Oracle ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta - Some Restrictions

So our far we have been delighted with the reaction we have seen with our beta Oracle support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework. We are diligently working on addressing the excellent feedback, so keep the questions and comments coming! Send all comments & questions to entitybeta@datadirect.com

In the meantime, we have received a few questions on our current support and possible restrictions of our current beta many of which we are already working on to resolve.

• Stored Procedures and Functions in packages are currently not visible to the ADO.NET Entity Data Model. If you attempt to run ‘edmgen /mode:FullGeneration’ you’ll likely run into some issues.

• The OracleEntity provider currently plans to implicitly deal with RefCursor data types (i.e. we set operate under the assumption that Ref Cursor Mode=Implicit) and some aspects of this implicit handling are not currently available.

• No current support for the APPLY clause

• No current support for certain statements with LEFT OUT JOIN clauses

• No current support UNIONing columns with different character sets.

Look for details, including possible updates to the above list and other changes which I’ll write up in a future blog posting. Otherwise, keep excellent comments, questions and encouragement headed our way.

Oracle support for the ADO.NET Entity Framework

Announcing a significant update to our Oracle provider from Connect for ADO.NET!

We have enabled the use of the Microsoft® Entity Framework with Oracle data sources, supporting a wide range of Oracle versions. In this beta release, we fully support EDM schema generation, and of course full support for LINQ and Entity SQL statements issued Entities-enabled applications.



Through out the beta, we will post various announcements, selected feedback and targeted how-tos and other of useful resources on our various blogs, so check back often!

DbBulkCopy, Csv and mappings galore

As recently as our Connect for ADO.NET 3.2 release, we introduced support for bulk load operations across all of our providers. We are already getting excellent feedback on what we hoped would be our most prominent features, namingly

The DDTek.Data.Common.DbBulkCopy* objects which act as an extension for programmers who want to extend their usage of the common programming model and provider factories. Check here for functional details on a DbBulkCopy, DbBulkCopyColumnMapping (and more) objects. If you've used bulk copy in in ADO.NET this is a nice extension of the established pattern in ADO.NET where SqlBulkCopy originally blazed the trail.

Just as popular is our ability to consume standard CSV files that be either generated/processed automatically (CsvWriter and CsvReader respectively) or by an outside tool using our published schema as a guide. Although, in hindsight, an obvious point of integration, we probably didn't do as a good a job in making it easy to understand how any outside tool would could understand the decisions we took on how we map specific database data types to our common CSV data type.

So to meet this need, I am publishing a range of tables below that show how each datbase type, or DbType maps to our XML Schema 'dataType' facet.

Struggling with 64-bit Vista to Oracle access?

Over the past week or so I've received a wave of Google Alerts highlighting a spate of issues people are seeing on 64-bit Windows Vista, especially when trying to configure their data access to an Oracle database. It doesn't have to be this way, and I'm compelled to give a shout out for our Installer team which designed our installer to intelligently deploy either our 32-bit or 64-bit components dependent on your target platform - pain and anguish free. Go grab a trial copy of our Connect for ADO.NET 3.2 providers today and see for yourself!

The demise LINQ to SQL? Not quite...

Some might rightly consider this old news, however the LINQ to SQL death notices were brought back to the head-lines by Redmond Developer News. See the link below for teh full artircle:

http://reddevnews.com/news/article.aspx?editorialsid=10472

I've pasted in my quote from the artile below, as it is very representitive of our position on where LINQ to SQL and where the ADO.NET Entity Framework fits in the general .NET data access landscape.

' "I don't think the Entity Framework is necessarily perfect, but I think it's going to change the outlook of data access in .NET," said Jonathan Bruce, ADO.NET technologies program manager at DataDirect, which is a subsidiary of Progress Software Corp. "I think LINQ to SQL will likely find its niche in small, in-house proof-of-concept type projects because it's easy to get going -- it has a very lightweight data model." '

You can hear a great discussion on this topic, "Bullet Proof your Data Access on the .NET Framework", an online webinar we did with the Stephen Wynkoop a SQL Server MVP, and founder of SSWWUG. Check out the link below to listen into the discussion.

http://www.datadirect.com/connect-webcast-archive-data-access/index.ssp

Are these the top 10 .NET stories of 2008 ?

You be the judge:
http://www.devtopics.com/top-10-net-news-stories-of-2008/

Released: Connect for ADO.NET 32

A copy of the press release that announces this release... much more on this over the coming weeks.

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DataDirect Technologies Continues to Set the Standard for Superior Data Connectivity to the .NET Platform

Latest Release of DataDirect Connect® for ADO.NET Includes New Performance Features and First-of-its-Kind Bulk Load Functionality

BEDFORD, Mass. – Dec. 8, 2008 – DataDirect Technologies, the unparalleled leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), today announced the latest release of its DataDirect Connect® for ADO.NET data providers. With DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET, developers can securely and efficiently write and deploy .NET enterprise applications that connect to multiple databases including Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase. The latest product release includes new provider features for each major database, new performance tuning options and introduces DataDirect Bulk Load, the most flexible, common API-based implementation of bulk-load functionality for the .NET platform that provides consistent semantics across all supported databases.

DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET has raised the bar for superior performance, security and interoperability. As the only suite of ADO.NET data providers with a 100 percent managed code architecture, DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET eliminates the need for database client libraries. Because managed code runs in the Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment it reduces risks and closes holes that unmanaged code leaves exposed, providing developers the most versatile deployment options available in both application and client-server environments.
“Database vendors offer the bare minimum in terms of data connectivity, and this just isn’t enough for large scale, complex applications,” said John Goodson, vice president and general manager at DataDirect Technologies. “With DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET developers get full support for the .NET Framework with the fastest and most functional ADO.NET managed data providers on the market.”

Building on its reputation for technical innovation and reinforcing the company’s steadfast commitment to responding quickly to the needs of software developers and system architects, DataDirect Technologies has included DataDirect Bulk Load in the latest version of its data provider. A persistent data connectivity challenge is the need to load very large amounts of data into a relational database as fast as possible. For developers working with more than one database, DataDirect Bulk Load offers a standard and consistent method for moving volume-intense data across Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases, without having to deploy and load client libraries.

In addition to the new levels of efficiency brought by DataDirect Bulk Load, the latest release of DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET also offers key performance enhancements. New tuning options provide optimal performance in a wide variety of application scenarios allowing users of Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase to reap substantial performance and efficiency gains with no changes to their applications.

Corporate IT departments at the Fortune100 and leading ISVs use the DataDirect data provider to build reliable .NET applications that can connect to multiple databases while reducing the amount of code necessary to utilize database-specific features. With its deep rooted, technical relationships with all major database and platform vendors, DataDirect Technologies ensures its data connectivity products support the latest provider features and database versions. DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET now supports Oracle 11g R1, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, DB2 iSeries V6R1 and includes many new performance and usability features. To view a complete list of database provider features, go to: http://www.datadirect.com/products/net/index.ssp
About DataDirect TechnologiesDataDirect Technologies is the software industry’s only comprehensive provider of software for connecting the world’s most critical business applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards. Developers worldwide depend on DataDirect® products to connect their applications to an unparalleled range of data sources using standards-based interfaces such as ODBC, JDBC™ and ADO.NET, XQuery and SOAP. More than 300 leading independent software vendors and thousands of enterprises rely on DataDirect Technologies to simplify and streamline data connectivity for distributed systems and to reduce the complexity of mainframe integration. DataDirect Technologies is an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS). For more information, visit www.datadirect.com.

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DataDirect and DataDirect Connect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Java and all Java based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.