So to solve this, I went ahead and created a new build template that would deploy our windows services from a TFS build.

Some prerequisites:

• PsExec must be on the build machine
• Your build service must be an admin on the machine you’re deploying to (to be able to stop and start services)

First, we’ll set up a new Code Activity, it’s very similar to the DeployFiles class i wrote about before

using System;
using System.Activities;
using System.IO;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Tracking;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client;
namespace BuildProcess.Activities
{
    [BuildActivity(HostEnvironmentOption.Agent)]
    public sealed class DeployWindowsService : CodeActivity
    {
        //Source dir being deployed from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> SourceDir { get; set; }
        //Destination dir being copied from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string[]> DestinationDir { get; set; }
        //Files to include
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FileInclusions { get; set; }
        //Folders to include
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FolderInclusions { get; set; }
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> CollectionName { get; set; }
        public InArgument<string> ConfigLocations { get; set; }
        //globals
        public string fileInclusionPattern = "";
        public string folderInclusionPattern = "";
        protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context)
        {
            // Obtain the runtime value of the Text input argument
            string fileInclusions = context.GetValue(this.FileInclusions);
            string folderInclusions = context.GetValue(this.FolderInclusions);
            string configLocations = context.GetValue(this.ConfigLocations);
            string[] destinations = context.GetValue(this.DestinationDir);
            string collectionName = context.GetValue(this.CollectionName);
            DirectoryInfo sourceDir = new DirectoryInfo(context.GetValue(this.SourceDir));
            //parse exclusions, add them to regex patterns
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileInclusions))
            {
                string[] fileinarr = fileInclusions.Split(',');
                fileInclusionPattern = "(";
                foreach (string s in fileinarr)
                {
                    fileInclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "$|";
                }
                if (fileInclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    fileInclusionPattern = fileInclusionPattern.Substring(0, fileInclusionPattern.Length - 1);
                fileInclusionPattern += ")";
            }
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderInclusions))
            {
                string[] folderinarr = folderInclusions.Split(',');
                folderInclusionPattern = "(";
                foreach (string s in folderinarr)
                {
                    folderInclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "$|";
                }
                if (folderInclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    folderInclusionPattern = folderInclusionPattern.Substring(0, folderInclusionPattern.Length - 1);
                folderInclusionPattern += ")";
            }
            foreach (string dir in destinations)
            {
                DirectoryInfo destDir = new DirectoryInfo(dir);
                //Used for debugging, you don't need this, unless you want to display something custom here.
                context.Track(new BuildInformationRecord<BuildMessage>()
                {
                    Value = new BuildMessage()
                    {
                        Importance = BuildMessageImportance.High,
                        Message = "Source: " + sourceDir.FullName +
                            "\r\nDestination: " + destDir.FullName +
                            "\r\nFolder Inclusion Pattern: " + folderInclusionPattern +
                            "\r\nFile Inclusion Pattern: " + fileInclusionPattern +
                            "\r\nFolder Inclusions String: " + folderInclusions +
                            "\r\nFile Inclusions String: " + fileInclusions,
                    },
                });
                CopyDir(sourceDir, destDir);
            }
            //copy config files
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(configLocations))
            {
                string strTFSName = collectionName;
                //set up TFS connectivity
                Uri tfsName = new Uri(strTFSName);
                TfsTeamProjectCollection tfs = new TfsTeamProjectCollection(tfsName);
                VersionControlServer vcs = (VersionControlServer)tfs.GetService(typeof(VersionControlServer));
                //copy config files to proper location
                string timestamp = DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString();
                string workspacePath = @"C:\temp\TFSConfigDeployment_" + timestamp;
                Workspace ws = vcs.CreateWorkspace("TFSConfigDeployment_" + timestamp, vcs.AuthorizedUser);
                //get the workspace locally
                ws.Map(configLocations, workspacePath);
                ws.Get();
                foreach (string configDir in destinations)
                {
                    CopyDir(new DirectoryInfo(workspacePath), new DirectoryInfo(configDir));
                }
                RemoveWorkSpaceDirectory(workspacePath);
            }
        }
        private void RemoveWorkSpaceDirectory(string workspacePath)
        {
            DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(workspacePath);
            var files = dir.EnumerateFiles();
            foreach (FileSystemInfo info in files)
            {
                string filePath = info.FullName;
                if ((File.GetAttributes(filePath) & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
                {
                    File.SetAttributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal);
                }
            }
            var subDirs = dir.EnumerateDirectories();
            foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in subDirs)
            {
                RemoveWorkSpaceDirectory(subDir.FullName);
            }
            dir.Delete(true);
        }
        private void CopyDir(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo destDir)
        {
            //create destination dir if it doesn't exist
            if (!destDir.Exists)
            {
                destDir.Create();
            }
            // get all files from current dir
            FileInfo[] files = sourceDir.GetFiles();
            //copy ze files!!
            foreach (FileInfo file in files)
            {
                string destFilePath = Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name);
                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileInclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (Regex.IsMatch(file.Name.ToUpper(), fileInclusionPattern))
                    {
                        if (File.Exists(destFilePath))
                        {
                            if ((File.GetAttributes(destFilePath) & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
                            {
                                File.SetAttributes(destFilePath, FileAttributes.Normal);
                            }
                            File.Delete(destFilePath);
                        }
                        file.CopyTo(destFilePath);
                        if ((File.GetAttributes(destFilePath) & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
                        {
                            File.SetAttributes(destFilePath, FileAttributes.Normal);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            // get subdirectories.
            DirectoryInfo[] dirs = sourceDir.GetDirectories();
            foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in dirs)
            {
                // Get destination directory.
                string destinationDir = Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, dir.Name);
                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderInclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (Regex.IsMatch(dir.Name.ToUpper(), folderInclusionPattern))
                    {
                        // Call CopyDirectory() recursively.
                        CopyDir(dir, new DirectoryInfo(destinationDir));
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

For the next step, you’ll also want to look at the previous post about deploying files from TFS. After you’ve opened up your ProcessTemplate, you’ll want to have the following arguements:

• DeploymentDir – In – String[]
• SourceRootDir – In – String
• CollectionName – In – String
• PsExecPath – In – String
• ServiceName – In – String
• ServerName – In – String
• FileInclusions – In – String
• FolderInclustions – In – String
• RestartService – In – Boolean – True

Each of these you’ll probably want to add to the Metadata Argument so you can keep your build definitions organized.

And you’ll want to add the following Variable:

• PsExecResult – Int32 – Revert Workspace and Copy Files…

Under Process > Sequence > Run On Agent > Try Compile, Test, and Associate Changesets and Work Items > Revert Workspace and Copy Files to Drop Location > If Deployment Location is Set you’ll want to place a new Sequence and call it Stop Service, Copy Files, Start Service.

Inside that Sequence you’ll want to place an Invoke Process activity, the new DeployWindowsServices code activity, and an If statement with another Invoke Process activity in the Then clause.

For the first Process Invocation:

Arguements:  ServerName + ” -s -d net stop ” + ServiceName
DisplayName: Stop Service
FileName: PsExecPath
Result: PsExecResult

For the Deployment Activity:

CollectionName: CollectionName
DestinationDir: DeploymentDir
DisplayName: Deploy Windows Service
FileInclustions: FileInclusions
FolderInclustions: FolderInclusions
SourceDir:  BinariesDirectory + “\” + SourceRootDir

For the If statement, just check to see if RestartService is set to True, and then enter the values for the second Process Invocation:

Arguements:  ServerName + ” -s -d net start ” + ServiceName
DisplayName: Start Service
FileName: PsExecPath

*NOTE, THE FOLLOWING SECTION DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY YET*

After the If statement, you’ll want to add in another If, this will check to see if PsExec has failed or not.

Since this isn’t working properly yet, i just check to see if PsExecResult is ’1′, which it hasn’t been as of this writing. In the Then block, add a Throw activity and have it throw an exception of:

New Exception("PsExecResult: " + PsExecResult.ToString())

Optionally, you can also add WriteBuildMessage and WriteBuildWarning activities to your Invoke Process Activities, these are nice because you can see what the process you are invoking outputs.

Scenario:

We want to deploy our built code to different environments, but, we don’t want everything that’s dumped into the Release folder.

The Plan:

The plan is to create a custom build activity to copy files from one place to another checking each file against an exclusion list.

The Guts:

Referencing my previous post, Dependency Replication in TFS 2010, I will build upon the write-ups by Ewald Hofman.

You can grab the file here: DeployFiles.cs

Here’s the whole activity:

using System;
using System.Activities;
using System.IO;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Tracking;

namespace BuildProcess.Activities
{
    [BuildActivity(HostEnvironmentOption.Agent)]
    public sealed class DeployFiles : CodeActivity
    {
        //Source dir being deployed from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> SourceDir { get; set; }
        //Destination dir being copied from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string[]> DestinationDir { get; set; }
        //Files to exclude
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FileExclusions { get; set; }
        //Folders to exclude
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FolderExclusions { get; set; }

        //globals
        public string fileExclusionPattern = "";
        public string folderExclusionPattern = "";

        protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context)
        {
            // Obtain the runtime value of the Text input argument
            string fileExclusions = context.GetValue(this.FileExclusions);
            string folderExclusions = context.GetValue(this.FolderExclusions);
            string[] destinations = context.GetValue(this.DestinationDir);
            DirectoryInfo sourceDir = new DirectoryInfo(context.GetValue(this.SourceDir));

            //parse exclusions, add them to regex patterns
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileExclusions))
            {
                string[] fileexarr = fileExclusions.Split(',');
                fileExclusionPattern = "(";
                foreach (string s in fileexarr)
                {
                    fileExclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "|";
                }

                if(fileExclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    fileExclusionPattern = fileExclusionPattern.Substring(0, fileExclusionPattern.Length - 1);

                fileExclusionPattern += ")";
            }

            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderExclusions))
            {
                string[] folderexarr = folderExclusions.Split(',');
                folderExclusionPattern = "(";

                foreach (string s in folderexarr)
                {
                    folderExclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "|";
                }

                if(folderExclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    folderExclusionPattern = folderExclusionPattern.Substring(0, folderExclusionPattern.Length - 1);

                folderExclusionPattern += ")";
            }

            foreach (string dir in destinations)
            {
                DirectoryInfo destDir = new DirectoryInfo(dir);

                context.Track(new BuildInformationRecord<BuildMessage>()
                {
                    Value = new BuildMessage()
                    {
                        Importance = BuildMessageImportance.High,
                        Message = "Source: " + sourceDir.FullName + "\nDestination: " + destDir.FullName +
                            "\nFolder Exclusion Pattern: " + folderExclusionPattern +
                            "\nFile Exclusion Pattern: " + fileExclusionPattern,
                    },
                });

                CopyDir(sourceDir, destDir);
            }
        }

        private void CopyDir(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo destDir)
        {
            //create destination dir if it doesn't exist
            if (!destDir.Exists)
            {
                destDir.Create();
            }

            // get all files from current dir
            FileInfo[] files = sourceDir.GetFiles();

            //copy ze files!!
            foreach (FileInfo file in files)
            {
                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileExclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (!Regex.IsMatch(file.Name.ToUpper(), fileExclusionPattern))
                    {
                        if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name)))
                        {
                            File.Delete(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                        }
                        file.CopyTo(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name)))
                    {
                        File.Delete(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                    }
                    file.CopyTo(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name),true);
                }
            }

            // get subdirectories.
            DirectoryInfo[] dirs = sourceDir.GetDirectories();

            foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in dirs)
            {
                // Get destination directory.
                string destinationDir = Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, dir.Name);

                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderExclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (!Regex.IsMatch(dir.Name.ToUpper(), folderExclusionPattern))
                    {
                        // Call CopyDirectory() recursively.
                        CopyDir(dir, new DirectoryInfo(destinationDir));
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    // Call CopyDirectory() recursively.
                    CopyDir(dir, new DirectoryInfo(destinationDir));
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Explanation:

Now i’ll go section by section explaining exactly what’s going on. First up are the input requirements:

         //Source dir being deployed from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> SourceDir { get; set; }

The SourceDir is where the deployment starts from. This means what subdirectory from the BinariesDirectory gets deployed. This is important for Websites, since they get dropped in a _PublishedWebsites folder inside the BinariesDirectory.

        //Destination dir being copied from
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string[]> DestinationDir { get; set; }

The DestinationDir argument is a string array of paths being passed in (we use UNC network paths, ie: \\deploymentbox\websites\sitename)

        //Files to exclude
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FileExclusions { get; set; }

The FileExclusions argument is meant to be a comma delimited string of filenames and patterns you want to exclude. (ie: “web.config, *.pdb”)

        //Folders to exclude
        [RequiredArgument]
        public InArgument<string> FolderExclusions { get; set; }

The FolderExclusions argument is similar to the FileExclusions, except that if there are certain folders you don’t want deployed, you can specify them here

        //globals
        public string fileExclusionPattern = "";
        public string folderExclusionPattern = "";

These two variables will be used to build the Regex pattern which we will check files and folders against.

Now we’ll go into

protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context)

explaining each part in more detail.

            // Obtain the runtime value of the Text input argument
            string fileExclusions = context.GetValue(this.FileExclusions);
            string folderExclusions = context.GetValue(this.FolderExclusions);
            string[] destinations = context.GetValue(this.DestinationDir);
            DirectoryInfo sourceDir = new DirectoryInfo(context.GetValue(this.SourceDir));

Here we get the values being passed in at execution time

            //parse exclusions, add them to regex patterns
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileExclusions))
            {
                string[] fileexarr = fileExclusions.Split(',');
                fileExclusionPattern = "(";
                foreach (string s in fileexarr)
                {
                    fileExclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "|";
                }

                if(fileExclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    fileExclusionPattern = fileExclusionPattern.Substring(0, fileExclusionPattern.Length - 1);

                fileExclusionPattern += ")";
            }

            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderExclusions))
            {
                string[] folderexarr = folderExclusions.Split(',');
                folderExclusionPattern = "(";

                foreach (string s in folderexarr)
                {
                    folderExclusionPattern += s.ToUpper().Trim().Replace(".", @"\.").Replace("*", @"[a-zA-Z0-9]*") + "|";
                }

                if(folderExclusionPattern.EndsWith("|"))
                    folderExclusionPattern = folderExclusionPattern.Substring(0, folderExclusionPattern.Length - 1);

                folderExclusionPattern += ")";
            }

Here we check to see if anything was passed into the file or folder exclusion parameters. If something was passed in, we split the comma delimited string into an array and then iterate through it adding the exclusions to their appropriate Regex pattern.

            foreach (string dir in destinations)
            {
                DirectoryInfo destDir = new DirectoryInfo(dir);

                context.Track(new BuildInformationRecord<BuildMessage>()
                {
                    Value = new BuildMessage()
                    {
                        Importance = BuildMessageImportance.High,
                        Message = "Source: " + sourceDir.FullName + "\nDestination: " + destDir.FullName +
                            "\nFolder Exclusion Pattern: " + folderExclusionPattern +
                            "\nFile Exclusion Pattern: " + fileExclusionPattern,
                    },
                });

                CopyDir(sourceDir, destDir);
            }

Now we loop through all the destinations we need to deploy to, copying the files and folders.

Now lets take a look at

private void CopyDir(DirectoryInfo sourceDir, DirectoryInfo destDir)

            //create destination dir if it doesn't exist
            if (!destDir.Exists)
            {
                destDir.Create();
            }

Let’s make sure the destination directory exists, creating it if it doesn’t exist already.

            // get all files from current dir
            FileInfo[] files = sourceDir.GetFiles();

Here we get the all the files from the source directory

            //copy ze files!!
            foreach (FileInfo file in files)
            {
                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(fileExclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (!Regex.IsMatch(file.Name.ToUpper(), fileExclusionPattern))
                    {
                        if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name)))
                        {
                            File.Delete(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                        }
                        file.CopyTo(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name)))
                    {
                        File.Delete(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name));
                    }
                    file.CopyTo(Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, file.Name),true);
                }
            }

Let’s copy some files! Check each file against the exclusion pattern, if one is set, and copy it if needed. If the file needs to be copied and it exists in the destination already, we’ll delete it and copy the file over.

            // get subdirectories.
            DirectoryInfo[] dirs = sourceDir.GetDirectories();

            foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in dirs)
            {
                // Get destination directory.
                string destinationDir = Path.Combine(destDir.FullName, dir.Name);

                if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(folderExclusionPattern))
                {
                    if (!Regex.IsMatch(dir.Name.ToUpper(), folderExclusionPattern))
                    {
                        // Call CopyDirectory() recursively.
                        CopyDir(dir, new DirectoryInfo(destinationDir));
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    // Call CopyDirectory() recursively.
                    CopyDir(dir, new DirectoryInfo(destinationDir));
                }
            }

Last we check to see if the directory has any sub-directories and we call CopyDir() recursively to copy all sub directories and files inside them, only of course if they aren’t on the folder exclusion list.

Boy, was i ready for saturday though! I guess my body was still used to sleeping for 10 hours every night. Instead i’ve been up by 7am everyday and out the door by 7:30. Yesterday i finally got to sleep in a bit, lounge around in my PJ’s, and then finally in the afternoon leave the house. Josh and I went up to Louisville so Josh could test drive a Infiniti G35. A very nice car! After that we went and ate pizza and drank beer at Za’s where we met up with some friends, one of whom neither of us had seen in years! After pizza and beer we went and saw Daybreakers, which was ok. It’s nothing to rave about, and I feel the previews mislead the audience to thinking the movie was something else. But exploding vampires are always nice.

Tomorrow starts week two! Hopefully nothing will go wrong, and the roads will stay clear!

http://community.livejournal.com/arduino_related/1219.html

So Zach asked me if I’d heard about the hacked road signs, and since i’ve been out of the loop in things for a while I of course hadn’t. This is amazingly awesome! I wants to do it

This is starting to get really annoying.  I’m surprised i haven’t gotten sick from the massive tempurature changes.

In other news the weekend is over and i’m back at work. Nothing much happened over the last three days. I spent time relaxing, playing Eve, and going out to celebrate my brothers’ birthday.

Friday was grocery shopping. The fridge was filled and now there’s plenty to munch on in the house. I also made some pretty good granola bars. They’re awesome with a glass of milk, heh. It’s kind of like eating cereal in a bar We also went to Barnes & Noble, and i got a book on RegEx (Regular Expressions). So far it’s been very helpful in my quest to learn the way of the code ninja.

Saturday evening we went to Buca Di Beppo’s for Nick’s birthday and man it was delicious! It’s an Italian family-style restaurant, where a small portion is enough to feed two people. There were about 10 of us and we all ordered something different. After all the food was out, we were barely able to try a little of everything! So much food!! All i have to say is that i didn’t have to make anything the next day for lunch. Plenty of leftovers

Sunday was hanging out at the house and then going to my parents’ place to do some laundry and eat dinner. I picked up some mail that was still going there and played with the dogs. Man, it’s like i’ve been off on an expedition to the far side of the world when i come over. One more sign that dogs are loyal. Such excitement can rarely be encountered elsewhere.

Well, one more hour to kill at work. Time for more Professional Development

I’m going to go step by step on how I got my WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Stack to also incorporate Oracle support. I’m assuming you already have a properly working Apache Webserver running with PHP enabled.

PHP and the Oracle: A layman’s story

1) Uninstall any existing copy of the Oracle Client, unless it’s needed for other functionality. (We had an Oracle 9i Client at work, which was installed on many of the machines, but wasn’t needed in this case, and i couldn’t find any documentation online to get it to work with PHP…)

2) Install the Instant Client provided at the Oracle site. Make sure to choose the proper options, like your architecture, and whatever client you wish; i used ‘Instant Client Package – Basic’ — because it stated it had all the required files for OCI connections, which is what i was using for my Oracle<->Webserver calls.

3) Edit your PATH Environment Variable. Add the directory to where you installed your instant client to the end. For Example, I installed to C:\oracle\instant_client, so i added ‘;C:\oracle\instant_client’ — note the preceding ‘;’, this is needed if the end of your PATH already doesn’t have it. It’s the delimiter for the different directories added to your path.

You only need to add the main directory to which you installed, the php_oci extension will look for the dll’s in that main directory. Also make sure you don’t have the trailing ‘\’ at the end. Depending on your windows installation it might not like that… — Windows can be so picky when it want..

4) Open your php.ini file and uncomment the line ‘;extension=php_oci8.dll’ — uncomment means take off the ‘;’ before the ‘extension=’.

5) Create a phpinfo file. Something simple like this will work.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>


Once you’ve created the file and placed it on your webserver, browse to it. Scroll through, if it’s properly set up, you should see a category called “oci8″.  If not, make sure that anywhere where PATH is referenced, it shows your updated PATH — with your Instant Client Directory added. If it’s not there you may need to restart your Windows server. I was having issues with my PATH properly updating and was forced to do this.

Setup should be complete now.  Next is testing.

6) Try to connect to your Oracle server. I personally use the OCI. Something like this should work:

<?php
$user = "username";
$pw = "password";
$db = "(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = your.host.domain)(PORT = 1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=yourSID)))";
$conn = ocilogon($user,$pw,$db);
?>

You don’t need a TNSNAMES.ORA, but can use one (as far as i know). To use one just create the file in the root of the instant client installation.
If you don’t get a fatal error you should be good to go now. You now have the functionality to connect to Oracle databases. I’d love to hear how others have done this. Maybe there’s a better way to do it than what i did.

Some good resources for PHP and Oracle:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/oracle_php_cookbook/index.html
http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/PHP_FAQ

Maybe i’ll go do that now..

I got the log in system working, so i might as well take a break.. my brain hurts