Chapter 28. Creating a Custom ADO.NET Data Provider

IN BRIEF

As you saw in the previous chapter, using the ADO.NET data providers gives you a consistent user experience, whether you're connecting to some OLE DB data source, SQL, Oracle, or even an ODBC data source. The goal of the consistent data provider model is that programmers need to learn to use only one set of interfaces, regardless of which database they are accessing.

You've seen it from the consumer point of view, and this chapter will show you ADO.NET data providers from the perspective of the data provider. In this chapter, you will see a lot of code for creating your own custom data provider. In addition to the code for a custom provider, you will also see the details on all the interfaces required to implement a provider, as well as guidelines for when you should and should not implement your own custom provider.

WHAT YOU NEED

CREATING A CUSTOM ADO.NET DATA PROVIDER AT A GLANCE