Understanding the ODBC .NET Data provider
The ODBC.NET data provider provides access to ODBC data provider with the help
of native ODBC drivers in the same way that the OleDb.NET data provider accesses
native OLE DB providers. One of the best things about working with ADO.NET data
providers is that all data provider define the similar class hierarchy. The only
things you need to change are the classes and the connection string.
Installing the ODBC .NET Data provider
Unlike the Sql and OleDb data providers, the ODBC data provider is an add-on
component to the .NET Framework. If the ODBC .NET provider isn't installed on
your system, you can download it from the .NET Software Development Kit (SDK)
and Visual Studio .NET. You can find the odbc.net data provider on the Microsoft
site (http://www.microsoft.com/data). Alternatively, you can find the latest
links of the ODBC.NET SDK on C# corner's Downloads section (http://www.csharpcorner.com/downloads.asp).
After installing ODBC.NET, you need to customize the toolbox to add the ODBC
data components to it. You can customize the toolbox by right-click on the
toolbox's Data tab and selecting Customize Toolbox (see Figure 11-1).
Figure 11-1: The Customize ToolBox option
Note: Makes sure the data tab is selected when you select Customize
ToolBox. Otherwise new components will be added to the active tab.
Next, you click on the .NET framework Components tab (not the default COM
components) and look for ODBC components. Check the appropriate boxes, and click
the OK button (see figure 11-2).
Figure 11-2: Adding ODBC components to the project
Next, you need to add a reference to the Microsoft.Data.Odbc.dll assembly using
the Project > Add Reference. You can use the Browser button to browse the
directory. The Microsoft.Data.Odbc.dll resides in the \Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Odbc.NET
directory (see Figure 11-3).
Figure 11-3: Browsing the Odbc.Net folder
Select the component and then click to add the reference to the
Microsoft.Data.Odbc namespace. The add reference dialog box will appear and
you'll see Microsoft.Odbc.dll listed in the selected components list (see figure
11-4).
Figure 11-4: Adding reference to microsoft.data.odbc.dll
Click OK, Using the Solution Explorer, click your project and then expand the
Reference node, you'll see that the Microsoft.Data.Odbc reference has been added
to your project (see Figure 11-5).
Figure 11-5: The Microsoft.Data.Odbc namespace
To make sure the ODBC data provider is installed and added to your project, you
can also look at the toolbox (see figure 11-6). If the toolbox has the ODBC data
components listed, that means the ODBC data provider is installed on your system
and the reference to the data provider has been to your project.
Figure 11-6: ODBC data provider components
Note: The toolbox's data tab is not available for console applications.