Connect to OBIEE from Oracle SQL Developer?

1
votes

Is it possible to create a connection to OBIEE from Oracle SQL Developer?

I know it is possible to create an ODBC connection to the Oracle BI server within the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator, and that other ODBC client tools can use that ODBC connection to run SQL against the BI server, but I don't see any way for SQL Developer to use that ODBC connection.

I'm on OBIEE 12.2.1.4 and SQL Developer 17.3.0.271.

UPDATE

Based on Robin Moffatt's article at https://rmoff.net/2016/03/28/connecting-to-obiee-via-jdbc-with-jisql/, I used jisql (https://www.xigole.com/software/jisql/jisql.jsp) to set up a connection to OBIEE using the JDBC driver that ships with the OBIEE client -- bijdbc.jar, which is located at $ORACLE_HOME/bi/bifoundation/jdbc/.

Following is a screenshot showing how jisql is able to successfully connect to my OBIEE server via the bijdbc.jar driver and run an example SQL statement; the Oracle-specific connection details are outlined in red:

Screenshot 1: OBIEE JDBC connection test using jisql

My next step was to try to implement this same successful JDBC connection in SQL Developer. To that end, I added bijdbc.jar to SQL Developer's third-party JDBC drivers:

Screenshot 2: bijdbc.jar added to SQL Developer third-party JDBC drivers

After adding the JDBC driver, I did not see a new tab in SQL Developer's connection dialog. (By comparison, in the past, when I have added other third-party JDBC drivers, such as the jTDS and MySQL drivers also seen in screenshot 2, new tabs had become available.)

Since there was not a new tab in SQL Developer's connection dialog, I tried setting the Oracle tab's connection type to Advanced and inserting the JDBC connection string as the Custom JDBC URL. Testing that connection leads to a "String index out of range: -1", as seen in this screenshot:

Screenshot 3: Error using custom JDBC URL in SQL Developer

Since that same JDBC connection string works in jisql, I suspect that either I'm doing something wrong, or SQL Developer does not support connecting to OBIEE via that bijdbc driver.

2
oracleoracle-sqldeveloperobiee
Question: What is your goal? What would you want to achieve with that? – Chris
if your BI Server is an oracle database, then yes - but you won't use an odbc source, because SQL Developer is java, it uses jdbc. You would create a jdbc connection in sql developer using the same connection properties defined in your odbc source – thatjeffsmith
@Chris: For testing purposes, I would like to be able to run SQL statements directly against the BI server. E.g., select max("Calendar Date") from "Sample Sales Lite"."Time". I know that this can be done within OBIEE's /analytics web app (under Administration > Issue SQL), but I'd prefer using SQL Developer if possible. – myfriendedward
@thatjeffsmith: In the ODBC connection, the relevant properties appear to be the server (192.168.223.3) and the port (9514); I have confirmed that this connection works without issue. In SQL Developer, when I try creating a new Oracle connection with hostname = 192.168.223.3 and port = 9514 (with SID and service name left blank), I get "IO Error: Bad packet type". – myfriendedward
I've never seen that error before, but it's network related I believe – thatjeffsmith

2 Answers

0
votes

Ok, fair enough. Have a look at what Andrew did to make the ODBC drivers usable in Excel - it's basically down to manipulating things in Windows: https://www.rittmanmead.com/blog/2017/02/working-with-obiee-data-in-excel-using-odbc/

0
votes

Just adding a final answer here in case anyone stumbles upon this page asking the same question:

No, SQL Developer does not currently support connecting to an OBIEE server, although other tools can be used to connect to the server using either ODBC or JDBC.