How to setup Oracle Instant Client with XAMPP in macOS Mojave? - php

Question

I am using macOS and have successfully installed and set up XAMPP on my system. But the problem is that I want to connect to an oracle database through PHP Easy Syntax like below:
$conn = oci_connect('xx', 'xx', '123.123.xxx.x/xxxx');
if (!$conn) {
$e = oci_error();
trigger_error(htmlentities($e['message'], ENT_QUOTES), E_USER_ERROR);
}
But i get this error on running the page
Call to undefined function oci_connect()
After reading some article i found that i have to install oracle instant client but i really don't know the steps to download which version and then where to unzip the files in xampp folder. I am really a novice in this area.

Answer 1

This is what I did on macOS Mojave. I used the native installer XAMPP 7.4.9 from
xampp-osx-7.4.9-0-installer.dmg. I did a basic install with the Developer files
option selected - this was the default.
It seems like XAMPP for macOS doesn't have the OCI8 extension built. (I noticed
the XAMPP VM install from xampp-osx-7.4.9-0-vm.dmg also didn't have the OCI8
extension, but I haven't played with it yet.)
Sadly the 'obvious' method of installing OCI8 with the pecl command fails to
correctly find the right PHP version. E.g. running:
sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/pecl install oci8
and answering:
instantclient,/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient-11.2.0.3.0/
fails with checking PHP version... Unknown option: n. The PECL config looked OK, but there must have been some conflict with the native PHP version.
Anyway, the slightly longer manual install of OCI8 works. The instructions are below.
I prefer to use a more recent Instant Client, so download the latest Instant
Client Basic and SDK packages from
here
and unzip them:
cd $HOME/Downloads
curl -O https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/mac/instantclient/instantclient-basic-macos.zip
curl -O https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/mac/instantclient/instantclient-sdk-macos.zip
Extract the Instant Client (substitute your download directory path):
cd /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib
sudo unzip /Users/cjones/Downloads/instantclient-basic-macos.zip
sudo unzip /Users/cjones/Downloads/instantclient-sdk-macos.zip
You can optionally do some cleanup. Get rid of the old Instant Client:
sudo rm -rf /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient-11.2.0.3.0
and remove new libraries not needed by OCI8:
sudo rm -f /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient_19_3/{*jdbc*,*occi*,*mysql*,*jar,uidrvci,genezi,adrci}
Download the OCI8 extension from PECL and
extract it:
cd $HOME/Downloads
curl -O https://pecl.php.net/get/oci8-2.2.0.tgz
tar -xzf oci8-2.2.0.tgz
Build and install OCI8. You'll need some kind of compiler available; I have XCode installed:
cd oci8-2.2.0
/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/phpize
./configure --with-php-config=/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/php-config --with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient_19_3
make
sudo make install
Then, tell XAMPP to enable the extension:
sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp oci8
At the prompt, enter the path to the Instant Client directory /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient_19_3 like:
Please enter the path to your Oracle or Instant Client installation:
[/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient-11.2.0.3.0] /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient_19_3
installing symlink...
patching php.ini...
OCI8 add-on activation likely successful.
XAMPP: Stopping Apache...ok.
XAMPP: Starting Apache...ok.
Now when you check http://localhost/dashboard/phpinfo.php you should see the OCI8 section.
You may be interested in how to 'run' an Oracle DB on macOS, which can be done in a VirtualBox VM like: https://blogs.oracle.com/opal/the-easiest-way-to-install-oracle-database-on-apple-mac-os-x. Other people use a Docker container for the same thing.