To configure Visual Studio to work with MY SQL Database we need to install MYSQL Connector (ADO.NET Driver for MYSQL).
To determine whether we have the MYSQL connector installed in your machine, please perform the following steps.
1) Go to Visual Studio -> View -> Server Explorer.
2) Right Click -> Data Connections -> Add Connection -> Got to Choose Data Source Window -> Check for MYSQL Database.
3) The preceding screen shot confirms that the MY SQL Connector needs to be installed since the MYSQL Database is not displayed in the list.
Installing MYSQL Connector
2) As of now the latest version of connector available is mysql-connector-net-6.3.6.zip.
3) Unzip the downloaded folder and start installing.
4) Click Set Up Type - Complete
5) During installation we can see (screen shots below) that it reconfigures available Visual Studio instances in our machine to work with MY SQL.
(For Visual Studio 2008)
6) Click Finish- to complete the installation.
7) Once SQL Connector is installed - We can Check in Server Explorer -> Data Connections -> Add New Connection - > in Change Data Source Window->
8) This time we see that the MYSQL Database is being displayed.
So in this way we can configure Visual Studio instances in our machine - so that we can work with MYSQL Database.