DbVIsualizer not recognizing TNSNAMES file

PRO user. DbVisualizer 9.2.14. OS X 10.10.5 I am trying to move to using tnsnames.ora since our company has thousands of databases. I downloaded the client software from oracle and copied it to /Library/Oracle/instantclient_11_2. I created a network/admin folder under that and copied the tnsnames.ora file into that directory. I added environment variables ORACLE_HOME=/Library/Oracle/instantclient_11_2, TNS_ADMIN=/Library/Oracle/instantclient_11_2/network/admin Restarted my machine and tried creating a new connection. When I try to select a TNS Alias I get an information box that says "If you like to use TNS aliases, the tnsnames.ora file must be located either in the ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory or in a directory identified by TNS_ADMIN" I am using the Oracle THIN client bundled with dbvisualizer.

Hi, On Mac OS X, setting an environment variable in e.g. .bash_profile does not make it available to applications started via Spotlight or by double-clicking the app icon. Please see this article for how to set environment variables so they are available to GUI apps: http://www.dowdandassociates.com/blog/content/howto-set-an-environment-variable-in-mac-os-x-slash-etc-slash-launchd-dot-conf/ Note that this may not work for all Mac OS X versions. If it doesn't, I suggest that you search the net for articles about environment variables for GUI apps in your specific Mac OS X version. Best Regards, Hans

Thanks Hans. I think I was missing the fact that I was running a newer version of OS X so I cannot use the traditional launchd.conf. I had to follow this walkthrough for this to work. http://www.dowdandassociates.com/blog/content/howto-set-an-environment-variable-in-mac-os-x-launchd-plist/

Great that you found a solution1 Yeah, unfortunately how to do this varies between Mac OS X versions so it's always a good idea to search a bit for a version-specific solution. Best Regards, Hans