DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET Release 4.3.0

Only 100% managed code architecture for connectivity to Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and Sybase using ADO.NET. With the 4.3.0 release, we are supporting several new features.

New Features in ADO.NET Entity Framework Data Providers

• Security 
  • Support for Credential object for all drivers 
  • Credential objects help to encrypt the password information when stored in the memory in the application.
  • Oracle 12cR2 ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION=12 support
  • Oracle FIPS support

 

• Supportability 
  • Improved vanilla Logging to log Entity dll versions

 

• Installer User Experience 
  • Installer now only requires .NET 4.0 as prerequisite.  Which is the present by default on all windows OS after windows 7 SP3
  • Upgraded Install Shield to latest version IS2016.
  • DPE(Deployment of reports) is now integrated with the installer

 

• Other Features 
  • Support for Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 [Deprecated earlier versions]

 

• Performance Improvement
  • Added Native Array Binding support for DB2 LUW and iSeries, leading to substantial performance improvement.

 

• DB and OS Certifications 
  • DB2 for i V7R3
  • DB2 Z/OS 12
  • SQL Server 2017
  • Oracle 12cR2
  • Windows 10 Creator
  • .NET Framework 4.7

Notes, Known Problems, and Restrictions

Installation pre-requisite

In case of Silent Installation for Visual Studio 2017, service pack 3 is required for a successful installation.

Accessing help files

To access product help, you must use the Internet Explorer browser. You will also need to enable ActiveX controls.

Entity Framework Support

The DataDirect DB2 Entity Framework data provider does not support the following Entity Framework feature:

Configurable Migration History - For a Code First model, when you try to customize a migration history table, you may face an issue While performing multi-level scaffolding. The Provider does not throw an error message in this case; Progress recommends that you do not use this EF6 feature, while working with DB2.

When you use the MapToStoredProcedure feature in an application using Code first Migrations, trying to execute “update-database” to update your model changes in the database throws the error, "Alter Procedure operation is not supported with DB2 UDB V6R1 for i." This issue occurs only on DB2 UDB V6R1 for i, and will work fine on higher versions.

The DataDirect DB2 Entity Framework data provider has the following limitation:

Code First Mapping to Insert/Update/Delete Stored Procedures -  For your Code First model's mapped stored procedures, if the newly created mapped procedure names have an overload in the database, during migration, you may face issues while dropping the procedure. To avoid this issue, ensure that you do not have any StoredProcedures with the same name as the Procedures created in the MappedToStoredProcedure feature, before using code first migrations. To resolve this issue, you can manually drop these procedures using full signature of the procedure in the DROP PROCEDURE query.

An issue you may face during migration (while adding or removing columns in the entity mapped to procedures) is that the updated definitions may create new procedures instead of replacing the existing ones. To resolve this issue, you can remove the stored Procedures which are not in use any more by manually dropping these procedures using full signature of the procedure in the DROP PROCEDURE query.

 

The DataDirect Oracle Entity Framework data provider has the following limitation:

 Oracle Advanced Security feature is only available for applications that are made for .NET Framework 4.0 or a higher version. To use these features, applications should refer to DDTek.Oracle.dll built within .NET Framework 4.0 present in the net40 directory under the installation directory.

If you are using Entity Framework or DbProviderFactory to create a connection with .NET Framework 4.0 or a higher version,  you do not have to perform any additional steps to use Oracle Advanced Security. Please read the user guide for more details.

 

The DataDirect Sybase Entity Framework data provider does not support the following Entity Framework features:

• Code-Based Configuration.
• Configurable Migration History.
  
• Code First Mapping to Stored Procedures.
  
• Connection Resiliency.
  
• Code First Migrations.
  
• Table Valued Functions and Enumerated Types.
  
• Model-First, basically, the ability to start with a conceptual model and create the database from it (see  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ff830362.aspx for more information).
• Code First, basically, write the classes that make up your domain model and generate a database schema or map to an existing database (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/ee712907)
• Translating String.StartsWith, String.EndsWith and String.Contains to LIKE in LINQ to Entities.

 

Third Party Issues

While using DPE(Deployment of reports) in Visual studio 2015, the SSDT Tools version should be specifically this version - 14.0.61707.300. This version of SSDT has some issue fixes by Microsoft. If you do not use this specific version, you get the following error during deployment: "Key is not found in Dictionary."

 

Previously, Oracle was using non FIPS-compliant protocol for connection to Oracle server version before 12.1.0.2. This was causing all ADO.NET drivers including DataDirect and Oracle Managed ADO.NET driver to fail to connect when FIPS is enabled on client machine. 

Oracle fixed this in their 12.1.0.2 version of managed ADO.NET driver implementation.

 

If you are building your application with EntityFramework 6.0.0, you may face the issues defined below:

• With Oracle Entity Provider, for a context having String properties with "TypeName" Column attribute, you may receive the error, "Specified cast is not valid" error. An example of the context snippet is given below:
  
  [Column(TypeName = "nchar")]
  public string FirstName { get; set; }   
  [Column(TypeName = "clob")]
  public string Description { get; set; }

To resolve this issue, we recommend you build your application with EntityFramework 6.0.2.

• With both Oracle and DB2 Entity providers, you may face issues in using Set Initialization strategies, in Entity Framework 6.0 Code First Applications. To resolve this issue, we recommend you build your application with EntityFramework 6.0.2.

• With Oracle Entity Provider, for a context having String properties with "TypeName" Column attribute, you may receive the error, "Specified cast is not valid" error. An example of the context snippet is given below:

 

 

Logging Application Block Configuration

For the Logging Application Block to function correctly, you must perform one of the following actions:

• Set the DDTek_Enable_logging_Application_Block environment variable to enable logging. This will enforce default settings for logging.
  
• Include the following line in your application: ConfigurationManager.GetSection("ddtek.oracle.entity");

 

 

Installation Requirements

You must be a system administrator or have update privileges for the Registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]. These privileges are required to update the Registry with the new data providers being installed. See your system administrator if you are unsure.

 

You must run the Setup program from the machine on which you are installing the product. You cannot run the Setup program from a network location to install the product on your local machine.

 

Installing on a Machine With Earlier Versions of the Data Providers

DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET 4.3 can exist on the same machine with  earlier released versions of DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET and DataDirect Connect for .NET (GA version or with any of the patches or service packs), but cannot be installed in the same directory.

 

 

Using Distributed Transactions

The DataDirect data providers support distributed transactions through the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC).

 

 

Connecting to a DB2 Database

• The first time that you connect to a DB2 database, the data provider    builds several DB2 packages, a process that can take several minutes. Subsequent connections to that server do not incur delays. It is recommended that customers to add Connection Timeout=0 during the first connection, so that they will not get the Connection Timeout errors during this process.
• Make sure that the user who performs the initial connection to a DB2 database has BINDADD permissions. If the user does not have BINDADD permissions, the following error message is displayed: 

Inadequate permission to create packages on the database server. Packages must be created once on each DB2 server that the DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET DB2 provider will connect to. The provider detected that the packages do not exist on this server and tried to create them, but could not due to the current user not having BINDADD permissions on the DB2 server. Contact the DB2 administrator.

• The DB2 data provider does not support Batch statements.
  

 

 

Bulk Operations with Sybase

A Sybase bulk bug prevents default values from being inserted into the destination table. This means that in bulk operations, null values are always preserved.

 

 

Visual Studio 2015 / Visual Studio 2017 Issues

Installing Visual Studio After Installing the DataDirect Connect  for ADO.NET Data Providers 

If you install the DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET data providers on a machine that does not have Visual Studio installed, and then install Visual Studio, you must use the Administration Tool in the DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET 4.3 program group, and select the Visual Studio Integration tab.