With Visual Builder, developers have a lot of options for connecting to external data sources.  However, sometimes you may need to connect to a private database.  For example, when you are creating a service connection to an ORDS API.

The best solution is to setup your Visual Builder instance inside the private subnet.  This feature was announced in December 2024 and this guide walks through the steps to create connections from the Private VB.  If that option isn't the right solution for you, the next best solution is to add a "Public Access" definition to your Private ATP Database.

In this post we'll walk through the steps to setup set up Public Access exclusively for your Visual Builder instance. This will allow you to make connections to your private database securely from Visual Builder without exposing it to anything else.

Quick Links

Prerequisite

The following guide assumes you already have a VB instance and a Private DB setup.

Copy the VCN OCID used by your VB Instance

  1. Open your Visual Builder Instance Details page
  2. In the network section, locate the "Service VCN OCID" and click "Copy"
    CopyVCNOCID.png

Update Your Database

  1. Switch to your ATP Database panel
  2. Open "More Actions"
  3. Click "Update network access"
    image-8e7c6ba21c70d8-e326.png
  4. Toggle on the switch to "Allow public access"
  5. Change the "IP notation type" to "Virtual cloud network OCID"
  6. Paste your OCID in the Values box
  7. Click "Update"
    EnterOCID.png

Copy your ORDS Public Access URL

  1. Switch to the Database "Tool configuration" tab
  2. Under the "Web Access (ORDS)" section copy the public access URL, excluding the "ords/" part.
    CopyORDSURL.png

Add an Allowed Origin for your ORDS API

  1. Switch to your VB services home page
  2. Open the settings General tab
  3. Click "+ New Origin"
  4. Add the URL copied above as a "New Origin".
    NewOrigin.png

Test Your Connection

You should now be able to create and test VB Service Connections for your ORDS APIs.

TestREST.png

If you don't have an existing API to test with you could try the Sample VB Application from the Private VB guide.