If you need to choose which data provider for MySQL to use with dotConnect Universal, we recommend using dotConnect for MySQL because of its obvious advantages. This article provides a brief overview of dotConnect for MySQL, describes some useful features and helps you get started quickly.
dotConnect for MySQL (formerly known as MySQLDirect .NET) is a full-featured 100% managed ADO.NET data provider for the .NET Framework and the .NET Compact Framework. dotConnect for MySQL is acknowledged as the leading ADO.NET data provider for MySQL, and it has many advantages over any rival product. The main features of dotConnect for MySQL are:
The full list of dotConnect for MySQL features can be found on the product page.
The Professional Edition of dotConnect Universal includes dotConnect for MySQL as a bundled provider. The Trial Edition includes trial dotConnect for MySQL Data Provider as well. For Standard Edition of dotConnect Universal, the dotConnect for MySQL Data Provider should be purchased and installed separately.
dotConnect Universal is compatible with dotConnect for MySQL version 5.00 and above.
To deploy applications written with dotConnect Universal, copy the run-time assemblies Devart.Data.Universal.dll and Devart.Data.Universal.MySql.dll to target machine. If you are using the standalone (not bundled) dotConnect for MySQL Data Provider, you will also have to deploy its Devart.Data.MySql.dll assembly.
These assemblies can be registered at the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) for the appropriate .NET Framework or placed in the folder of your application.
For web projects, you may also need to deploy the Devart.Data.Universal.Web.dll, Devart.Data.MySql.Web.dll and App_Licenses.dll assemblies. The *.Web.dll assemblies are required for using the ASP.NET Provider Model and the App_Licenses.dll assembly is a part of licensing mechanism.
Web projects are usually run as partially trusted code. The following permissions are required by dotConnect Universal and dotConnect for MySQL:
Suppose you want to connect in Direct mode to a MySQL server running on the host server, at the port 3306, with the user name root and the password mypassword. Suppose also that you would like to choose myDB as the default database. In this case your connection string would look like this:
Provider=MySQL;direct=true;host=server;port=3306;user=root;password=mypassword;database=myDB
The direct parameter is true by default; the port parameter defaults to 3306 as well. The database parameter is not required to connect to the server. So basically you need only host name, user name and password:
Provider=MySQL;host=server;user=root;password=mypassword
The following table enumerates most important connection string parameters.
Name | Description |
---|---|
Compress | If true, enables compression for transferred data. The default value is false. |
Connection Lifetime | When a connection is returned to the pool, its creation time is compared with the current time. The connection is destroyed if that time span (in seconds) exceeds the value specified by Connection Lifetime. The default value is 0 (connection always returns to pool). |
Connect Timeout -or- Connection Timeout | The length of time (in seconds) to wait for a connection to the server before terminating the attempt and generating an error. The default value is 15. |
Data Source -or- Host -or- Server | The name or IP address of a host of MySQL database to which to connect. |
Database | The name of the database. |
Direct | If true, by default, allows not to use the MySQL client library (libmysql.dll) to access MySQL server. |
Embedded | If true, allows to use Embedded MySQL server. The default value is false |
Max Pool Size | The maximum number of connections allowed in the pool. Setting the Max Pool Size value of the ConnectionString can affect performance. The default value is 100. |
Min Pool Size | The minimum number of connections allowed in the pool. The default value is 0. |
Password | The password for the account. |
Pooling | If true, by default, the connection object is drawn from the appropriate pool or is created and added to the appropriate pool. |
Port | The port of MySQL database to which to connect. The default value is 3306. |
Protocol | The type of the network protocol which will be used to access the MySQL server. The default value is Tcp. |
Server Parameters | Specifies the command-line arguments for launching MySQL embedded server. Usually used to provide path to files used by server and path to folder where data files reside. For instance: Server Parameters=\"--basedir=d:/servers/embedded/;--datadir=d:/servers/embedded/data/;\" |
SSH Authentication Type | Client's SSH authentication methods. |
SSH Cipher List | The list of ciphers that client agrees to use, separated by colons. |
SSH Host | The name or IP address of SSH server. |
SSH Host Key | The location of the public key on the client side to verify the server host key during establishing connection. OpenSSH or IETF SECSH key files are supported. You may use such utilities as 'ssh-keygen.exe' or 'puttygen.exe' for generation of the corresponding public/private key pair. |
SSH Passphrase | The client key passphrase. |
SSH Password | The user password on SSH server. |
SSH Port | The number of port on SSH server to connect. |
SSH Private Key | The location of the client private key. |
SSH Strict Host Key Check | Indicates whether the host key is verified during establishing connection. |
SSH User | The user id on SSH server. |
SSH Private Key | Location of the private key, which is used by the client to sign data and by server to authenticate the user. |
SSL CA Cert | The location of authority certificate. |
SSL Cert | The location of client certificate. |
SSL Cipher List | The list of ciphers that client agrees to use. |
SSL Key | The location of user's private key. |
SSL TLS Protocol | The preferred TLS protocol version, reported to the server when establishing a secure connection. |
SSLMode | SSL connection priority. May be Disable, Allow, Prefer, and Require. The default value is Disable, which means that only an unencrypted SSL connection will be attempted. |
Unicode | If true, sets the client charset to UTF8 and converts the client data according to this charset. The default value is false. |
User ID -or- User | The MySQL login account. |
To get up and running quickly, you have to perform the following steps:
That's all you need to start executing queries on the server. Below is a code fragment that illustrates steps 2-5. It also shows how to perform INSERT and SELECT operations.
dotConnect Universal supports handling MySQL BLOBs. For detailed information on how to work with BLOB objects, refer to the Working with BLOB Data article.
dotConnect Universal supports the MySQL DECIMAL type. Use the UniDecimal structure reference to find out how to manage big numbers on client side.
It is also possible to take advantage of special network capabilities of dotConnect for MySQL by setting up the connection string parameters. This way you can enable:
dotConnect for MySQL supports all features of UniSQL. Use MySQL and MyDirect predefined macros to build conditional UniSQL statements. For more information refer to the UniSQL topic.
The following table shows how the UniDbType enumeration maps to the MySQL database type.
UniDbType | MySQL Type |
---|---|
BigInt | BIGINT |
Binary | BLOB |
Bit | BIT |
Blob | BLOB |
Boolean | BIT |
Byte | SMALLINT |
Char | CHAR |
Clob | TEXT |
Currency | DOUBLE |
Date | DATE |
DateTime | DATETIME |
Decimal | DECIMAL |
Double | DOUBLE |
Guid | VARCHAR |
Int | INT |
NChar | CHAR |
NClob | TEXT |
NVarChar | VARCHAR |
Single | FLOAT |
SmallInt | SMALLINT |
TinyInt | TINYINT |
Time | TIME |
TimeStamp | TIMESTAMP |
VarChar | VARCHAR |
Xml | VARCHAR |
The national character encoding (NChar, NClob types) in the fields is not supported by MySQL server. However, you can achieve same effect with the Unicode=true connection string parameter.
For more information on dotConnect for MySQL Data Provider please visit the following locations:
Using dotConnect Universal with SQL Client | Using dotConnect Universal with dotConnect for Oracle | Using dotConnect Universal with dotConnect for PostgreSQL | Using dotConnect Universal with dotConnect for SQLite | Working with BLOB Data