Microsoft announced that they won’t support the System.Data.OracleClient anymore :(
The message says that it will still be available in .NET 4.0 but “deprecated” and that it wont impact existing applicatoions.
So what are my options?
Well you have to go to a third party. Not now but eventually.
Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) (Oracle states that ODP.NET is Free)
DataDirect ADO.NET Provider for Oracle
dotConnect for Oracle
Migration to ODP.NET
Installation
Microsoft OracleClient to ODP.NET Application Migration: Code Migration
Oracle provide general instructions. In summary you need to:
- Add the references to Oracle.DataAccess
- Change namespaces: System.Data.OracleClient by Oracle.DataAccess.Client; and maybe add “using Oracle.DataAccess.Types”
- Update the connection String (most attributes are the same). Change Integrated Security by "User Id=/", change “Server” attribute to “Data Source” and remove Unicode
- The following is anoying but you have to add after all OracleCommands something like OracleCommand1.BindByName = true;
Deployment
- Oracle Universal Installer (either in normal installation or Silent Install)
- XCopy (I like this :) ) just remember to download the ODAC xcopy version