Sparx Enterprise architect and Oracle ODBC

3
votes

trying to make some reverse engineering by EA from ODBC access to an Oracle XE database, I got the following error : "Unable to obtain Table Information", immediately after having entered the password when choosing the database name. The equivalent test from the ODBC source options is successful. I have not found any log files by EA or a view to obtain more informations.

I am using : - EA 7 and 9 (tried on both) /32bits - Oracle DB XE 10.2.0.1.0 /32bits - Oracle ODBC Driver 10.2.0.1.0 (installed with the XE database) /32bits - windows 7 /64 bits

Any idea ?

1
oracleoracle10godbcenterprise-architect
Perhaps the account you're using isn't allowed to perform metadata queries. Does SELECT * FROM DBA_TABLES return results? Is there any error number or message besides "Unable to obtain Table Information"? Is the account you're using to log in to your Oracle database able to see the schema in which the tables you're interested in reside? – Bob Jarvis - Reinstate Monica
Hi, I've checked and my user can access those tables. – JLM

1 Answers

3
votes

I was trying to reverse-engineer with EA 9.2 on an actual 11g database and ran into a few problems. I had installed the latest 64-bit Windows version of Instant Client and the Instant Client ODBC component.You would think this would work, but noooo! I could get a 32-bit ODBC source setup, but not 64-bit. You couldn't see it in the 64-bit ODBC Data Source manager and EA apparently needs 64-bit. Even though there was only a 32-bit data source setup, you could select it in EA and you'd get the "unable to obtain tables" error.

I then stumbled across the ODAC download - go to Oracle and find "32-bit Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) with Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio" - after a few hours of futzing around. After a quick install, I was able to create a data source in the 64-bit Data Source manager that passed the connection test. This data source worked just fine in EA.

One last note: When I was working with Instant Client, I also discovered conflict between its DLL's and my Oracle XE local install. I de-installed XE to be rule it out, so I don't know if it would conflict with the ODAC arrangement, but it might. What a mess...