title: Oracle Data provider for .NET in visual studio
body: <p>Newbi to oracle and its versions and .NET providers, but did some investigation.
  I'm trying to add Oracle connection to the visual studio server Explorer (before setting up the Entity Framework 6 for oracle).
  System preferences:
  Windows 10 enterprise  - 64 bit operating system
  Visual Studio 2015</p>
  
  <p>Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) which includes Oracle developer Tools for Visual Studio: ODAC12C - 12.2.0.1 - <strong>it is suitable to 64 bit</strong> ! </p>
  
  <p>The DB is located in a remote machine and I can see the DB objects using the Oracle SQL developer. It uses the TNSNames file to locate the DBs.  </p>
  
  <p>when trying to "add connection" in the visual studio server explorer:
  Select Data Source: <strong>Oracle DataBase</strong> 
  Data Provider:.<strong>NET framework data provider for Oracle.</strong> 
  It claims that:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>"This provider is deprecated and should not be used. Instead download
    Oracle Developer tools for visual studio for comprehensive integration
    with Oracle database."</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The problem is that the mentioned above reference links to a <strong>32-bit</strong> Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) bundle which includes "Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio". The same shXX happens when choosing <strong>.NET framework data provider for OLEDB.</strong></p>
  
  <p>Either I don't see the relevant provider in the list or there is a problem.<br>
  After inserting Server name, User name and Password in the "Add connection" dialog box, I get this error message:</p>
  
  <p>"Attempt to load Oracle Client libraries threw BadImageFormatException.
  This problem will occur when running 64 bit mode with the 32 bit Oracle Client components installed"</p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong ?</p>
  
  <p>Is this the way of defining connection string when I have a TNSNames file ?</p>