Php trying to connect to Oracle 11g via PDO - unknown error

Question

I'm trying to connect to an Oracle 11g Express Edition Database in php via PDO. I have xampp installed, I also have a (supposedly) working pdo_oci extension, which also shows up in phpinfo(). My database works and I can connect to it via an sql console and/or sql developer. I have enabled the extension php_pdo_oci.dll

My code is:

$db_username = "system";
$db_password = "mypass";
$db = "oci:dbname=xe";
$conn = new PDO($db,$db_username,$db_password);

I get the following error:

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[]: pdo_oci_handle_factory: <> (ext\\pdo_oci\\oci_driver.c:579)' in ...

So this really doesnt tell anything.

If I try to connect via oci_connect and enable the extension php_oci8_11g.dll (and disable the pdo extension) then with this code:

$conn = oci_connect('system', 'mypass', 'localhost/XE');

I get this error:

Warning: oci_connect() [function.oci-connect]: OCIEnvNlsCreate() failed. There is something wrong with your system - please check that PATH includes the directory with Oracle Instant Client libraries in...

So what is Oracle Instant Client? I only downloaded Oracle Express Edition, and added ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH as environmental vars and also added the path to PATH as well. Am I missing anything?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Okay, I think I fixed it, so if anyone else needs it:

I downloaded Oracle Instant Client. After this it was still complaining that I should put its place in the PATH, even if it was already there.

So I copied all the files in the Instant Client (probably you don't need all, but anyway) into the apache/bin dir and voila it worked.