Release Notes: DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET, Release 3.3

Only DataDirect ADO.NET providers deliver a 100% managed code architecture for connectivity to Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and Sybase.

Major Features:

New or Updated Drivers:

ADO.NET Entity Framework Support

Benefits of DataDirect ADO.NET Entity Framework support:

Superior ADO.NET Entity Framework performance
  • Best-in-class development-time and runtime performance and scalability – blows away the competition with the best throughput while using minimal CPU and memory resources
  • Fully tunable enterprise performance architecture – includes support for key features such as statement caching and connection pooling
  • Integrated performance wizards in Visual Studio – now fully functional with the ADO.NET Entity Framework

Quickly develop robust enterprise applications using LINQ, Entity SQL, and ADO.NET Data Services
  • Leverage the full functionality of the ADO.NET Entity Framework no matter what application development approach you choose
  • Application Context Awareness detects and reconfigures the ADO.NET provider to ensure optimal ADO.NET Entity Framework performance
  • Support for EDM portability across data sources, (including SQL Server) with flexible model support

Boost ADO.NET Entity Framework application enterprise readiness
  • Offers standard ADO.NET Entity Framework EDM context extensions
  • Log SQL statements generated by the ADO.NET Entity Framework for database optimization and tuning
  • 100% provider-implemented connection failover and load balancing with no code changes
  • Leverage security features such as Kerberos and SSL within the ADO.NET Entity Framework
  • Monitor your ADO.NET Entity Framework applications in production with features such as connection statistics and perfmon counters
  • Supports local (lightweight) and XA distributed transactions within ADO.NET Entity Framework

No database client software required – ever!
  • DataDirect providers support all features with the industry’s only 100% managed code architecture that completely eliminates the need for database client libraries such as Oracle OCI
  • With an architecturally sound model, DataDirect providers dramatically improve the potential for successful deployment of the ADO.NET Entity Framework

Secure end-to-end application data access

Application Context Awareness

Applications and applications development technologies are all unique, so why should an ADO.NET provider treat them all the same? Expanding on its support of codeless performance tuning, DataDirect introduces support for Application Context Awareness in its Oracle provider. With this feature, an ADO.NET provider can detect if it is being used with a technology such as LINQ, Entity SQL, or NHibernate, and automatically reconfigure its default settings for the best out-of-the-box performance for a particular technology. With this feature, developers can spend more time coding and even less time configuring their data connectivity.

Logging Application Block support

Object-relational mapping (ORM) technologies such as the ADO.NET Entity Framework make it easier for developers to build applications by simplifying many tasks, such a generating SQL. A tradeoff of this benefit is that the developer has less control and visibility over the SQL that is generated and passed to the ADO.NET provider and database. Without the ability to easily determine what SQL statements are being generated, important DBA tasks related to database optimization and re-indexing for performance are impossible.

With this release, all DataDirect ADO.NET providers support the logging of SQL statements using Microsoft's Enterprise Library Logging Application Block. Easily enabled via at a machine or application level, .NET applications can use this feature to log the SQL statements generated by an ORM technology and passed to the database to any destination for accelerated database tuning.

Oracle

Provider Functionality
  • Full Oracle feature support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework including:
    • All supported versions of the Oracle database available with a single provider
    • Support for overloaded procedures and REF CURSORS (Implicit & Explicit)
    • Support for Oracle database security features such as Transparent Data and Tablespace Encryption
    • Support for catalog features such as schemas, stored procedures, REF CURSORs, and packages
    • Support for data types such as BINARY, BINARY_DOUBLE, BINARY_FLOAT, BLOB,  CLOB, and XML
  • Application Context Awareness
  • Logging Application Block support

DB2

Provider Functionality
  • Logging Application Block support

    Sybase

    Provider Functionality
    • Logging Application Block support

      SQL Server

      Provider Functionality
      • Logging Application Block support
        Release History