Connecting to an Oracle database with an older client (9.x)

Symptom

When connecting to an Oracle Database you receive the following warning message:
FME_HOME directory contains the following characters: "(", ")". This may cause a connection error with older Oracle clients. FME_HOME is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FME\'
Configurations we have seen typically involve Oracle 9.x client connecting Oracle 10.x databases and where FME is installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\" folder.

Cause

The reason this is a problem is related to an Oracle bug in which when the oci.dll is loaded Oracle checks the path of the calling program (or .exe) in this case fmeworkbench.exe and when it encounters the characters "(" or ")" it fails.

Resolution

Simply install FME into a folder other then "C:\Program Files (x86)\".

We typically recommend "<Drive>\apps\FME\" Another solution is to upgrade to a newer Oracle Client - i.e. 10g or greater. You'll want to ensure you have uninstalled the 9i Oracle Client or at least edited the system environment variable "PATH" to have the newer client appears before the 9i client entry.