14.0 Introduction

At the heart of every application, information provides the fuel that logic uses to drive a presentation. Whether it's individual bits in an image file or large tables from a large database server, almost every application utilizes data and presents it to a user for display and manipulation. This chapter is going to look at one of the cornerstones of the .NET framework, ADO.NET.

ADO.NET is the successor to the Active Data Objects (ADO) used in years past. Although some similarities exist, the fundamental design changed to keep pace with the data-centric world we live in. No doubt the majority of these changes were a result of the rising popularity of Web applications and their interaction with database servers. ADO.NET introduces a new way to think about database connectivity by using a disconnected client scenario. In short, applications no longer have to maintain a constant connection with a database, instead relying on a special object to cache the data and make updates when necessary. This chapter discusses more of how ADO.NET operates and how to use the new objects introduced with its arrival.