Converting .NET Applications to Use Connect for ADO.NET
NOTE: This page is about data providers that work with the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1, see the DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET product page for information about data providers that support Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and higher.
As more applications are being developed in ADO.NET, it is important for developers to recognize the impact of using different ADO.NET providers from different database vendors.
Until the release of ADO.NET 2.0, much of the responsibility of providing a layer of interoperability was left to either the developer or to third party software vendors offering ADO.NET data providers.
Even with the advent of ADO.NET 2.0, interoperability features such as SQL Leveling were not available natively in the .NET Framework. (SQL Leveling means the capability to write a SQL statement that can be executed across multiple databases, regardless of the databases' SQL implementation.)
As the DBMS vendors typically only create a provider for their individual offerings, this type of interoperability feature does not play into provider strategy. Application developers that use these proprietary providers must write additional code to access common functionality in the various backends, as the DBMS vendor-supplied providers use native proprietary database syntax and SQL implementations.
DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET data providers offer the highest level of interoperability between databases, including the key area of SQL Leveling.
The Progress DataDirect providers are also 100% managed code, meaning that there is no need for any additional database clients or libraries to be installed. This ensures that the application stack is entirely within the Microsoft .NET Framework, and makes no bridged calls outside the .NET CLR (common language runtime).
100% managed code enables applications to take full advantage of the performance, security and deployment benefits of the .NET Framework.
Currently, Microsoft provides a SQL Server provider and an Oracle provider to enable developers to use the features of ADO.NET via managed providers. Many developers use these providers in pilot project development as they are readily available and provide a means of developing an application and connecting to a database out of the box.
To avoid problems with interoperability later on, you'll want to replace the Microsoft provider with DataDirect's provider to achieve the highest level of interoperability between databases and eliminate the need to write additional code to accommodate proprietary database functionality.
The material provided here guides you in migrating an application from the Microsoft Oracle provider to the DataDirect Connect for .NET Oracle data provider and will discuss the most common changes necessary to modify an existing application that uses Microsoft's provider to use DataDirect's provider.
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