SSDT for SSRS - Unable to connect to data source 'DataSource1'.The selected data extension ORACLE is not installed or cannot be loaded

Question

I installed the latest SSDT for visual studio 2015 to create/modify SSRS reports which connects to Oracle 11 database. The previous version of SSDT (for visual studio 2012) had "Oracle" as one of the values in the "Type" drop down list in the data source properties, which worked perfectly fine if Oracle client software installed on the machine. However, the list values have changed in SSDT for Visual Studio 2015. There is no "Oracle" option anymore, instead there is "Oracle Database". But, if "Oracle Database" is selected, I get the error "Unable to connect to data source 'DataSource1'.The selected data extension ORACLE is not installed or cannot be loaded... ." Any idea how to resolve this issue?

PS: I tried the OLEDB option by specifying "Oracle Provider for OLEDB" which changes the connection string a bit to "Provider=OraOLEDB.Oracle.1;Data Source=DBName". The connection works but many queries stopped working with the message "ORA-00900:Invalid SQL Statement".

Answer 1

You need to use Oracle's 32-bit Data Access Components for SSDT / Visual Studio development with Oracle data sources:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/dotnet/utilsoft-086879.html

Please note if you are deploying to a 64 bit SSRS Server, you need to install the 64 bit version of the components on your SSRS Server.