Call to undefined function oci_connect, php_oci8_12c.dll, windows 8.1, php5.6.6

Question

I have a simple php script:

<?php
$db_user = 'myusername';
$db_pass = 'mypassword';
$db_sid = 'mysid';
$conn = oci_connect( $db_user, $db_pass, $db_sid );
?>

When I run it (from a browser or from the command line), I get the error:

Call to undefined function oci_connect

I'm using php 5.6.6 which came with php_oci8_12c.dll already there.

I have extension=php_oci8_12c.dll in my php.ini

I have installed instant client (12.1) - tried 32 bit version AND 64 bit version

I have ORACLE_HOME and TNS_ADMIN environment variables pointing at the instant client folder ( C:\instantclient_12_1 ).

I also have C:\instantclient_12_1 in my path

I have a tnsnames.ora in that same folder with this relevant entry in it:

MYSID =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myhost.net)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = MYSERVICE)
    )
  )

I have also downloaded SQLDeveloper from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/downloads/index.html

SQLDeveloper works, recognizes the above mentioned tnsnames.ora and connects and successfully runs a query on the same database that my php script is trying to access.

I have spent several hours over several days trying different things to no avail.

I'm using:

php 5.6.6
windows 8.1
IIS (so no answers involving apache please)
cmd (run as administrator)
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition 11.2.0.3.0 

Some other information that might prove useful:

I would ideally like to use oci 1.4.10 to match the production server, but not too worried about that for now.

pear install oci8-1.4.10.tgz

gives me this error:

The DSP oci8.dsp does not exist

I can't find any explanation on that error that means anything to me.

What am I missing - can anyone help me

EDIT:

I have tried the various suggestions in other posts on stackoverflow, namely:

extension=oci8.so with and without extension=php_oci8_12c.dll

I don't have the line extension=php_oracle.dll in my php.ini file

EDIT:

phpinfo tells me that I am using the correct php.ini file:

Loaded Configuration File => C:\php5.6.6\php.ini

This line from phpinfo might also be of use:

Configure Command => cscript /nologo configure.js  "--enable-snapshot-build" "--enable-debug-pack" "--disable-zts" "--disable-isapi" "--disable-nsapi" "--without-mssql" "--without-pdo-mssql" "--without-pi3web" "--with-pdo-oci=c:\php-sdk\oracle\x86\instantclient_12_1\sdk,shared" "--with-oci8-12c=c:\php-sdk\oracle\x86\instantclient_12_1\sdk,shared" "--with-enchant=shared" "--enable-object-out-dir=../obj/" "--enable-com-dotnet=shared" "--with-mcrypt=static" "--without-analyzer" "--with-pgo"

EDIT:

It seems that dsp files are VC++ project files - I am now venturing on learning how to create a php extension, and hopefully when I've done that I'll have enough knowledge to compile the oci8 1.4.10 source code into a dll that works on windows 8 - unless somebody rescues me with the answer to this question - this looks like it is going to take me some time :-)

EDIT:

Adding display_startup_errors = On to php.ini tells me that the oci dll is not a valid Win32 application

Answer 1

Edit: Hmm. Trying this on Windows 8 appears to generate the same error as you specified. I'm currently investigating...

My mistake (I had enabled the wrong extension_dir line). It works in Win8 just as documented below.

---

The following steps should be all you need to get OCI working with PHP (I've just verified this on a freshly installed Windows 2008 R2 Standard x64 virtual machine):

• Download and extract PHP (I used C:\php from php-5.6.7-nts-Win32-VC11-x86.zip).
• Download and extract InstantClient (I used C:\instantclient_12_1 from instantclient-basic-nt-12.1.0.2.0.zip).
• Add the above paths to the system path.
• Copy c:\php\php.ini-production to c:\php\php.ini.
• in php.ini:
  • enabled line extension_dir = "ext".
  • enabled line extension=php_oci8_12c.dll.
• Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime (x86). This is needed for the OCI8 extension.
• Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Runtime (x86). This is needed for PHP.

At this point running php --ri oci8 in a command prompt shows me the following output:

C:\>php --ri oci8

oci8

OCI8 Support => enabled
OCI8 DTrace Support => disabled
OCI8 Version => 2.0.9
Revision => $Id: f5a3ee1083d1ffa6adb5143efda6eafa210b8414 $
Oracle Run-time Client Library Version => 12.1.0.2.0
Oracle Compile-time Instant Client Version => 12.1

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
oci8.max_persistent => -1 => -1
oci8.persistent_timeout => -1 => -1
oci8.ping_interval => 60 => 60
oci8.privileged_connect => Off => Off
oci8.statement_cache_size => 20 => 20
oci8.default_prefetch => 100 => 100
oci8.old_oci_close_semantics => Off => Off
oci8.connection_class => no value => no value
oci8.events => Off => Off

Statistics =>
Active Persistent Connections => 0
Active Connections => 0

And checking for the oci_connect function:

C:\>php -r "var_dump(function_exists('oci_connect'));"
bool(true)

Answer 2

In addition to what was said to fix the problem, I would like to add the php CLI side of things, as some people need to run OCI-enabled applications in CLI mode. In my case, I had to copy an instance of oci.dll into the wamp/bin/php/php<version>/ folder for php --ri oci8 to show that oci8 was correctly loaded. That doesn't prove that other files were not needed to correctly run a full-fledged application (see my technical footnote). Including the path to the instantclient 12 distribution wouldn't do it.

Technical notes: My environment being: Windows 7 + WAMP3 (php 5.6.15, apache 2.4.17), I was, after a number of experiments, able to narrow down the minimal set of three files that needed to be copied to the bin directory (Apache's for non-cli apps) from the instantclient 12 distribution, to allow instantiate an Oracle adapter within Zend Framework, perform an SQL query and read the recordset.

This set is: oci.dll, oraociei12.dll and orans.dll.

In particular, copying just oci.dll wouldn't allow the application to work (unknow Exception raised)