It is not enjoyable to use PHP + Oracle. But if we have to, we must setup our PHP to support oci8(I haven't tried pdo_oci yet since it is highly experimental). I'm using PHP 5.2.14 and Oracle Database 10g on Windows. My web server is Apache2.2.
Firstly i simply uncomment this line in php.ini and thought it should do the work:
extension=php_oci8.dll
Unfortunately, after i restart Apache, it still doesn't work and i got this error message:
PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Zend_Db_Adapter_Oracle_Exception' with message 'The OCI8 extension is required for this adapter but the extension is not loaded'
I found oracle's offcial instruction from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/technote-php-instant-084410.html and start to follow it.
1. Download the "Instant Client Package - Basic" for Windows from the OTN Instant Client page. Because PHP is 32 bit, use the 32 bit version of Instant Client.
Unzip the Instant Client files to C:\instantclient_11_2
2. Edit the Windows PATH environment setting and add C:\instantclient_11_2
3. uncomment extension=php_oci8.dll
4. Restart Apache
However, it still doesn't work!
Finally, i found someone with exact same problem with me. He sovled the problem by copying these three files from instantclient_11_2 to Apache/bin folder:
oraociei10.dll
orannzsbb10.dll
oci.dll
So i also copy them into Apache/bin and restart the Apache. This time, it works, finally. So my steps to enable PHP OCI8 on windows are:
1. Download the "Instant Client Package - Basic" for Windows from the OTN Instant Client page. Because PHP is 32 bit, use the 32 bit version of Instant Client.
Unzip the Instant Client files to C:\instantclient_11_2
2. Edit the Windows PATH environment setting and add C:\instantclient_11_2
3. Copy oraociei10.dll, orannzsbb10.dll, oci.dll from C:\instantclient_11_2 to Apache/bin
4. uncomment extension=php_oci8.dll in php.ini
5. restart Apache
