Week 2: At a Glance

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The focus of this week is on the .NET Data Providers that ship with VS .NET and provide access to a variety of data stores. Throughout the week you'll learn about different aspects of the providers, culminating in a discussion of actually developing your own custom provider!

This week begins with Day 8's general and gentle introduction to .NET Data Providers. This day details the objects that compose the .NET Data Providers along with their responsibilities.

The remainder of the week discusses each of these components in turn by focusing on connections and transactions, command objects, data readers, data adapters, accessing SQL Server data, working with other providers such as the ODBC .NET Data Provider, and building your own custom .NET Data Provider. These lessons detail not only how to use the components, but also recommend specific techniques when dealing with issues that surround them, such as connection pooling, output parameters, and both local and distributed transactions.

By the end of the week, you should be able to access data on a variety of data stores using the appropriate provider and the appropriate objects for your particular scenarios.

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