1 Introduction

About This Guide

This guide serves as a quick start guide, which describes Oracle technologies for the Microsoft .NET Framework, including the key features of Oracle Data Provider for .NET and Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio. It leads you through installation and configuration, shows how to build basic applications using Oracle .NET products, and how to create and use both PL/SQL and .NET stored procedures.

After working through this book, you will be ready to continue with more extensive information available in the Oracle Database documentation library.

What is the Microsoft .NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a multi-language environment for building, deploying, and running applications and XML Web services. Its main components are:

Common Language Runtime

The Common Language Runtime, or CLR, is a language-neutral development and run-time environment that provides services that help manage running applications

Framework Class Libraries

The Framework Class Libraries, or FCL, provide a consistent, object-oriented library of prepackaged functionality.

Overview of Oracle Data Provider for .NET

Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) provides fast and efficient ADO.NET data access from .NET client applications to Oracle databases and access to other Oracle Database features.

ODP.NET allows developers to take advantage of advanced Oracle database functionality, including Real Application Clusters, XML DB, and advanced security.

Overview of Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio

Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (ODT) is a set of application tools that integrate with the Visual Studio environment. These tools provide graphical user interface access to Oracle functionality, enable the user to perform a wide range of application development tasks, and improve development productivity and ease of use. Oracle Developer Tools supports the programming and implementation of .NET stored procedures using Visual Basic, C#, and other .NET languages.

These are some of the Oracle Developer Tools features:

• Integration with Server Explorer for browsing the Oracle schema.

• Designers and wizards to create and alter schema objects.

• The ability to drag and drop schema objects onto a .NET form to automatically generate code.

• A PL/SQL editor and debugger with integrated context-sensitive dynamic help.

• An Oracle Data Window for performing routine database tasks such as inserting and updating data or testing stored procedures in the Visual Studio environment.

• An Oracle Query Window for executing SQL statements or PL/SQL scripts.

• An Oracle Deployment Wizard for .NET described "Integration with Microsoft Visual Studio".

Overview of .NET Stored Procedures

Oracle Database Extensions for .NET is a database option for Oracle Database on Windows. It makes it possible to build and run .NET stored procedures or functions with Oracle Database for Microsoft Windows using Visual Basic .NET or Visual C#.

Integration with Microsoft Visual Studio

After building .NET procedures and functions into a .NET assembly, you can deploy them in Oracle Database using the Oracle Deployment Wizard for .NET, a component of the Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio.

Overview of Oracle Providers for ASP.NET

Oracle Providers for ASP.NET offer ASP.NET developers an easy to use method to store application state common to web applications (such as web user information, shopping carts) within an Oracle database. These providers are modeled on existing Microsoft ASP.NET providers, sharing similar schema and programming interfaces to provide .NET developers a familiar interface.

Oracle supports the following providers:

• Membership Provider

• Role Provider

• Site Map Provider

• Session State Provider

• Profile Provider

• Web Events Provider

• Web Parts Personalization Provider

• Cache Dependency Provider

Each ASP.NET provider can be used individually or in combination with other Oracle ASP.NET providers for your web site. Each of them store a specific set of web site information.

Oracle Providers for ASP.NET classes, their use, installation, and requirements are described in Oracle Providers for ASP.NET Developer's Guide, which is also provided as dynamic help.