Question

I need to connect to oracle from my .Net application.

I’m thinking of using ODP.NET

Is there a way to connect to Oracle without any dependency on the tnsnames.ora file? Reason I ask is because I’ll have hundreds of different connections and I wouldnt want to be dependant on that file.

Answer 1

Yes, if you use a connection string that contains the data of tnsname.ora.

---

Say your tnsname entry looks like this:

 YourTnsName =  
  (DESCRIPTION =  
    (ADDRESS_LIST =  
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = YourHost)(PORT = 1521))  
    )  
    (CONNECT_DATA =  
      (SID  = YourSid)  
    )  
  )  

instead of using YourTnsName in the connection string, you can write it like this:

var constr = new OracleConnectionStringBuilder()
             {
                DataSource = @"(DESCRIPTION =(ADDRESS_LIST =(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = YourHost)(PORT = 1521)))(CONNECT_DATA =(SID  = YourSid)))",
                UserID = "userid",
                Password = "password",
             }.ConnectionString;

using (var con = new OracleConnection(constr))
{ 
    ... 
}

hence no entry in tnsname.ora is needed.