How can I see other schemas apart from my own when connecting to an Oracle database through server explorer?

Question

I am attempting to add a connection to an Oracle database through Server Explorer. The 'Test' Connection' is successful, however whenever I go to view the list of tables / schemas, I can only see the one associated with my login.

I realise this sounds silly, but when I use the same login/password through Toad for Oracle, I am still allowed to browse "All Schemas" to find the tables I want.

Is this possible through Server Explorer? Or do I need to find a specific login for the schema I want to access?

Solution (just so it's here and not just on the OTN forums)

• Right-click on connection in Server Explorer
• Choose filters
• Select the "Dispalyed Schemas" row in the property grid (it should be selected by default)
• In the Property/Condition/Value fields, click the "..." button for Value
• Pick any schemas you want to see and click Ok.

Conversely, instead of using the dialog that appears after clicking the "..." button, you can list the schemas separated by commas in the Value textbox.

Answer 1

Oracle's way of dealing with users and schemas is different from SQL Server's. So I suspect the default Visual Studio behaviour won't work properly with Oracle.

Have you installed the free Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio? Find them here. If you do that then you can manually add the other schemas to the filter of your main connection. I found instructions in this OTN forum thread:

"highlight the connection node you want to moidy and choose filters or right click on the specific connection node and choose modify then click on the filters tab to modify the filters."

I agree this is clunky, and it should be done automatically. I guess there's a limit to how VS can be extended.