1521/yourOracleDatabaseServiceName/Dedicated

In this example, the server name is “yourOracleServer” and the service name is “yourOracleDatabaseServiceName”.

For information about how to establish a connection to Oracle E-Business Suite when you:

See Also

Configure the Oracle client for the E-Business Suite adapter
Connect to Oracle E-Business Suite using Windows Authentication
Create a connection to Oracle E-Business Suite