David Sceppa's Ramblings : Providers

Recent ADO.NET Entity Framework provider news - Demos and downloads

David Sceppa — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:16:00 GMT

Here are a few quick announcements about ADO.NET providers supporting the Entity Framework. Enjoy!

Core Lab (Connectivity to Multiple Data Stores)

Core Lab was the first ADO.NET provider writer to support Beta 3 of the Entity Framework. Their provider includes connectivity to Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite databases. For more information, see the announcement on the following pages: http://crlab.com/news/2007/directs430.html and http://crlab.com/news/2008/dcsqlite100.html.

IBM

IBM has released a public beta for their ADO.NET provider that works with Beta 3 of the Entity Framework. For more information, see the announcement on the following page: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=203893. IBM also demonstrated their provider in an end-to-end application building scenario using the Entity Framework designer at recent VS Live conference in San Francisco.

MySQL

At the recent MySQL conference in Santa Clara, Reggie Burnett and I co-presented a session talking about MySQL, LINQ and the ADO.NET Entity Framework. As part of the session, we demonstrated using LINQ, Entity SQL and ADO.NET Data Services to access a MySQL database using Beta 3 of the Entity Framework.

Note: Big thanks to Reggie for helping to make this demo work even after injuring his knee. Get well soon.

Npgsql (PostgreSQL connectivity)

Npgsql has released a beta of their PostgreSQL ADO.NET provider that works with Beta 3 of the Entity Framework. You can download the provider at the following page: http://pgfoundry.org/frs/download.php/1730/Npgsql2.0beta3-bin-EntityFrameworkBeta3.zip. For more information on the release, please see the following page: http://pgfoundry.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=1307.

David Sceppa

ADO.NET Program Manager

Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 3

David Sceppa — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:08:00 GMT

We've updated the sample provider to work with Beta 3 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The sample provider is available for download as an attachment to this blog post.

The sample provider has undergone some minor changes in moving from Beta 2 to Beta 3. The biggest such in the sample provider is due to changes in the provider manifest. To help provider writers better understand how provider manifests are used in Beta 3, we've included the provider manifest spec along with the sample provider.

As with previous builds, the sample provider wraps System.Data.SqlClient and demonstrates the functionality a provider needs to add in order to support the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The solution that contains the sample provider also includes a modified version of the Entity Framework Query Samples project. The modified project uses the sample provider rather than System.Data.SqlClient.

You'll also find a new project in the solution - ExtendedProvider. This project leverages the sample provider and the Data Designer Extensibility (DDEX) that's part of Visual Studio 2008 to demonstrate how to make an ADO.NET provider available through the various Visual Studio designers, including the ADO.NET Entity Framework Designer.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for the Entity Framework and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com. Enjoy!

Sample ADO.NET Entity Framework Provider - Beta 2

David Sceppa — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:13:00 GMT

We've updated the sample provider to work with Beta 2 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The sample provider is available for download as an attachment to this blog post.

The sample provider has undergone some minor changes in moving from Beta 1 to Beta 2.

The DbProviderServices class has been enhanced to support returning the mapping file that the EdmGen.exe command-line tool uses to retrieve schema information from the database. This new approach leverages the Entity Framework's mapping functionality and the provider's SQL-gen layer to map conceptual table, view, column, etc. schema information to the database's actual system tables. The end result is that EdmGen.exe can retrieve database schema information in a provider agnostic fasion.

Also, the SQL generation layer within the sample provider has been enhanced to support the new canonical function capabilities added in Beta 2 of the ADO.NET Entity Framework.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for Orcas and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com. Enjoy!

TechEd: Provider Writers Talk About the Entity Framework

David Sceppa — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:04:00 GMT

TechEd was a major success. Every time I turned around, more people were asking questions about LINQ and the Entity Framework, though that might have had something to do with the fact that I was standing next to a sign that said "LINQ / Entity Framework".

One of the highlights was the provider writers' chalk talk, which packed the theater area. I'd previously blogged that IBM, DataDirect and Oracle would be in attendance. We also had representatives from Sybase and VistaDB at the talk.

IBM drew the most "oohs" and "aahs" when they demonstrated an early build of their provider working with the 101 LINQ to Entities samples. Each provider writer took some time to talk about their thoughts on customer scenarios, the work they've done so far, etc. The majority of the provider writers talked about how excited they were that both LINQ and Entity SQL allow developers to write provider agnostic queries without having to ask themselves questions like "How do I concatenate strings, construct a join, etc. in my database's query language?"

A few attendees asked about MySQL connectivity. MySQL was unable to attend due to scheduling problems but they are still very much involved. As I mentioned in a previous post, they demonstrated an early build of their provider working with the Entity Framework at the MySQL conference in April.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for the Entity Framework and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com.

Oracle posts a new beta of their .NET provider

David Sceppa — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:24:00 GMT

Oracle has just released a new beta of their .NET provider, commonly known as ODP.NET. This is great news for developers who have been pleading for support for Oracle's instant client or for more ASP.NET features. You can read more about the new features on Oracle's site here and download the beta here.

Oracle joins the list of provider writers speaking at TechEd

David Sceppa — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:03:00 GMT

Oracle will be in attendance at the ADO.NET Entity Framework provider writer chalk talk at TechEd 2007 in Orlando. The chalk talk will be held Friday June 8th at 1pm in Blue Theater 12.

Here's what Oracle's ODP.NET team asked me to pass along regarding the chalk talk:

The Oracle ODP.NET development team is working with Microsoft on the Entity Framework and will be there to talk to customers looking to use the Entity Framework to access Oracle databases.

As mentioned in the previous post, whether you’re interested in accessing a third party database, or you’re interested in enhancing your provider to support the Entity Framework, I invite you to attend and ask questions of the Microsoft representatives as well as the representatives of the various provider writers. I look forward to seeing you there!

Entity Framework Provider Talk at TechEd

David Sceppa — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:44:00 GMT

At TechEd 2007 in Orlando, there will be a chalk talk on ADO.NET Entity Framework, specifically focusing on the provider model and integration with third-party databases. The chalk talk will be held Friday June 8th at 1pm in Blue Theater 12.

I’m pleased to say that DataDirect, IBM and others will be in attendance to talk about the work they’re doing to add support for the Entity Framework to their ADO.NET providers.

DataDirect will discuss heterogeneous data sources in an Entity Framework environment, the importance of best of class ADO.NET providers as an essential component for the Entity Framework and present a use case on a how to ensure a successful Entity Framework development and deployment cycle.
IBM will talk about their investments to support the Entity Framework for their Data Servers and to demonstrate an early build of their provider working with the Entity Framework.

Whether you’re interested in accessing a third party database, or you’re interested in enhancing your provider to support the Entity Framework, I invite you to attend and ask questions of the Microsoft representatives as well as the representatives of the various provider writers. I look forward to seeing you there!

ADO.NET Orcas Sample Provider - Beta 1

David Sceppa — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:19:00 GMT

We've updated the sample provider to work with Beta 1 of Orcas. The sample provider is available for download as an attachment to this blog post.

Within the Entity Framework, the command tree, expression and related classes in Beta 1 now include the "Db" prefix - DbCommandTree instead of CommandTree, DbExpression instead of Expression, etc. The primary change to the sample provider itself from the March CTP is to react to those modified class names.

The solution that contains the sample provider also includes a modified version of the 101 LINQ to Entities samples project. The modified project uses the sample provider rather than System.Data.SqlClient.

As with the March CTP build, the sample provider wraps System.Data.SqlClient and demonstrating the functionality a provider needs to add in order to support the Entity Framework. To learn more about the classes and interfaces to implement, see the blog post for the March CTP version of the sample provider here.

If you're writing an ADO.NET provider for Orcas and you're not already in touch with me, please drop me a line at David (dot) Sceppa (at) microsoft (dot) com. Enjoy!

ADO.NET at the recent MySQL conference

David Sceppa — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:37:00 GMT

Last week, I attended the MySQL conference in Santa Clara and delivered a presentation on ADO.NET 2.0. It was great to talk to developers building applications targeting MySQL databases via ADO.NET. One developer stayed after my session to comment on how pleased he was to see the changes to the provider model in 2.0 and was even more excited to hear that the Entity Framework would let him focus on writing queries against his model rather than having to think about the query syntax for his back end of choice for string concatenations, etc. Speaking of the Entity Framework, the highlight of the conference for me was attending Reggie Burnett's talk about MySQL and the future of ADO.NET where he demonstrated using an early build of the MySQL provider and the Entity Framework to access MySQL data via both LINQ to Entities and Entity SQL. Here are links to the Reggie's session abstract and to Reggie's blog.