Windows 7 64 bit with Oracle 64-bit client

[DRoman]

I am not especially well-versed with Oracle. I also have seen similar issues posted previously, but have not found a solution posted that clears up my problem.

I have successfully installed the Oracle 64-bit client (for Windows Server 2008) on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I can use SQL*Plus and SQL Developer to connect to the Oracle databse on our network.

I cannot get PLSQL Developer to connect to the databases.

From the default installation, when running PLSQL Developer, the databases on my network and in my TNSNAMES.ora file do not appear in the "Database" drop list. When I enter my connection credentials, I receive the error following error:
Initialization error
SQL*Net not properly installed

OracleHomeKey:
OracleHomeDir:

When, as suggested in other posts, I go to [Tools]/[Preferences]/[Oracle]-[Connection] and add the Oracle Home and OCI library locations, and then restart PLSQL Developer and try to connect to a database, I now receive the following error message:
Initialization error
Could not load "[exact path clipped]\11.1.0\client_1\BIN\oci.dll"

OCIDLL forced to [exact path clipped]\11.1.0\client_1\BIN\oci.dll
LoadLibrary([exact path clipped]\11.1.0\client_1\BIN\oci.dll) returned 0

I know that this path for the oci.dll file is accurate, and though I am using Oracle 11, I also made sure that neither the Oracle installation directory nor the PLSQL Developer installation directory contain parenthesis.

I have not tried installing an Oracle 32-bit client, as was suggested in another post, because I don't really want to clutter up the system and I don't have an Oracle 10 32-bit client to try. Can I do a side-by-side installation of an Oracle 11 32-bit client with the existing 64-bit one? Will this solve the problem? Can PLSQL Developer operate correctly with the Oracle 64-bit client on Windows 7, and is there likely some change that I need to make?

Thank you in advance.

 

[DRoman]

By the way, and sorry to have forgotten to include in my original post, the version of PLSQL Developer that I have is 7.1.5

 

[Marco Kalter]

You will need to install a 32 Bit Oracle Client. PL/SQL Developer is a 32 Bit application, so it cannot interface with a 64 Bit Oracle Client.

The 32 Bit Oracle Client can communicate with a 64 Bit Server, even on the same machine if necessary. The 32 Bit client can coexist with a 64 Bit Oracle installation when installed in separate Oracle Home directories.

 

[DRoman]

Thank you, I uninstalled the 64-bit Oracle 11g client and installed the 32-bit Oracle 11g client, reinstalled PL/SQL Developer, and it seems to work now. There seem to be some problems with the tools in the 32-bit Oracle client, possibly due to java problems in the 64-bit environment, but I can deal with that.