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Overview

Each ProcessMaker workspace maintains 3 MySQL databases to store internal information about processes, user permissions and reports. Nonetheless, ProcessMaker can also be configured to connect to external databases, allowing an organization to integrate ProcessMaker with other DBMS and business applications which utilize databases.

ProcessMaker uses Propel library to map between ProcessMaker's PHP classes and databases. Propel allows access to the following DBMS MySql, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.

ProcessMaker automatically detects which database modules for PHP are installed on the server. For example if the php-pgsql module is installed on the ProcessMaker server, ProcessMaker will offer the option to connect to PostgreSQL databases.

Prerequisites

An Internet connection is required to access external databases and to download third-party components not supported by ProcessMaker that you may not have installed.

Creating a New Database Connection

To create a new database connection, open a process by going to DESIGN tab and then go to DATABASE CONNECTION, the Databases Source List will display as the image below.

At the top of the list of existing database connections, click the "New" link to define a new database connection.

Fill in the following information:

  • Engine: Select the type of database, which can be MySql, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle. ProcessMaker will only offer databases in the dropdown list which have PHP extensions installed on your server. See the documentation below to install the required PHP extensions for each type of database. After installing one of the extensions, remember to restart the Apache server for the new extension to be loaded in PHP.
    • Encode: If MySQL or PosgreSQL is selected in ProcessMaker version 1.2-2425 and later, the option Encode will appear below Engine to allow the character encoding of the database to be selected. Look up the encoding of your external database.
    • Select Connection Type: If Oracle is selected, then a field will appear to select whether to connect to the database normally or to use TNS (Transparent Network Substrate), which is Oracle's proprietary networking protocol.

  • Server: IP address or domain name where the database source is installed.
  • Database Name: The name of the database to use.
  • Username: The username to log into the external database.
  • Password: The password to log into the external database.
  • Port: The port used by the external database. If this field is left empty, the routine will use the default port, which is 3306 for MySQL, 5432 for PostgreSQL, 1521 for Oracle, and 1433 for SQL Server. If unsure which port is being used by a database see Discovering Ports and Debugging below.
  • Description: Add any additional information about the external database.

Once you have filled out this information, you need to test the connection by clicking on the Test Connection button. The test routine verifies hostname, port, service, the user access, and the existence of the database, as shown in this illustration:

If the test is successful, then click Create to set up the connection. After that the database connection will be available for the current process. It can be used in SQL SELECT statementsin DynaForms fields and with the executeQuery() function in triggers.

Configuring the TNS

Note: Use this configuration if using ProcessMaker v. 2.8 or later.

In order to configure the TNS the tnsnames.ora file must be edited, create this If this file does not exist. This file is located at:

/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib/network/admin/tnsnames.ora

This location will depend on the Linux distribution used.

Then, modify the file with the following content:
TEST1 =
    (DESCRIPTION =
        (ADDRESS_LIST =
            (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.11.92)(PORT = 1521))
        )
        (CONNECT_DATA =
            (SERVICE_NAME = TEST)
        )
     )

MySQL

All the necessary modules should already be installed in order to use an external MySQL database, since those same modules are needed to use the internal databases used by ProcessMaker.

By default MySQL servers are set up to only receive local connections from the localhost. If ProcessMaker is trying to connect to a MySQL server on another machine, then that server will have to be configured to allow external connections. Edit the my.cnf file of the MySQL server and comment out the line:

# bind-address = 127.0.0.1

Then reload or restart the MySQL server. To check whether MySQL is listening for external connections, in Windows issue the command:

netstat -an

You should see a line such as:

TCP 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING

In Linux/UNIX, use the command:

netstat -tanp

You should see a line such as:

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2270/mysqld

When setting up a Database Connection to an external MySQL database, it is necessary to select the character encoding, such as Latin-1 and UTF-8. To find out the character encoding used by a MySQL database, log into MySQL and change to the database and issue the status command:

mysql -u root -p mysql> show databases; +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | information_schema | | mysql | | example_db | +--------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> use example_db; Database changed mysql> status; -------------- mysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.51a, for debian-linux-gnu (i486) using readline 5.2 Connection id: 6054 Current database: example_db Current user: root@localhost SSL: Not in use Current pager: stdout Using outfile: Using delimiter: ; Server version: 5.0.51a-24 (Debian) Protocol version: 10 Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket Server characterset: latin1 Db characterset: utf8 Client characterset: latin1 Conn. characterset: latin1 UNIX socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock Uptime: 12 days 3 hours 51 min 33 sec

Look for the "client characterset" which is the character set in which ProcessMaker will send queries to the MySQL database and the "Conn. characterset" which is the character set which MySQL will send information back to ProcessMaker.

In the configuration of ProcessMaker's Database Connection, set Encode to the character set used by "Client characterset and "Conn. characterset". ProcessMaker expects the Client and Connection character set to be the same. If they aren't the same, change them to be the same. You can change them temporarily with:

SET NAMES <character-set>;

To change them permanently, add the following lines to my.cnf:

character_set_client = <character-set> character_set_results = <character-set> character_set_connection = <character-set>

Then reload or restart the MySQL server.

PostgreSQL

In order for ProcessMaker to connect to a PostgreSQL database, the PostgreSQL client software and the PHP module "pgsql" has to be installed on the same machine as the ProcessMaker server. If the PosgreSQL database does not use the UTF-8 character set and it contains non-ASCII characters, then see this bug.

If the PostgreSQL database is located on a different server than the ProcessMaker server, remember to configure PostgreSQL to allow for connections from the ProcessMaker server.

Windows

Download the pgInstaller for Windows and install the PostgreSQL client software (and the server as well if you plan on running PostgreSQL server from the same machine as the ProcessMaker server).

Then go to the directory where you installed PHP and verify that you have the dynamic link libraries php_pgsql.dll and php_pdo_pgsql.dll located in the ext directory. If you used the ProcessMaker Windows Installer, these files can be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\php\ext\

Then enable PHP's PostgreSQL modules, by opening the PHP configuration file php.ini with a plain text editor. If you used the ProcessMaker Windows Installer, it will be located at:<INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\php.ini

Look for the "Windows Extensions" section and uncomment the PostgreSQL modules by removing the semicolon (;) from the beginning of the following lines:

extension=php_pdo_pgsql.dll extension=php_pgsql.dll

Then restart the Apache server to use the new PHP configuration, by either rebooting or by going to the command line (located at Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) and issuing the command:

httpd -k restart

To verify that PHP is now using the PostgreSQL modules, create a file named info.php with a bare text editor containing:

<?php
   phpinfo();
?>

and save it to your workflow\public_html\ directory, which generally will be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\apps\processmaker\htdocs\workflow\public_html\

Then, open your web browser and direct it to http://localhost/info.php to verify that the pdo_pgsql and pgsql extensions are enabled in PHP.

Then, open ProcessMaker and go to Processes. Open a process and go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. PostgreSQL should now be an available option under theEngine dropdown box.

GNU/Linux or UNIX

It is best to install the PostgreSQL client and PostgreSQL's PHP module using the repositories of your distribution.

Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora:
Login as root and issue the commands:

yum install postgresql php-pgsql /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Debian/Ubuntu:
Login as root and issue the commands:

su or sudo -s apt-get install postgresql-client php5-pgsql /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

SUSE/openSUSE:
Login as root and issue the commands:

su or sudo -s zypper install postgresql php5-pgsql rcapache2 restart

After installing, verify that the pgsql and pdo_pgsql modules are enabled in PHP with the command:

php -m

Then, open ProcessMaker in a web browser. Go to PROCESSES and open a process. Then, go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. PostgreSQL should now be an available option in the Engine dropdown box.

Microsoft SQL Server

To connect ProcessMaker to SQL Server databases, either install MS SQL Client Tools on Windows machines or install FreeTDS on Linux/UNIX machines.

Windows

If Microsoft SQL Server is installed on the same machine as ProcessMaker, then ProcessMaker should automatically detect it and it should be listed as an available option under Database Connections. Otherwise, install the SQL Client Tools which can be found on the Microsoft SQL Server CD. Configuration of the client will require installation of all the tools. If the SQL Server CD isn't available, make a copy of SQL Server's dynamic link library found at \winnt\system32\ntwdblib.dll on a machine which has SQL Server or SQL Client Tools installed. Then copy the ntwdblib.dll file into the \winnt\system32 directory of your ProcessMaker server.

Make sure that the version of ntwdblib.dll matches the version of SQL Server. For instance, the dynamic link library for SQL Server 2003 will not work to connect to SQL Server 2005.

Then edit the php.ini file, that is generally located at C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\php\php.ini, to enable the mssql extension:

extension=mssql.dll

Then restart the Apache server to use the new PHP configuration, by going to the command line (located at Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) and issuing the command:

httpd -k restart

To verify that PHP is now using the mssql extension, create a file named info.php with a bare text editor containing:

<?php
   phpinfo();
?>

and save it to your workflow\public_html\ directory, which generally will be found at: C:\Program Files\ProcessMaker\apps\processmaker\htdocs\workflow\public_html\

Then, open your web browser and direct it to http://localhost/info.php to verify that the pdo_mssql and mssql extensions are enabled in PHP.

Then, open ProcessMaker and go to Processes. Open a process and go to DATABASE CONNECTIONS and click on the New link. MS SQL should now be an available option under theEngine dropdown box.

Setup a UTF-8 Connection to a MSSQL database

The following steps must be followed to solve problems with characters different from English:

  • Copy this file inside php\ext folder(Eg: C:\ProcessMaker\php\ext)

  • In the php.ini file comment the old extension=php_mssql.dll and the new extension=php_dblib.dll

  • Create a new file named C:\freetds.conf on the server where ProcessMaker is installed. (This location can be changed with an Environment Variable. See the next item.)
    Edit the file with following content:
    [global]
    host = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    port = 1433
    client charset = UTF-8
    tds version = 8.0
    text size = 20971520
    Set xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to the address of the MSSQL server. If ProcessMaker and MSSQL are installed on the same server, than use localhost
  • Optional. To change the default path from C:\ to a customized path, add the following Environment Variable (don’t forget to restart the computer):
    • Name: FREETDS

    • Value: Set the path to the directory holding the freetds.conf file. Ex: C:\ ProcessMaker\php\ext

  • Restart Apache to take into account the new MSSQL extension
  • Now you will be able to connect and pull Chinese characters from MSSQL.

Linux/UNIX

ProcessMaker servers running on Linux/UNIX can access Microsoft SQL Server or Sybase databases by installing FreeTDS. Most distributions provide FreeTDS and a PHP extension for SQL Server or Sybase. If your distribution doesn't provide a package for FreeTDS, see these instructions to compile FreeTDS from the source code.

If planning on executing stored procedures on the SQL Server database, edit the FreeTDS configuration file, which is generally found at /etc/freetds/freetds.conf

Edit the following lines to specify the IP address and port of server where SQL Server is installed and the TDS version number:

host = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0
client charset = UTF-8

Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora

Install FreeTDS and the php-mssql package using yum:

yum install freetds php-mssql

Then, edit the /etc/php.ini file to enable the mssql extension:

extension=mssql.so

Finally, restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

For older versions of Red Hat/CentOS which don't contain a php-mssql package, see these instructions to manually compile FreeTDS and PHP's mssql extension.

Debian/Ubuntu

If using Debian 6 (Squeeze) or Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) or later, login as root (or use sudo) to install FreeTDS and the php5-sybase package (which will work for MS SQL Server as well). Then, restart apache:

apt-get install freetds-bin php5-sybase /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

If using Debian 5 (Lenny), install the freetds-common package instead:

apt-get install freetds-common php5-sybase /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

For older versions of Debian and Ubuntu, compile FreeTDS from source.

SUSE/openSUSE

SUSE/openSUSE does not provide a PHP package to access MS SQL Servers, so freeTDS and the mssql PHP extension will have to be compiled from source.

First, install the unixOBDC package and the tools for compiling:

zypper install unixOBDC gcc make

Then, download the source code for the latest stable version of freeTDS. Then, decompress the code and configure and compile it:

tar xzf freetds-stable.tgz cd freetds-0.82/ ./configure -with-unixODBC=/usr/lib make make install

Then, install the php5-devel package (which contains the phpize command):

zypper install php5-devel

Next, check which version of PHP you are using:

php -i

Then, download the source code for your version of PHP to a local directory. Decompress the code. Then, switch to the ext/mssql directory and compile the mssql extension. Note that the following commands will only compile the mssql extension and insert it into your existing installation of PHP without altering anything else:

tar xzf php-5.3.3.tar.gz cd php-5.3.3/ext/mssql phpize ./configure make make install

Then, configure PHP to use the new extension by editing the PHP configuration files:

vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini vi /etc/php5/cli/php.ini

In both files, add the line:

extension=mssql.so

Finally, restart Apache to be able to use the new mssql.so extension:

rcapache2 restart

If the SQL Server database does not use UTF-8 encoding

Some issues might arise if the SQL Server database does not use the UTF-8 character set and it contains non-ASCII characters, because ProcessMaker is designed to use UTF-8. This means:

  • The source code of PM is written in UTF-8, and produce UTF-8 HTML pages.
  • The character set for the Apache server needs to be in UTF-8.
  • The AJAX requests using JSON encode are in UTF-8.
  • The collation in MySQL for ProcessMaker databases is in UTF-8.

In other words, these four components need to be in UTF-8 for everything to work: source code, Apache server, interactive data and database fields.

Solving issues with UTF-8 characters

To display Unicode data from SQL server, it is recommended to:

Setup FREETDS in Linux/UNIX

To avoid permissions problems with the freetds.conf file, it is recommended to give the freetds.conf file world read permissions. For example:

chmod +r /etc/freetds/freetds.conf

Make the environment variable FREETDSCONF point to the location of the freetds.conf file. At the beginning of the Apache service script (which is located at /etc/init.d/httpd in Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora and at /etc/init.d/apache2 in Debian/Ubuntu/SuSE), add the following line:

export FREETDSCONF=/etc/freetds/freetds.conf

Finally, in the global section of the freetds.conf file, change the following lines to:

tds version = 8.0 client charset = UTF-8

Change MSSQLResultSet.php

Once freetds is getting all data in UTF-8, the code is no longer needed to convert all fields to UTF-8. Remove the lines 123-133 from the MSSQLResultSet.php file, which is located at:

/gulliver/thirdparty/creole/drivers/mssql/MSSQLResultSet.php

Collation Database Configuration

Usually when trying to execute queries which contains the character ñ, an error will occur. If searching in fields, the result will be NULL.

The problem is that the database collation in ProcessMaker is configured with UTF-8. To make that work, data must be transformed using PHP's mb_convert_encoding() function to convert from the character set used by the SQL Server database to UTF-8. If converting from ISO-8859-1, which is the most commonly used character set in Windows, the utf8_encode() andutf8_decode() functions can be used.

For example, the following trigger code converts from UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1 to send queries to an SQL Server database and then it converts the search results from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8, so the results can be displayed in a grid field in ProcessMaker:

$idMssql  = '11609821854ca4355344560009542371'; //change UID for database connection to SQL Server
$group = utf8_decode(@@SelectedGroup);        //convert from UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1
$rows = executeQuery("SELECT FIRST_NAME + ' ' + LAST_NAME from TABLE_EMPLOYEES
   where GROUP = '$group' and COMPANY in ('5','4','3','1')"
, $idMssql);

//place search results in a grid field named "EmployeesGrid" which has the rows firstName and lastName,
//which will be displayed in a subsequent DynaForm:
@=EmployeesGrid = array();
for ($i = 1; $i &lt;= count($rows); $i++) {
   //use utf8_encode() to convert from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8:
   @=EmployeesGrid[$i] = array(
      'firstName' =&gt; utf8_encode($rows[$i]['FIRST_NAME']),
      'lastName'  =&gt; utf8_encode($rows[$i]['LAST_NAME'])
   );
}

Oracle

In order to connect to an Oracle database, Oracle's client software must be installed on the same server running ProcessMaker. If the Oracle database does not use the UTF-8 character set which is used by ProcessMaker, then see Converting Oracle to UTF-8.

Note: If using Oracle Instant Client to connect to an Oracle database, make sure to use the same version of Instant Client as the Oracle Database. The following SQL command can be used to find the version of the database: SELECT version FROM V$INSTANCE

Windows

Install the Oracle Instant Client, Client or Server on the same server running ProcessMaker. Oracle Instant Client can be downloaded for free at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html

Download the ZIP file for the version of Instant Client Basic which corresponds to your version of Oracle Server. Since PHP in Windows is most likely 32 bit, download the 32 bit version of Instant Client Basic.

The Instant Client files can be placed anywhere but Oracle recommends that they be decompressed in the C:\ directory, so the Instant Client will located at a path such as:

C:\instantclient_12_1

Then add the path to the Instant Client to the %Path% system variable, so that the OCI8 extension can find it. Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories. Right click on Command Promptand select the Run as Administrator option from the context menu.

In the terminal window which opens, enter the following command to add the location of the Instant Client to the %PATH%:

setx \M PATH "%PATH%;C:\instantclient_12_1"

(Change C:\instantclient_12_1 to the location where Instant Client is installed.)

Oracle versions 8 - 10

After installing Oracle's software on the same server running ProcessMaker, enable PHP's OCI8 extension to connect to Oracle. The DLL file to use Oracle version 8 through 10, should already be included by default in PHP. Verify that your installation includes the file <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\ext\php_oci8.dll. If not, see Installing OCI8 on Windows.

Next, edit <INSTALL-DIRECTORY>\php\php.ini with a plain text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++) and add the following line:

extension=php_oci8.dll

If this line already exists with a ";" (semicolon) in front, remove the semicolon to uncomment the line.

Oracle 11g

To use PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle 11g, PHP will need to be version 5.3 or later. After installing Oracle's client software on the same server running ProcessMaker, enable PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle 11g. Check to see whether the OCI8 extension file is found at <PHP-DIRECTORY>\ext\php_oci8_11g.dll. For example:C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\ProcessMaker-2_5_2\php\ext\php_oci8_11g.dll

If the php_oci8_11g.dll extension file isn't including in PHP, see Installing OCI8 on Windows for instructions on how to obtain the file and place it the /ext directory.

Next, edit the [2.0/Additional_Configuration#Configuring_PHP php.ini] file with a plain text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++) and add the following line:

extension=php_oci8_11g.dll

If this line already exists with a ";" (semicolon) in front, remove the semicolon to uncomment the line.

Warning: Either the php_oci8.dll or php_oci8_11g.dll can be enabled, but not both at the same time.

Oracle 12c

To use PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle 12c, PHP will need to be version 5.3 or later. After installing Oracle's client software on the same server running ProcessMaker, enable PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle 12c. Check to see whether the OCI8 extension file is found at <PHP-DIRECTORY>\ext\php_oci8_12c.dll. For example:C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\ProcessMaker-2_5_2\php\ext\php_oci8_12c.dll

If the php_oci8_12c.dll extension file isn't including in PHP, see Installing OCI8 on Windows for instructions on how to obtain the file and place it the /ext directory.

Next, edit the [2.0/Additional_Configuration#Configuring_PHP php.ini] file with a plain text editor (like Notepad or Notepad++) and add the following line:

extension=php_oci8_12c.dll

If this line already exists with a ";" (semicolon) in front, remove the semicolon to uncomment the line.

Restart Windows to Enable Extension

After installing the Oracle software and modifying php.ini, restart Windows to enable the new %Path% settings and the OCI8 extension in PHP. Then, "Oracle" should appear as one of the available options when creating a Database Connection inside ProcessMaker.

Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora

Oracle provides instructions and RPM packages to install its Instant Client in Linux, which can be downloaded for free at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html

If ProcessMaker is running on a 32 bit system, download Instant Client for Linux x86. For a 64 bit system, download Instant Client for Linux x86-64. For an AMD system, download Instant Client for Linux AMD64 (32-bit and 64-bit). Make sure to download the version of Instant Client Basic or Basic-Lite which matches your version of Oracle. It is also recommended to download the SQL*Plus and SDK packages, but it is not necessary.

Then follow the steps below to install and configure Instant Client in Linux, depending upon whether using a Red Hat or a Debian based system.

Install Instant Client

Open a terminal in the server where ProcessMaker is installed and login as root (or use the sudo in order to install the following packages which are needed by Oracle Instant Client:

yum install php-pear php-devel zlib zlib-devel bc libaio glibc yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

Copy the Oracle Instant Client package files to the current directory and then issue the following command to install them:

rpm -ivh oracle-instantclient*

If using a 64 bit version of Instant Client, then create symbolic links so the Instant Client can be found:

ln -s /usr/include/oracle/11.2/client64 /usr/include/oracle/11.2/client ln -s /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64 /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client

(Make sure to change 11.2 to match your version of Instant Client.)

Then set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable, to indicate where the Instant Client library is located. For a 64 bit system, issue the following command

echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib" > /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

For a 32 bit system:

echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client/lib" > /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

(Make sure to change 11.2 to match your version of Instant Client.)

Then also set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH for the current session:

source /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

Install PDO_OCI

Download the PDO_OCI-1.0.tgz file and decompress it with the following command:

tar -xzvf PDO_OCI-1.0.tgz

Then, configure PHP to use PDO_OCI:

cd PDO_OCI-1.0 phpize ./configure --with-pdo-oci=instantclient,/usr,11.2

Make sure to change 11.2 to match your version of Instant Client. Then compile and install the PDO_OCI module:

make make install cd ..

Then, include the module in PHP and restart Apache so the module can be used:

echo "extension=pdo_oci.so" > /etc/php.d/pdo_oci.ini service httpd restart

Finally, check whether the PDO_OCI module was installed and included in PHP:

php -i | grep oci

The following line should appear in the output:

PDO drivers => oci, mysql

Install OCI8

Use the pear command to download the OCI8 source code and then decompress it:

pear download pecl/oci8 tar -xvf oci8-1.4.9.tgz

(Change 1.4.9 to the version of OCI8 which was downloaded by pear.) Then, configure how the code will be compiled:

cd oci8-1.4.9 phpize ./configure --with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib

(Change 11.2 to your version of Instant Client. For 32 bit systems, remove 64.)

Then, compile and install:

make make install

Then, include oci8 in PHP and restart Apache to be able to use the new module:

echo "extension=oci8.so" >> /etc/php.d/oci8.ini service httpd restart

Finally, check whether it was installed and included correctly:

php -i | grep oci8

The output should include lines like the following:

/etc/php.d/oci8.ini, oci8 oci8.connection_class => no value => no value oci8.default_prefetch => 100 => 100 oci8.events => Off => Off oci8.max_persistent => -1 => -1

Debian/Ubuntu

To connect to an Oracle Database on a Debian or Ubuntu server, first get the ZIP files for the Oracle Instant Client in Linux, which can be downloaded for free at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html

If ProcessMaker is running on a 32 bit system, download Instant Client for Linux x86. For a 64 bit system, download Instant Client for Linux x86-64. For an AMD system, download Instant Client for Linux AMD64 (32-bit and 64-bit). Make sure to download the version of Instant Client Basic which matches your version of Oracle. It is also recommended to download the SQL*Plus and SDK packages, but it is not necessary.

Then follow the steps below to install Instant Client in Debian/Ubuntu.

Install Instant Client

After downloading the Instant Client ZIP files, login as root (or use the sudo command). First, make a directory to hold the Oracle Instant Client application:

mkdir /opt/oracle

Then, decompress the downloaded ZIP files in that new directory:

unzip -d /opt/oracle instantclient-basic-linux.*.zip unzip -d /opt/oracle instantclient-sdk-linux.*.zip unzip -d /opt/oracle instantclient-sqlplus-linux.*.zip

Then add symbolic links which will make it possible for the PHP Oracle extensions to find the files:

cd /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1 ln -s libclntsh.so.* libclntsh.so ln -s libocci.so.* libocci.so echo /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1 >> /etc/ld.so.conf ldconfig

(Make sure to change 12_1 to your version of Instant Client.)

Install PDO_OCI

First, install the required packages to build the PHP modules for Oracle:

apt-get install build-essential php-pear php5-dev libaio1 php-pdo php-db

The PDO_OCI extension is outdated code which was created for older versions of Instant Client. Directories will need to be added with symbolic links so that the PDO_OCT extension can be compiled correctly.

cd /usr/include/ ln -s php5 php

Then, add links to the include and lib directories in the Instant Client files:

cd /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1 mkdir -p include/oracle/12.1/ cd include/oracle/12.1/ ln -s ../../../sdk/include client cd - mkdir -p lib/oracle/12.1/client cd lib/oracle/12.1/client ln -s ../../../../ lib

(Make sure to change 12_1 to your version of Instant Client.)

Next, download the PDO_OCI-1.0.tgz file and decompress it with the following command:

cd ~ tar -xzvf PDO_OCI-1.0.tgz

Then, configure the PDO_OCI files and compile them:

cd PDO_OCI-1.0 phpize ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1 ./configure --with-pdo-oci=instantclient,/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1,12.1 make && make install

(Make sure to change 12_1 to your version of Instant Client.)

Then, include the extension in PHP and restart Apache so the module can be used:

echo "extension=pdo_oci.so" > /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/pdo_oci.ini echo "extension=pdo_oci.so" > /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/pdo_oci.ini service apache2 restart

Finally, check whether the PDO_OCI module was installed and included in PHP:

php -i | grep oci

The following line should appear in the output:

PDO drivers => oci, mysql

Install OCI8

The OCI8 extension is up-to-date and can be compiled and installed without any problems. Use the pecl command to automatically download, compile and install it:

pecl channel-update pear.php.net pecl install oci8

While configuring the compilation, the system will ask for the location of the ORACLE HOME directory:

Please provide the path to the ORACLE_HOME directory. Use 'instantclient,/path/to/instant/client/lib' if you're compiling with Oracle Instant Client [autodetect]:

Enter:

shared,instantclient,/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_1

(Make sure to change 12_1 to your version of Instant Client.) Then, include the extension in PHP and restart Apache so the module can be used:

echo "extension=oci8.so" > /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/oci8.ini echo "extension=oci8.so" > /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/oci8.ini service apache2 restart

Finally, check whether the oci8 module was installed and included in PHP:

php -i | grep oci8

The output should include lines like the following:

oci8 oci8.connection_class => no value => no value oci8.default_prefetch => 100 => 100 oci8.events => Off => Off oci8.max_persistent => -1 => -1

Checking the Oracle installation

After installing an Oracle client and the OCI8 and PDO_OCI extensions in PHP, then login to ProcessMaker and go to the DESIGNER menu and open process for editing. Click on theDatabase Connections tab and create a new connection. In the Engine dropdown box, there should be an Oracle option:

Oracle Troubleshooting

Check the Apache error log file for startup errors.

Temporarily set display_error=On in php.ini so script errors are displayed. Switch it back off when finished for security reasons.

Chapter 9 of The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual contains information about common connection errors and discusses alternative ways to set environment variables.

Oracle's SQL*Plus command line tool can be downloaded from the [www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-100365.html Instant Client] page to help resolve environment and connection problems. Check whether SQL*Plus can connect and then ensure the Environment section (not the Apache Environment section) of phpinfo.php shows the equivalent environment settings.

The following testoci8.php script can be used to check whether the OCI8 extension works with Oracle. Create the testoci8.php file at the location <install-directory>/workflow/public_html/testoci8.php with the following contents:

<?php
//change the username, password, machine, domain and address:
$conn = oci_connect('username', 'password', 'mymachine.mydomain/mydatabase');

$stid = oci_parse($conn, 'select table_name from user_tables');
oci_execute($stid);
echo "<table>\n";
while (($row = oci_fetch_array($stid, OCI_ASSOC+OCI_RETURN_NULLS)) != false) {
    echo "<tr>\n";
    foreach ($row as $item) {
        echo " <td>".($item !== null ? htmlentities($item, ENT_QUOTES) : "&nbsp;")."</td>\n";
    }
    echo "</tr>\n";
}
echo "</table>\n";
?>

Make sure to modify the connection credentials to suit your database. Then open a web browser and go to the address:

http://<processmaker-address>/testoci8.php

For example, if ProcessMaker is installed at the address 192.168.0.1 on port 8080, then go to:

http://192.168.0.1:8080/testoci8.php

The tables in the Oracle database should be listed on the page. Make sure to delete the testoci8.php file when done testing.

Converting Oracle to UTF-8

If an Oracle database uses a character set other than UTF-8, then the NLS_LANG environment variable needs to be set to the UTF-8 character set on the server where ProcessMaker is installed.

The format for the NLS_LANG variable should be [NLS_LANGUAGE]_[NLS_TERRITORY].[NLS_CHARACTERSET].

First, determine the current locale settings in the Oracle database with the following SQL query: SELECT * FROM V$NLS_PARAMETERS;

For example, if the locale is american_america.EL8MSWIN1253, then this needs to be changed to american_america.UTF-8.

Linux:

In a Linux server, edit the file /etc/environment with a plain text editor and add the line:

NLS_LANG=American_America.UTF8

Unfortunately the /etc/environment file isn't read by cron scripts, so also edit the /etc/profile file and add the line:

export NLS_LANG=American_America.UTF8

These settings should take effect the next time the server is rebooted. To have them take effect immediately, enter the following in the command line of a terminal:

export NLS_LANG=American_America.UTF8

Windows:

In a Windows server, go to Control Panel > System.

Click on the Advanced system settings option at the left of the window.

Click on Environment Variables.

In System variables section, click New.

In the Variable Name field, enter NLS_LANG and in the Variable Value field, enter American_America.UTF8. Click on Ok and close all dialogs.

Then, reboot the server for the changes to take effect.

Other Types of Databases

If using another type of database that ProcessMaker does not support, then it is possible to connect to that database using PHP's database extensions inside a trigger. Many types of databases have their own specialized functions such as oci_connect() or mysql_connect(), but almost all databases and spreadsheets also support the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) protocol.

Unfortunately, database connections created in triggers can not be used like normal Database Connections in ProcessMaker. In order to be queried like a normal database, using the SQL Connection and SQL properties in DynaForm fields, first the results of the database query will have to be stored as an associative array of associative arrays in the $_SESSION superglobal variable, so they can be accessed by DynaForm fields. See the example for populating a dropdown box.

ODBC

The specialized PHP functions for each type of database are generally easier to use, but PHP's ODBC functions offer a standardized way to connect to any data source.

Installing ODBC

Before trying to use ODBC in PHP, make sure that the odbc module is installed in PHP, by going to the command line and issuing the command:

php -m

If "odbc" doesn't appear in the list of modules, then it will need to be installed:

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install unixodbc php5-odbc

Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora:

yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel php-odbc

SUSE/OpenSUSE:

yast2 -i php5-odbc

Windows:
The ODBC module should be installed by default in PHP.

Using ODBC in Triggers

First, establish a connection to the database with the obdc_connect() (or obdc_pconnect() for a persistent connection):

resource odbc_connect( string $dsn, string $user, string $password [, int $cursor_type])

The first parameter is the data source name, which contains the custom parameters needed to connect to different types of databases. It might contain something like:

"Driver={DRIVER-NAME};Server=SERVER-URL;Database=DB-NAME;"

but it varies widely. See this list of connection strings.

Populating a Textbox

To set the value of a DynaForm textbox, fire trigger before the DynaForm which queries the database using ODBC and then sets the value of the case variable for the textbox.

For example, to query a Visual FoxPro database and set the value of a textbox named "ClientName":

$dns = "Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBC;SourceDB=c:\somepath\contacts.dbc;Exclusive=No";
$con = obdc_connect($dns, "", "");
if ($con !== false) {
   $res = odbc_exec($con, "SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME FROM CLIENTS WHERE CLIENT_ID='ARG29'");
   if ($row = odbc_fetch_array($res))
      @@ClientName = $row['FIRSTNAME'] . ' ' . $row['LASTNAME'];
}

Populating a Dropdown Box

To populate the list of options in a dropdown box, create an associative array of associative arrays, which can be queried like a normal table.

For example, this trigger uses OBDC to connect to an Excel spreadsheet and populate a dropdown box:

$aClients = array();
$cnt = 1;
$dns = "Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};DriverId=790;Dbq=c:\somepath\Clients.xls;DefaultDir=c:\somepath";
$con = obdc_connect($dns, "", "");
if ($con !== false) {
   $res = odbc_exec($con, "SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME from CLIENT_LIST");
   while ($row = (odbc_fetch_array($res)))
      $aClients[$cnt++] = $row;
}
else {
  $g = new G();
  $g->SendMessageText("Unable to access Excel file 'c:\somepath\Clients.xls'.", "ERROR");
}
#Make $aClients available to be queried in the DynaForm like a table from a database:
global $_DBArray;
$_DBArray['CLIENTS_LIST'] = $aClients;
$_SESSION['_DBArray'] = $_DBArray;

Then in the DynaForm create a dropdown box with the sqlconnection="dbarray" property in the XML definition. To populate the list of options, use an SQL query to access the CLIENTS_LIST array:

SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME FROM CLIENTS_LIST

Where CLIENT_ID will become the value for each option and CLIENT_NAME will become the label for each option in the dropdown box. The complete XML definition for the dropdown box would be:

<SelectClient type="dropdown" required="0" readonly="0" savelabel="0" mode="edit" options="Array" sqlconnection="dbarray"> SELECT CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_NAME FROM CLIENTS_LIST <en>Select Client</en> </SelectClient>

Populating a Grid

To populate a DynaForm grid, create an associative array of associative arrays and assign it to the case variable for the grid. The keys in the associative arrays must be the same as the names of the grid fields, so use AS in the SQL query to rename the fields from the table if they don't match the field names in the grid.

For example, this trigger uses OBDC to connect to an Access database and populate a DynaForm grid named "ProductsGrid" which has the fields "serialNo", "productTitle", "description" and "listPrice":

$dns = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=c:\somepath\Products.mbd";
$con = obdc_connect($dns, "someuser", "p4sSw0rd");
if ($con !== false) {
   $aProducts = array();
   $cnt = 1;
   $sql = "SELECT SERIAL AS serialNo, TITLE AS productTitle, DESC AS description,
      PRICE AS listPrice FROM PRODUCTS WHERE CATEGORY='current'"
;
   $res = odbc_exec($con, $sql);

   while ($row = (odbc_fetch_array($res)))
      $aProducts[$cnt++] = $row;

   @@ProductsGrid = $aProducts;
}
else {
  $g = new G();
  $g->SendMessageText("Unable to connect to Access database!", "ERROR");
}

Discovering Ports and Debugging

If unsure which port number is being used by a database, use the nmap command to discover the port. This program is installed by default on most Linux/UNIX distributions, but it needs to be installed in Windows.

If the database is located on the same machine as the ProcessMaker server, issue the command:

nmap localhost

If the database is on another server, enter the domain name or IP address where it is located. For example:

nmap 192.168.1.229

nmap will list the ports which are currently being used by the server. If the database service is activated and it's port isn't blocked by a firewall, then a port number should be listed for the database:

Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2015-02-05 12:03 BOT Nmap scan report for no-name-229.colosa.net (192.168.1.229) Host is up (0.0094s latency). Not shown: 990 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 25/tcp open smtp 80/tcp open http 111/tcp open rpcbind 389/tcp open ldap 631/tcp open ipp 1521/tcp open oracle 3306/tcp open mysql

If a port number isn't listed for the database, then go to the server where the database is installed and make sure that it is being run as a service:

MySQL:

Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora:

Login as root (or use sudo) and issue the command:

# service mysqld status mysqld (pid 1703) is running...

To see a list of all services:

service --status-all

Debian/Ubuntu:

Login as root (or use sudo) and issue the command:

# service mysql status Server version 5.5.41-0+wheezy1 Protocol version 10 Connection Localhost via UNIX socket UNIX socket /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock Uptime: 3 days 1 hour 59 min 33 sec Threads: 1 Questions: 19041 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 716 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 205 Queries per second avg: 0.071.

To see a list of all services:

service --status-all

Windows:

Open the command prompt (go to Start > Run and enter: cmd) and enter the following command to see a list of all running services:

net start

To see the status of MySQL:

sc query mysql-service-name

For example to see the status of MySQL installed by the Automatic ProcessMaker Installer:

C:\> sc query ProcessMakerMysql SERVICE_NAME: ProcessMakerMysql TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS STATE : 4 RUNNING (STOPPABLE, PAUSABLE, ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN) WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) CHECKPOINT : 0x0 WAIT_HINT : 0x0

PostgreSQL:

Red Hat/Cent OS/Fedora:

Login as root (or use sudo) and issue the command:

# service postgresql status postmaster (pid 3498) is running...

For recent versions, it may be necessary to specify the version number:

# service postgresql-9.4 status postmaster (pid 3498) is running...

To see a list of all services:

service --status-all

Debian/Ubuntu:

Login as root (or use sudo) and issue the command:

# service postgresql status Running clusters: 9.1/main

To see a list of all services:

service --status-all

Windows:

Open the command prompt (go to Start > Run and enter: cmd) and enter the following command to see a list of all running services:

net start

To see the status of PostgreSQL:

sc query postgresql-service-name

Oracle:

Linux/UNIX:

Oracle uses the dbstart and dbstop commands (which are located in the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory) to start and stop the database, although a service script can be added in the/etc/init.d/ directory. Likewise, it uses the lsnrctl start and lsnrctl stop commands to start and stop the listener and isqlplusctl start and isqlplusctl stop to start and stop SQL*Plus.

To see the status of the Oracle database, use the following command (located in the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory):

chkdb_status

Windows:

Open the command prompt (go to Start > Run and enter: cmd) and enter the following command to see a list of all running services:

net start

Oracle creates a service for its listener and for its database:

sc query OracleOraDB12Home1TNSListener sc query OracleDatabaseX

For example to see the status of an Oracle database named "ORCL" and the listener:

C:\> sc query OracleServiceORCL SERVICE_NAME: OracleServiceORCL TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS STATE : 4 RUNNING (STOPPABLE, PAUSABLE, ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN) WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) CHECKPOINT : 0x0 WAIT_HINT : 0x0 C:\> sc query OracleOraDB12Home1TNSListener SERVICE_NAME: OracleOraDB12Home1TNSListener TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS STATE : 4 RUNNING (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN) WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) CHECKPOINT : 0x0 WAIT_HINT : 0x0

MS SQLServer:

Windows:

Open the command prompt (go to Start > Run and enter: cmd) and enter the following command to see a list of all running services:

net start

Oracle creates a service for its listener and for its database:

sc query MSSQLSERVER

For example:

C:\> sc query MSSQLSERVER SERVICE_NAME: MSSQLSERVER TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS STATE : 4 RUNNING (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN) WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0) CHECKPOINT : 0x0 WAIT_HINT : 0x0