Knowledge base.All articles and how-tos.

There are no built in checks or constraints on how to format a connection string. This walk-through shows the basic rules for creating a connection string that will work.

Connection strings can be a bit obscure and are often not defined consistently. This article straightens things out and sheds some light on how connection strings are used to connect an application to a data source.

Do you know exactly every sql data type in SQL Server and their usage and storage requirements? If not, look them all up in this reference sheet.

To explicitly define which network protocol to use when connecting to an SQL Server gives you more control over your connection. This guide explains how to do that.

There are plenty of combinations when creating an SQL Server connection string. This reference table explains each option available per keyword.

The SQL Native Client should only be used in certain contexts. This is the definition of when to use it, and when not to.

This article explains a workaround for the "could not decrypt file" error when trying to open a password-protected Excel workbook.

This article explains how to use Jet to connect an application to Access, Excel or Text data files on 64 bit systems.

This optional parameter can be a life saver. The DBAs will love that you provide this info for the connection.

It is very easy to store the connection string in a config file and there are several benefits in doing so. This article describes why and how to store the connection string in web.config.

To get the most out of connection pooling there are some things to keep in mind when developing your application. Learn to stay away from the pitfalls and utilize the full power of connection pooling.

There are several reasons this message pops in your application or website. This article tries to clarify each particular situation.

Caching data in an external cache database increase performance and provides additional querying features. This article explains how to specify an external cache database to be used by the CData ADO.NET Providers.

Behind the Provider keyword is a chain of mappings to the software implementation contained in a dll file. This article explains that chain and how COM works in general.

Do you know exactly every sql data type in SQL Server 2000 and their usage and storage requirements? If not, look them all up in this reference sheet.

Do you know exactly every sql data type in SQL Server 2005 and their usage and storage requirements? If not, look them all up in this reference sheet.

Do you know exactly every sql data type in SQL Server 2008 and their usage and storage requirements? If not, look them all up in this reference sheet.

Do you know exactly every sql data type in SQL Server 2012 and their usage and storage requirements? If not, look them all up in this reference sheet.

The Cache Metadata feature can be used to speed up the connection process significantly for data sources where the schema information is otherwise retrieved dynamically.

The setup differs between 64-bit and 32-bit windows.

Sometimes it is necessary to specify the character set in the connection string. This is done by adding charset=xxx where xxx is a valid Sybase charset code. See the table below for the translation and valid values.

There have been new versions of the Native Client ODBC and OLEDB with each new version of SQL Server. Distributed through several different "Feature Packs" it has been confusing to find the right component. This article explains, instructs and provides download links for all versions and distributions of the SQL Server Native Client.

How to use the CData GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to connect your app to OAuth protected OData services.

Why did Microsoft move SqlClient to new binaries into NuGet package Microsoft.Data.SqlClient. Should I swap? Future releases? Namespaces?

There are different ways to store and read connection strings in appsettings.json. Learn some easy ways to work with connection strings in .NET Core.

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