.NET Data Providers

ADO.NET relies on the services of .NET data providers. These provide access to the underlying data source, and they comprise four key objects (Connection, Command, DataReader, and DataAdapter).
Currently, ADO.NET ships with two categories of providers: bridge providers and native providers. Bridge providers, such as those supplied for OLE DB and ODBC, allow you to use data libraries designed for earlier data access technologies. Native providers, such as the SQL Server and Oracle providers, typically offer performance improvements due, in part, to the fact that there is one less layer of abstraction.

• The SQL Server .NET Data Provider. This is a provider for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and later databases. It is optimized for accessing SQL Server, and it communicates directly with SQL Server by using the native data transfer protocol of SQL Server.

Always use this provider when you connect to SQL Server 7.0 or SQL Server 2000.

• The Oracle .NET Data Provider. The .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle enables data access to Oracle data sources through Oracle client connectivity software. The data provider supports Oracle client software version 8.1.7 and later.
• The OLE DB .NET Data Provider. This is a managed provider for OLE DB data sources. It is slightly less efficient than the SQL Server .NET Data Provider, because it calls through the OLE DB layer when communicating with the database. Note that this provider does not support the OLE DB provider for Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), MSDASQL. For ODBC data sources, use the ODBC .NET Data Provider (described later) instead

Other .NET data providers currently in beta testing include:

• The ODBC .NET Data Provider. The .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC uses native ODBC Driver Manager (DM) to enable data access by means of COM interoperability.
• A managed provider for retrieving XML from SQL Server 2000. The XML for SQL Server Web update 2 (currently in beta) includes a managed provider specifically for retrieving XML from SQL Server 2000.

Shashi Ray