Unit IV

 How ADO.NET differs from ADO

ADO ADO.NET
ADO is based on COM (Component Object ADO.NET is basically designed by .NET
Model) technology framework for smooth interaction of
application and database
ADO works with connected data access ADO.NET works with both connected and
architecture. ADO recordset is keeping disconnected data access architecture.
connection with the data source. ADO.NET only holds the connection open
long enough to either to retrieve the data or to
make any requested updates and immediately
close the application.

ADO fits connections to all types of data ADO.NET can have separate objects that
sources into a single connection object. represent connections to different data sources.

ADO recordset is a set of rows retrieved from a ADO.NET represents in-memory

data source. representation of a database by using DataSet.

ADO recordset can hold data from one data ADO.NET DataSets can hold data from
source at a time. various data sources, integrate the data and
write back to one or several data sources.

ADO uses OLEDB to access data ADO.NET uses XML and OLEDB as the
format for transmitting data to and from
database and application.

 Connected and disconnected data architecture:

The ADO.NET framework supports two models of data access architecture. These are:

1. Connected data access architecture

2. Disconnected data access architecture

1. Connected data access architecture

In connected data access architecture, the application makes a connection to the datasource and
then interacts with it through SQL requests using the same connection. In these cases, the
application stays connected to the database system even when it is not using any database operations.

In connected data access architecture, when we read data from a database by using a DataReader
object, an open connection must be maintained between an application and the data source.
 2. Disconnected data access architecture

In disconnected data access architecture, ADO.NET solves this problem by introducing a new
component called Dataset.

Dataset:

 The Dataset is the central component in the ADO.NET disconnected data access architecture.
 Dataset is an in-memory data store that can hold multiple tables at the same time. Datasets only hold
data and do not interact with a data source.
 Unlike the DataReader, the Dataset is not connected directly to a data source through a connection
object when we populate it.

DataAdapter:

 DataAdapter manages connections between data source and DataSet by filling the data from data
source to the DataSet and giving a disconnected behavior to the DataSet.
 The DataAdapter acts as a bridge between the connected and disconnected objects.

By keeping connections open only for a minimum period of time, ADO.NET conserves system
resources and provides maximum security for databases.

 Creating Connection

Connection string is a normal string representation which contains database connection information to
establish the connection between database and the application.

The connection string includes parameters such as the name of the driver or provider, server name &
database name as well as security information such as username and password.

Data providers use a connection string containing a collection of parameters to establish the
connection with the database.

Example:
OleDbConnection con;
con=new OleDbConnection ("provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;data
source=e:\\JVM\\database1.accdb");

 Managed data providers or ADO data providers

The .NET framework includes mainly three data providers for ADO.NET as follows:

1. Microsoft SQL server

2. OLEDB (Object Linking and Embedding DataBase)

3. ODBC (Open Database Connection)

Following links shows how these data providers are making connection to the specified data source:

DataAdapter Command DataReader

Connection

The four objects from the .NET framework provide the functionality of data providers in ADO.NET.
They are:

i) Connection object

ii) Command object

iii) DataReader object

iv) DataAdapter object

i) Connection object

The connection object is handling the part of physical communication between the application and the
data source.

This object establishes connection to the specified database and opens a connection between the
application and the database.

When the connection is established, SQL commands may be executed to retrieve or manipulate data in
the database. Once the database activity is over, connection should be closed and releases the
resources.

Connection

Data source

The following are commonly used connections in ADO.NET:

i) sqlConnection

ii) OleDbConnection

iii) OdBcConnection
 Example:

OleDbConnection con;
con=new OleDbConnection ("provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;data
source=e:\\JVM\\database1.accdb");

ii) Command object

 The command object in ADO.NET executes SQL statements and stored procedures against the data
source specified in the connection object.
 The command object requires an instance of a connection object for executing the SQL statements.
 Steps for retrieving data or executing a SQL statement are:

-Create a connection object

-Open a connection to the data source

-Assign the open connection to the connection property of the command object

When the command object return result set, a DataReader is used to retrieve the result set.

Command

Connection

Data source

The command object has a property called CommandText which contains a string value that represents
the command that will be executed in the data source.

Following are some important built-in methods used in the command object to execute the SQL
statements.

-ExecuteNonQuery

-ExecuteReader

-ExecuteScalar
Example:

OleDbCommand cmd;
cmd=new OleDbCommand ("insert into student values("+txtsrno.Text+",'"+txtsname.Text+ "', '"+
txtcourse.Text+"')",con);
con.Open();
int n=cmd.ExecuteNonQuery ();
con.Close();
if(n>0)
{
MessageBox.Show("Record inserted");
loaddata();
}
else
MessageBox.Show("insertion failed");

iii) DataReader object

DataReader object in ADO.NET is stream-based forward only, read only retrieval of query results
from the data source which do not update the data.

The DataReader cannot be created from code; it is created only by calling the ExecuteReader method
of a command object.

DataReader

Command

s
Connection

Data source

There are two types of DataReader in ADO.NET:

1. sqlDataReader

2. OleDbDataReader

Example:

OleDbDataReader dr=cmd.ExecuteReader();

A connection object can contain only one DataReader at a time & the connection in the DataReader
remains open and cannot be used for any other purpose while the data is being accessed.
 iv) DataAdapter object:

 DataAdapter is a part of the ADO.NET.

 Dataadapter provides the communication between the Dataset and the data source. We can use the
DataAdapter in combination with the Dataset object. These two objects combine to enable both data
access and data manipulation capabilities.
 The DataAdapter can perform select, update, insert and delete SQL operations in the data source.
 The DataAdapter can perform select statement to fill a Dataset and use the other three SQL
commands (insert, update & delete) to transmit changes back to the database.

Following are the types of DataAdapter:

sqlDataAdapter

OdBcDataAdapter

OleDbDataAdapter

Example:

OleDbDataAdapter adapter;
adapter=new OleDbDataAdapter ("select * from student",con);
ds=new DataSet();
adapter.Fill(ds,"student");

 Advantages of ADO.NET

ADO.NET is a new object-oriented data handling technology which is very different from the earlier
ADO technology.

1. Scalability

ADO.NET provides full support for disconnected data access. In this type of data access, most of the
time the data we are working with is not connected to a data source. This means that ADO.NET uses
database connection only for a short time. The web applications built on ADO.NET are highly
scalable, as ADO.NET uses data connections only for a short duration of time.

2. Data source independence

The fundamental object that holds data in ADO.NET is an object of the class DataSet. This class is
present in the namespace System.Data. It is an in-memory copy of whatever part of the database we
have retrieved from a data source. This means that if we use a MS-SQL data source instead of a MS-
Access data source, we don’t have to learn anything new. The code which we write for accessing a
MS-SQL data source is much similar to the code we have to write for accessing a MS-Access data
source.
3. Interoperability

ADO.NET uses XML as its standard data transmission format. XML’s interoperability feature enables
.NET for cross platform and flexible communication.

4. Performance

ADO uses COM for the transmission of data between the client and the database server, a lot of
processing time was needed for converting data between the types recognized in the database and the
types that could be worked with COM. Only less processing time is needed for data conversions in the
case of ADO.NET, as data transmission occurs via XML.

5. Firewalls

Usually one point of access is set in local network. All traffic into or out of the local network is
checked at such a point. The hardware and software that sits between the Internet and the local
network, checking all the data that comes into the network or out, to make it is safe, is called a
firewall. Firewalls are mostly configured to reject COM packets as ADO data cannot get through
them. On the other hand, XML data can easily pass through most firewalls.

 Developing ADO.NET based application:

Refer experiment no. 13 in record book

 Insert, update and delete operations on table

Refer experiment no. 14 in record book

 Filling the dataset

Refer experiment no. 13 and 14 in record book