ADO.NET: What's changed in .NET Beta 2?

Microsoft has changed many things in its recent .NET Beta 2 release. Most of the code compiled in Beta 1 may not compile in Beta 2. So if you are working on Beta 1, you might want to upgrade it to Beta 2. .NET Beta 2 SDK and VS.NET Beta 2 is available for download on Microsoft's MSDN site for MSDN subscribers.

 

 

In my first article, I'll discuss some of the ADO.NET changes. If you remember Beta 1, there were two common namespaces - System.Data.ADO and System.Data.SQL.

 

Beta 1	Beta 2	Description
System.Data.ADO	System.Data.OleDb	This namespace contains database classes to work with OLE DB data sources.
System.Data.SQL	System.Data.SqlClient	Classes to work with SQL Server 7.0 or later databases.

 

 

Besides the namespaces name changes, there are other changes such as Data Components. Most of the data components remain the same besides DataSetCommand. In Beta 2, the DataSetCommand component is replaced with DataAdapters. DataAdapters sits between a DataSet and a Database and fills data from the data source to the DataSet. Our following articles and sample code will show you how to work with DataAdapters.

 

Beta 1	Beta 2	Description
ADODataSetCommand	OleDbDataAdapter	The FillDataSet method used to fill a DataSet object from the ADODataSetCommand, which is replaced with the Fill method of OleDbDataAdapter.
SQLDataSetCommand	SqlDataAdapter	The FillDataSet method used to fill a DataSet object from the SQLDataSetCommand, which is replaced with the Fill method of SqlDbDataAdapter.

 

See my tutorial on DataAdapters Working with OleDb Data Adapters for how to write database applications using DataAdapters.

 

DataSet and DataView components remain the same in Beta 2. So that's all good since most of the programming revolves around DataSet.

 

One more component changed in Beta 2 is DataSetView. DataSetView is called DataViewManager. I didn't look into the details of DataViewManager but I'ld think no changes in that class.

 

 

There is one big change in Beta 2 is working with DataConnection and DataAdapters. If you create a DataAdapter application,  (See Working with OleDb Data Adapters), there is no direct connection between Data Adapters and Connection objects. In Beta 1, you could connect a DataSetCommand direct to a Connection object.

 

In Beta 2, you use DataCommands to connect a Connection object with the Data Adapters. There are four command objects for each INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, and SELECT SQL queries.

 

There are more changes but I think it's enough for today. It's late and I better go get some sleep otherwise I won't be able to work tomorrow ;). Maybe, Mike or I'll write more articles in more depth some other day. There are many other areas to be discussed. Tomorrow, I'll try to cover a few XML.NET areas. If you think you found something, which is different in Beta 2 than Beta1, just drop me a mail at [email protected] and help your fellow developers.

 

Happy.Neting