title: SQL*Plus syntax doesn't connect via LDAP within SQL Developer
body: <p>I have a tricky question which I haven't find how to solve it yet. I use LDAP for ORACLE DB connections, on hundreds of DBs and there are no errors when I manually create connections in SQL Developer.</p>
  
  <p>But, if I use SQL*Plus syntax within SQL Developer to switch between different connections: <em>CONNECT username/password@connect_identifier</em>, I get a "<em>connection failed message</em>".
  The reason is that it doesn't respect anymore the order defined in <strong>sqlnet.ora</strong> with (LDAP, tnsnames, ezconnect) and it goes directly to the <strong>tnsnames.ora</strong> file.
  If I define the connect_identifier in <strong>tnsnames.ora</strong>, it connects successfully, but I want to use LDAP, because it's always maintained directly by DBA.
  TNS_ADMIN is defined correctly and works properly. </p>
  
  <p>Also, if I open a cmd screen and use sqlplus username/password@connect_identifier, it works via LDAP.
  So only SQL Developer doesn't want to use LDAP via CONNECT syntax.</p>
  
  <p>I tried on different machines and with different SQL Developer releases, depending on what is installed on the machines, from 3.0.0.4 to 17.3.2, but I met the same behavior.</p>
  
  <p>On 17.3.2, where there is also the JDBC THIN connection option, I've seen it automatically tries to transform into a jdbc thin connection string, and of course, it fails:
  <code>USER = user
  URL = jdbc:oracle:thin:@connect_identifier.world:1521/connect_identifier.world
  Error Message = IO Error: Unknown host specified</code></p>
  
  <p>Why this behavior within SQL Developer and is there any way to force the <strong>CONNECT</strong> syntax to use <strong>LDAP</strong> instead of <strong>tnsnames.ora</strong>?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>