PL/SQL developer with oracle 32-bit/64-bit client

Question

I have Oracle 64-bit client installed to run with my weblogic application. I learnt that pl-sql developer doesn't work with oracle 64-bit client so now i have both 32-bit and 64-bit clients installed on my machine and my ORACLE_HOME variable points to 64-bit client.

I am not able to start pl/sql developer even i specify the 32-bit client in Tools->Preferences of pl-sql developer version 8.0.4.

I changed my oracle client to 32-bit client then i was able to start pl-sql developer but my application doesn't work.

Is there a way i can run PL/SQL developer whilst pointing ORACLE_HOME to 64-bit oracle client. I am not sure specifying the ORACLE_HOME explicitly in Tools->Preferences of pl sql developer (for user/default as well as system preferences) has any effect as it picks the oracle home from the environment variable i believe.

Thanks, Adithya.

Answer 1

You'll need to install the two clients into separate Oracle Home locations, for example I've gone for C:\OracleHome and C:\OracleHome32

Then set up an Environment Variable, called TNS_ADMIN with the folder that contains your default TNSnames.ora file as the value (for me it is C:\OracleHome\network\admin)

Keep your preferences in PL/SQL Developer, and make sure you also specify the OCI library (mine is C:\OracleHome32\oci.dll)

Finally, using regedit.exe, add a second key under ORACLE (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE). I've called mine KEY_OraClient11g_home1 and KEY_OraClient11g_home2. Create the same 4 strings in the second key, with the appropriate changes to the data (e.g. ORACLE_HOME should have C:\OracleHome32 as it's data field in my example)

Restarting all applications should now let you use PL/SQL Developer seamlessly, whilst also defaulting to the 64-bit Oracle home for your weblogic application.