Data Providers
The most commonly used .NET data providers are described in the following sections.
Microsoft SQL Server
The
SQL Server .NET data provider ships with
the .NET Framework. It uses the Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
protocol to send requests to and receive responses from the SQL
Server. This provider delivers very high performance because TDS is a
fast protocol that can access Microsoft SQL Server directly without
an OLE DB or ODBC layer and without COM interop. The SQL Server .NET
data provider can be used with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later. To
access earlier versions of Microsoft SQL Server, the OLE DB .NET data
provider with the SQL Server OLE DB provider (SQLOLEDB) should be
used. The SQL Server .NET data provider classes are located in the
System.Data.SqlClient namespace.
OLE DB
The OLE DB .NET data provider ships with the .NET Framework. It communicates with a data source using a data source-specific OLE DB provider through COM interop. The OLE DB provider, in turn, communicates directly with the data source using native OLE DB calls.
The OLE DB .NET data provider supports OLE DB interfaces later than Version 2.5. As a result, some OLE DB providers, including those for Microsoft Exchange Server and Internet Publishing, aren’t supported. Also, the OLE DB .NET data provider can’t be used with the OLE DB provider for ODBC (MSDASQL). To access ODBC data, use the ODBC .NET data provider discussed later in this chapter.
The OLE DB.NET data provider classes are located in ...
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