Day 8. Understanding .NET Data Providers

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Today you begin a new week devoted to learning about the architecture and functionality of .NET Data Providers (referred to simply as providers from here on out). Providers are the second major component of ADO.NET (the DataSet being the first) and serve as the mechanism to communicate with various data stores. Although you had intermittent contact with providers last week, this week you'll explore all facets of providers, not only learning how a provider is architected, but also drilling down into each individual component of a provider and walking through its functionality in detail.

Today's discussion will focus on the classes and interfaces provided by ADO.NET that serve as the blueprint that Microsoft and other vendors can use for building providers. Specifically, today you will learn the following concepts:

• The classification and responsibilities of providers and the classes they contain

• The classes and interfaces in ADO.NET and their key members

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