The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for MongoDB to create a database link from MongoDB to Oracle and to query MongoDB data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.

Connect to MongoDB as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other MongoDB DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.

Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to MongoDB. To access MongoDB collections as tables you can use automatic schema discovery or write your own schema definitions. Schemas are defined in .rsd files, which have a simple format. You can also execute free-form queries that are not tied to the schema.

Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle

The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing MongoDB data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with MongoDB data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.

• MapToWVarchar=False

  Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.

• MaximumColumnSize=4000

  Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.

• UpperCaseIdentifiers=True

  Set this property to avoid quoting identifiers. Use this property to report uppercase identifiers to Oracle. By default, Oracle stores identifiers in uppercase, so uppercase identifiers do not need to be escaped with quotes.

• IncludeDualTable=True

  Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.

Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database

Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to MongoDB data that enables you to query live MongoDB data as an Oracle database.

1. Create the file initmymongodbdb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory\hs\admin and add the following setting:

   view source

   HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData MongoDB Source Sys"
2. Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory\NETWORK\admin.

   If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

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   SID_LIST_LISTENER =

   (SID_LIST =

   (SID_DESC =

   (SID_NAME = mymongodbdb)

   (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)

   (PROGRAM = dg4odbc)

   )

   )

   If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

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   SID_LIST_LISTENER =

   (SID_LIST =

   (SID_DESC =

   (SID_NAME = mymongodbdb)

   (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)

   (PROGRAM = hsodbc)

   )

   )

3. Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory\NETWORK\admin:

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   mymongodbdb  =

   (DESCRIPTION=

   (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))

   (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=mymongodbdb))

   (HS=OK)

   )
4. Restart the listener.

5. Test the configuration with the following command:

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   tnsping mymongodbdb

6. Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:

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   CREATE DATABASE LINK mymongodbdb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'mymongodbdb';

You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below: