Unfamiliar with Oracle

Hello,

I am quite unfamiliar with Oracle, and I need to use it for an upcoming
project.

I have been provided with a user name, password, SID, and port to connect to a
database server with.  I have also been given the names of three functions to
query for data, which will be returned as XML.  I wrote the DTDs for the XML
files that will be returned.

I was wondering how I might best go about this using C# and .net?  Even a small
nudge in the right direction would be infinitely valuable.  I can provide more
information on request.

Thanks in advance.

If you are used to System.Data.SqlClient namespace when working with Sql Server,
there is a similar one for Oracle.  You just need to learn how to reference
things as necessary, since the two use different keywords for some things.

Add a reference to the System.Data.OracleClient to your project, and instead of
using SqlCommand, use OracleCommand, etc.

Thank you for your help so far.

 I am having trouble determining the appropriate connection string to use for
this situation.

Given the information I have (host, port, SID, user name, password), what should
I use?  

Many of the options which I have researched so far call for a data source based
on net service names, and I am not entirely sure how the tnsnames.ora file
relates to my situation.

I would be grateful for additional information.

www.connectionstrings.com can walk you through the process of selecting the
proper way to connect, depending on the database being used and the different
connection options.

Start here for Oracle, and you will find the OracleClient method a few screens
down: http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=oracle

I appreciate your continued support.  I just realized my problem goes a little
deeper, however.

The connection strings would be a breeze if only I had a valid version of the
Oracle client installed.

Here is the situation:

I am a student employee at a university, and I have been ordered to create an
application that accesses data on the campus-wide Oracle 10g database.  Security
is quite tight, but I was given the information mentioned in the above post.  

 
I am struggling to correctly install an Oracle client.  I can't find a guide
that I am able to follow.  I am assuming when it mentions changing environmental
variables, it means to go to My Comptuer -> System Properties -> Advanced
-> Environmental Variables, but some of the variables that it says to set
(namely "Path") are already in use by SQL server.

Any nudges or helpful guides?