From :  "Brian Ritchie" brianlritchie@hotmail.com   
To :  mono-list@ximian.com  
Subject :  [Mono-list] ADO.NET Provider Factory  
Date :  Mon, 04 Nov 2002 00:37:06 -0500

I've started work on the set of objects known as... "ADO.NET Multiplexor Provider" in... http://www.go-mono.com/ado-net.html

My implementation is similar to the one Gonzalo details, but a bit different in the following ways:
1) The Provider information is seperate from the connection string information. This allows the list of providers to be stored in the machine.config.
2) Provider and ProviderCollection objects are available to access the list of providers and modify them at runtime.
3) The ProviderFactory object is used to create new connections, dataadapters, etc.

Ok...now for some sample code. Creating a connection: 

// Create connection using enhanced connection string
IDbConnection conn=ProviderFactory.CreateConnection("factory=System.Data.SqlClient;server=speedy;database=pubs;uid=sa");  
// Create connection specifying provider and standard connection string
IDbConnection conn=ProviderFactory.CreateConnection("System.Data.SqlClient","server=speedy;database=pubs;uid=sa");  

// Create connection using connection string stored in app.config under <appSettings>
IDbConnection conn=ProviderFactory.CreateConnectionFromConfig("PubsConnStr");

Here's a sample app.config file showing the provider declarations along with sample connection strings:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
	<configSections>
		<sectionGroup name="mono.data">
			<section name="providers" type="Mono.Data.ProviderSectionHandler,Mono.Data" />
		</sectionGroup>
	</configSections>
	<appSettings>< BR><addkey="PubsConnStr"value="factory=System.Data.SqlClient;server=speedy;database=pubs;uid=sa;pwd=" />
	</appSettings>
	<mono.data>
		<providers>
			<provider name="System.Data.SqlClient" connection="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection" adapter="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter" assembly="System.Data, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
			<provider name="System.Data.OleDb" connection="System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection" adapter="Syste!
m.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter" assembly="System.Data, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
			<provider name="System.Data.Odbc" connection="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection" adapter="System.Data.OleDb.OdbcDataAdapter" assembly="System.Data, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
			<provider name="Mono.Data.TdsClient" connection="Mono.Data.TdsClient.TdsConnection" adapter="Mono.Data.TdsClient.TdsDataAdapter" assembly="Mono.Data.TdsClient" />
			<provider name="Mono.Data.MySql" connection="Mono.Data.MySql.MySqlConnection" adapter="Mono.Data.MySql.MySqlDataAdapter" assembly="Mono.Data.MySql" />
			<provider name="Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient" connection="Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient.PgSqlConnection" adapter="Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient.PgSqlDataAdapter" assembly="Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient" />
			<provider name="Mono.Data.SqliteClient" connection="Mono.Data.SqliteClient.S!
qliteConnection" adapter="Mono.Data.SqliteClient.SqliteDataAdapter" assembly="Mono.Data.SqliteClient" />
			<provider name="Mono.Data.SybaseClient" connection="Mono.Data.SybaseClient.SybaseConnection" adapter="Mono.Data.SybaseClient.SybaseDataAdapter" assembly="Mono.Data.SybaseClient" />
		</providers>
	</mono.data>
</configuration>