Oracle's ODP.NET is a .NET data provider that can connect to and access Oracle databases with tight integrity. It can be used from any .NET language, including C# and VB.NET. This book will show you how ODP.NET is the best choice for connecting .NET applications with Oracle database. We will be dealing with the concepts of ODP.NET and its requirements, working with SQL, PL/SQL, and XML DB using ODP.NET, looking at application development with ODP.NET: Web Applications, Web Services, and Mobile Applications. We will also learn to manipulate Oracle databases from within Visual Studio using Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio.
Chapter 1 introduces the concept of Oracle Database Extensions for .NET and provides information about Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio.
Chapter 2 introduces the Provider-Independent Model in ADO.NET 2.0, and shows how to connect to Oracle databases from .NET, working with .NET data providers, connection pooling, system privileged connection, and single sign-on etc.
Chapter 3 shows you several methods to retrieve data from an Oracle database. You will work with the core ODP.NET classes like OracleCommand, OracleDataReader, OracleDataAdapter, OracleParameter, and ADO.NET classes like DataSet, DataTable, and DataRow etc.
Chapter 4 is about inserting, updating, and deleting data in the database. You will also learn about statement caching, array binding, working with offline data, implementing transactions, and handling errors and exceptions encountered during database work.
Chapter 5 deals with working with PL/SQL blocks, PL/SQL stored procedures, and functions. It also teaches you how to execute routines in PL/SQL packages, how to pass arrays to and receive arrays from the Oracle database, and working with REF CURSOR using ODP.NET.
Chapter 6 is completely dedicated to dealing with large objects in Oracle. This chapter illustrates concepts, configurations, and programming for BFILE, BLOB, and CLOB (or NCLOB) in conjunction with ODP.NET.
Chapter 7 gives details about Oracle XML DB, an add-on feature of Oracle database. It provides information about generating XML from existing rows in tables, manipulating rows in a table using XML, and working with native XML in the Oracle database.
Chapter 8 deals with real-time application development scenarios like Oracle database change notifications, asynchronous application development, web application development using ASP.NET 2.0, web reporting (including grouping, sub-totals, charts, etc.), Object-Oriented development with ODP.NET and ASP.NET, XML web-services development using ODP.NET, and Smart Device Application development (for clients like the Pocket PC).
Chapter 9 introduces you to Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2005. It teaches you to connect to Oracle from the Visual Studio 2005 environment, retrieve Oracle information from Visual Studio, and work with database objects from Visual Studio. It also provides information about how to create and debug PL/SQL stored procedures and .NET CLR stored procedures in Oracle.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "Connecting to a default Oracle database is purely dependent on the ORACLE_SID key available in your registry."
A block of code will be set as follows:
Dim ProviderName As String = _ "Oracle.DataAccess.Client" Dim fctry As DbProviderFactory = - DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(ProviderName)
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:
Dim dt As DataTable = _
DbProviderFactories.GetFactoryClasses()
Me.DataGridView1.DataSource = dt
New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
Note
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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