Data.Linq.Config

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How to configure a data provider

BLToolkit Linq provider supports the following list of databases:

Data Provider	Provider Name	Namespace	Vendor
AccessDataProvider	Access	System.Data.OleDb	Microsoft
DB2DataProvider	DB2	IBM.Data.DB2	IBM
InformixDataProvider	Informix	IBM.Data.Informix	IBM
FdpDataProvider	Fdp	FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient	Firebird
MySqlDataProvider	MySql	MySql.Data.MySqlClient	Sun Microsystems
OdpDataProvider	ODP	Oracle.DataAccess.Client	Oracle
PostgreSQLProvider	PostgreSQL	Npgsql	PostgreSQL.org
SqlCeDataProvider	SqlCe	System.Data.SqlServerCe	Microsoft
SQLiteDataProvider	SQLite	System.Data.SQLite	SQLite.org
SqlDataProvider	Sql	System.Data.SqlClient	Microsoft (MS SQL 2005)
Sql2008DataProvider	MsSql2008	System.Data.SqlClient	Microsoft (MS SQL 2008)
SybaseDataProvider	Sybase ASE	Sybase.Data.AseClient	Sybase

By default BLToolkit contains only data providers included in .NET Framework: MS SQL 2005, MS SQL 2008, and Microsoft Access. All other providers require additional components provided by the vendors.

To add support for those providers perform the following steps:

• Download and install a 3rd party data provider.
• Add a reference to the provider assembly in your project.
• Add a corresponding C# file with a BLToolkit data provider implementation in your project. All providers are located in the Data\DataProvider folder of the BLToolkit project or in the same folder of the bltoolkit_bin archive if you use compiled version of the library.
• Register the data provider using one of the following method:

using System;

using NUnit.Framework;

using BLToolkit.Data;
using BLToolkit.Data.DataProvider;

namespace HowTo.Data.DataProvider
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class AddDataProvider
    {
        const string connectionString = 
            "Data Source=DBHost;Port=5000;Database=BLToolkitData;Uid=sa";

        [Test]
        public void Test()
        {
            // 3rd party data provider registration.
            //
            DbManager.AddDataProvider(new SybaseDataProvider());

            // It can be configured by App.config.
            // We use this way for the demo purpose only.
            //
            DbManager.AddConnectionString(
                "Sybase",          // Provider name
                "Sybase",          // Configuration
                connectionString); // Connection string

            using (var db = new DbManager("Sybase"))
            {
            }
        }
    }
}

Or by using app.config file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <section name="bltoolkit" type="BLToolkit.Configuration.BLToolkitSection, BLToolkit.3"/>
    </configSections>
    <bltoolkit>
        <dataProviders>
            <add type="BLToolkit.Data.DataProvider.SybaseDataProvider, MyProjectName" />
        </dataProviders>
    </bltoolkit>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="Sybase" connectionString="Data Source=DBHost;Port=5000;Database=BLToolkitData;Uid=sa" providerName="Sybase.Data.AseClient"/>
    </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

See DbManager documentation for more details.