ASP.NET 4 Unleashed

Using Asynchronous ADO.NET Methods

There are asynchronous versions of several ADO.NET methods. These methods come in pairs: a Begin and End method. For example, the SqlCommand object supports the following asynchronous methods:

• BeginExecuteNonQuery()

• EndExecuteNonQuery()

• BeginExecuteReader()

• EndExecuteReader()

• BeginExecuteXmlReader()

• EndExecuteXmlReader()

The idea is that when you execute the Begin method, the asynchronous task is started on a separate thread. When the method finishes executing, you can use the End method to get the results.

To use these asynchronous methods, you must use a special attribute in your connection string: the Asynchronous Processing=true attribute.

The data access component in Listing 19.34 contains a ...