dotConnect for Oracle History

This page lists the functionality added in each version of dotConnect for Oracle. To view the full changelog including bug fixes, consult the dotConnect for Oracle revision history.

04-Mar-10 New features in dotConnect for Oracle 5.60 Beta

• Supported Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate
• Install Wizard improved (ability to automatically uninstall previous version added)
• ADO.NET Data Services v1.5 CTP2 supported
• Added possibility to avoid connecting to dbMonitor.exe when using DbMonitor ancestors

Entity Framework

• Supported ADO.NET Entity Framework 4 Release Candidate
• Support for new Canonical aggregate and scalar functions added
• Ability to use standard DBMS functions in LINQ queries added
• Support for Model First (templates for DB generation) added
• Full support for Entity Data Model Wizard/Update Wizard added

Entity Developer

• Support for ADO.NET Entity Framework 4 Release Candidate added
• Support for multi-result set methods added
• Improved dialogs for editing model objects
• Full integration with Visual Studio implemented
• Added full support for ModificationFunctionMapping
• Strongly typed reference cursors supported
• Improved Find in Model functionality

20-Nov-09 New features in dotConnect for Oracle 5.35

• Integration with improved dbMonitor added
• Implemented DefaultCommandTimeout parameter in connection string (by default, set to 0)
• Added orderid column for Site Map provider for custom map node ordering
• Added some DataSet Wizard design-time improvements

LINQ to Oracle

• Devart DbLinqDataSource added
• Linq performance improved
• Supported navigation using properties (not only keys)

Entity Developer

• New T4 like template engine with powerful editor added
• Updated code generation
  • Ability to generate separate files for classes added
  • Entity Framework Pregenerated Views support added
  • Improved null handling code generation
• Ability to execute LINQ and Entity SQL queries with data and native sql preview added
• Ability to preview and edit data displayed in Database Explorer added
• Table splitting added (emulation of deferred loading for "large" datatypes in EF)
• OnDelete support for associations added

14-Jul-09 New features in dotConnect for Oracle 5.25

• Visual Studio 2010 Beta supported
• ASP.NET Web Providers: Added requiresUniqueEmail functionality
• Performance improvements in Direct mode when executing DML commands

LINQ to Oracle

• Added support of the String.IsNullOrEmpty() method

Entity Developer 2.20

• Advanced mapping with Entity Framework QueryView supported
• Oracle packages supported
• Displaying of Navigation properties on diagram and project explorer implemented
• Ability to change properties order added
• Ability to edit Referential constraints added
• Ability to set OnDelete action added
• Ability to set Rows Affected parameter added
• Added dialogs for suitable storage model editing
• Added advanced search on the model
• Added support for storing connections in the configuration files
• Added Entity Set Pluralization Naming Rule

28-Apr-09 New features in dotConnect for Oracle 5.20

LINQ to Oracle

• Supported extended errors processing
• Supported DataLoadOptions class and Include method for tuning data loading
• Supported DeferredLoadingEnable functionality
• Supported function import
• Supported stored procedures as insert/update/delete behavior
• Supported user-defined functions in selection part of a query
• Supported CreateDatabase() and DeleteDatabase() methods
• Supported SqlMethods class
• Supported returning new Dictionary from query
• Removed redundant TRIM() function calls

Entity Developer 2.00

• Supported Entity Framework
• Supported stored procedures and functions for LINQ to SQL
• Added naming rules for database objects
• Added Visual Studio integration
• Validation schema improved
• Entity Framework Complex Type supported
• Entity Framework Storage Model editing supported
• Many-to-Many associations retrieving added
• Usability improvements
• Stability and performance improvements

13-Nov-08 New features in dotConnect for Oracle 5.00

• OraDirect .NET renamed to dotConnect for Oracle
• Supported LINQ to Oracle
• Added Entity Developer for LINQ to Oracle
• Added free Express Edition with basic connectivity features
• Added Developer Edition, which is equivalent to the Professional Edition plus OraDeveloper Tools
• TransactionScope supported
• Support for .NET Framework 1.x is discontinued
• Renamed assemblies, namespaces, and classes (for information on upgrading your projects please refer to FAQ, section Subscriptions and Upgrades)

Entity Framework support

• Improved performance of EDM Wizard
• EDM Wizard now supports system privileges SELECT ANY TABLE and EXECUTE ANY PROCEDURE
• EDM Wizard now supports grants and privileges of the user's role

20-Aug-08 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.75

• Supported .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
• Supported Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

29-May-08 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.70

• Supported .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta
• Supported Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Beta
• Improved support for ADO.NET Entity Framework

23-Apr-08 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.60

• Supported Visual Studio designers for Entity Framework
• Improved Entity Framework run time support

26-Feb-08 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.50

• Oracle ANYDATA type supported
• Added DB server-based data paging for web applications
• OracleDataSource design time improvements
• ASP.NET demo pack added
• OracleSelectStatement.TryParse method added
• OracleXml class changed
• DataLink.DataSource property can refer to another DataLink component

20-Dec-07 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.35

• Visual Studio 2008 supported
• Entity Framework Beta 3 supported
• Added Licensing Information dialog

19-Nov-07 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.30

• Oracle version 11g supported

25-Oct-07 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.25

• .NET Entity Framework Beta 2 supported
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 supported
• Added Visual Basic versions to CRM, WinForms, and Web samples

30-Aug-07 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.20

• Supported Visual Studio codename Orcas Beta 1
• Supported .NET Entity Framework
• Supported Proxy Authentication
• Supported OCI Pooling
• Enhanced command builder with generation of row refresh statements
• Added detailed warning information to OracleInfoMessageEventArgs class
• Added DbCommand.GetRecordCount() method to determine rows count of a request
• Added INullable interface for provider specific types
• Improved LOBs performance in Direct mode
• Added capability to store connection strings in application settings
• Improved integration with OraDeveloper Tools
• Extended drag'n'drop capabilities in DataSet Manager
• Add-in menu moved to Visual Studio package
• Demo projects reorganized
• Added CRM (Customer Relationship Management) demo project
• Added Ping demo project for Mobile Edition

03-May-07 New features in OraDirect .NET 4.00

Application development enhancement

• Added DataSet Manager to control dataset instances in the project
• Added DataSet Editor for convenient datasets manipulation
• New OracleDataSet class to use with OracleDataTable
• New component DataLink added for flexible data binding
• New capabilities added to OracleDataTable class
• Added capability for cross-form components cooperation
• Design time visualization extended
• Supported addin, DataSet Wizard, and OraDeveloper Tools integration with Borland Developer Studio

.NET 2 features

• Added OracleDependency class to support Database Change Notification
• Added OracleDataSourceEnumerator class to support Server Enumeration feature
• Added support for Batch Update in OracleDataAdapter
• Added support for returning provider-specific types in OracleDataReader and OracleDataAdapter

Advanced Oracle features

• LOBs and Oracle Objects now entirely support the disconnected model
• Supported Oracle Advanced Queue technology
• New OracleAlerter component added
• New OraclePipe component added
• New OracleTrace component added
• Oracle Client Software x64 supported
• Added support for custom UDT classes
• Added support for IN and IN/OUT REF CURSORs
• OracleDataAdapter now supports sequential fetch
• Added new class OracleGlobalization for managing culture settings

Other features

• SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Solutions supported
• Added OracleSelectStatement class for building SELECT statements
• Added list of servers in connection form and connection properties
• Added OracleLoader.LoadTable method
• Added DbLoader class that serves to load external data into database
• Added OraDirect .NET information to Visual Studio 2005 splash screen and About box
• Base level classes moved to the new assembly CoreLab.Data.dll
• New demo projects added
• Bug with handling broken connections in connection pool fixed
• Bug with InputOutput VARCHAR parameters fixed

OraDeveloper Tools 2.00 improvements

• Added PL/SQL and SQL script debuggers
• Added a project management framework for bookmarking related scripts and organizing database developments
• Enhanced SQL Editor with context-sensitive code completion, code navigation, incremental search, and more
• Enhanced working with data, including possibility to print data directly from data editor
• Added search in object data and source code
• Added an extensive collection of SQL and PL/SQL code templates
• Completely redesigned Security Manager for controlling user accounts
• Added a Session Manager for controlling and analyzing user sessions
• Added an Event Monitor for exchanging signals between database connections
• Extended Oracle schema object support, including support for XML Schemas, Materialized Views, and Materialized View Logs

12-Dec-06 New features in OraDirect .NET 3.55

• Windows Vista support added

17-Apr-06 New features in OraDirect .NET 3.50

• Implemented advanced integration with Visual Studio 2005, including Server Explorer, Data Source wizard, TableAdapter configuration, Query Builder and configuring web component SqlDataSource
• Mono support added
• ASP.NET 2.0 providers added: Membership Provider, Profile Provider, Role Provider, Session State Provider
• Capability to call OraDirect .NET runtime assemblies by partially trusted code added
• DataSet Wizard added
• Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block support added
• Added streaming support for OracleScript
• OraDeveloper Tools installation separated from OraDirect .NET installation
• Four digits of OracleConnection.Client version is returning
• Licensing for applications that call OraDirect .NET through DbProviderFactory added.
• This allows to use OraDirect .NET in SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Solutions

28-Dec-05 New features in OraDirect .NET 3.20

• Supported .NET Framework 2.0 release version
• Supported Visual Studio 2005 release version
• Compact .NET Framework 2.0 supported
• Performance improved in working with Oracle Object types
• Sample projects for OraDirect .NET Mobile added

OraDeveloper Tools improvements (Professional edition only):

• Database export/import
• Script support
• Stop execution feature
• Execution of the selected SQL fragment feature
• Data Export feature
• Dynamic data viewing of the tables and views in DbExplorer
• Paginal data access mode
• LOB viewer/editor
• Database object search
• Duplicate object feature
• DDL generation wizard
• Data grid colors customizing

11-Jul-05 New features in OraDirect .NET 3.01

• OracleCommandBuilder.UpdatingFields property added
• OracleLoader now inherits from DbLoader class

03-Jun-05 New features in OraDirect .NET 3.00

• Access to Oracle server without Oracle client software with Direct mode
• Support for .NET Compact Framework added with Mobile edition
• OracleDataTable component greatly enhanced with OracleObject and Arrays advanced data binding and update capabilities
• New functionality added to OracleScript component
• Oracle warning support added to OracleConnection.InfoMessage event
• Interface enhanced for OraclePackage component
• Publisher policy file added for versions compatibility
• Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 added

Design-time tools are completely revised, extended and called OraDeveloper Tools (Professional edition only):

• Visual editors for Oracle schema objects added
• Query Builder tool rewritten and improved
• SQL editor tool improved
• Execution plan visualization tool added
• Ability to drag connections, tables and stored procedures from DbExplorer to Form Designer added
• Component designers more tightly integrated with OraDeveloper Tools

06-Jan-05 New features in OraDirect .NET 2.50

• Support for .NET Framework 2.0 added
• Support for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005 Beta 1
• Support ADO.NET 2 features including:
• Support for metadata schemas added
• The Base-Class-Based provider model used
• Connection pooling enhancements functionality added, that allows you to programmatically "drain" the connection pool
• New OracleConnectionStringBuilder component to build connection strings to represent data sources
• Support for Borland Delphi 2005
• Documentation enriched

21-Jul-04 New features in OraDirect .NET 2.40

• Performance increased
• New component OracleDataTable added
• New methods for asynchronous working added
• Support for paginal access to query result added
• Support for multiple ExecuteReader added
• Retrieve ROWID to dataset 'ROWID' column added
• Parameter editor extended for Array and Tables datatypes
• Datatype conversions ability extended for OracleParameter.Value

30-Apr-04 New features in OraDirect .NET 2.30

• Oracle 10g support
• Multiple home environment
• XMLType support
• Supports BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE types
• Oracle 10g Instant Client support
• Dynamic fetch size feature added
• Statement caching (Oracle 10g only)
• Transparent Application Failover (TAF) support
• Overloaded stored procedures
• RECORD data type as parameters type
• Schema table for REF cursor's and nested tables
• Working with VARRAY and TABLE data types as native .NET array types
• OracleDataReader.HasRows property added
• OracleCommand.GetRowId method for native Oracle ROWID
• OracleCommand.Cancel method supported
• OracleError and OracleErrorCollection for Array Binding errors
• OraclePermission class and attribute added

11-Feb-04 New features in OraDirect .NET 2.01

• Support for Borland Delphi 8 and Borland C#Builder 1.0 added

02-Oct-03 New features in OraDirect .NET 2.00

• Fully rewritten 100% managed code
• Available Standard and Professional editions
• Support Oracle 9i types such as TIMESTAMP, INTERVAL
• Support Oracle object types OBJECT, VARRAY, TABLE, REF
• Native classes and structures to represent Oracle types
• Connection pooling support
• Unicode support added
• Array binding feature support
• PL/SQL tables support
• Fill DataSet with several REF CURSOR
• OS authentication enabled
• DBA privileges to open a session with
• Controlling automatic commit data for the connection
• Enables changing expired password
• Transaction savepoints support added
• Optimization fetching data with OracleCommand.FetchSize property
• Getting offset of the error in SQL statement
• OraDirect .NET help integrated into Visual Studio .NET
• XML documentation for code completion added
• Migration wizard from MS OracleClient and ODP.NET
• Typed Oracle package wizard
• New sample applications added

24-Jun-03 New features in OraDirect .NET 1.55

• Visual Studio .NET 2003 support added
• Property editors for OracleCommandBuilder.KeyFields and OracleCommandBuilder.UpdatingTable added.

11-Feb-03 New features in OraDirect .NET 1.50

• New component OracleScript added. Servers to execute series of SQL statements separated by special symbols, like SQL*Plus scripts.
• New component OracleLoader added. Serves to load external data into the Oracle database. Uses direct path load interface to speed up loading.
• New component OracleMonitor added. Allows to monitor dynamic SQL execution in applications that use OraDirect .NET. Extended monitoring capabilities are provided with DBMonitor application.
• New component OraclePackage added. Provides access to packages stored in Oracle database.
• OracleConnection.Home property added to support Oracle Homes
• OracleConnection.Error event added
• OracleConnection.GetServerList() static method added
• Performance greatly increased
• Designer form for OracleDataAdapter component setup added
• OracleCommand component designer functionality extended
• Typed dataset generation mechanism enabled for OracleDataAdapter
• Automatic component registration (in toolbox) mechanism added
• OraDesigner, OraExplorer, OraBuilder and OraDebugger are now embedded into OraDirect .NET
• BlobPictures, Loader, Pictures, StoredProc samples added
• Visual Basic .NET samples added

17-Jul-02 New features in OraDirect .NET 1.20

• ASP.NET sample project
• MasterDetail sample project
• UnloadedAppDomain bug fixed
• Special characters in connect string bug fixed
• Statement handle not executed bug fixed (1212)

13-Jun-02 New features in OraDirect .NET 1.12

• SchemaInfo bug fixed (1230)
• OracleConnection [@name.globalname] connection string bug fixed (1322)
• OracleCommand.CommandText property editor added
• Design-time bug with sp describe fixed (1134)
• References to extensibility and envdte removed from OracleDesign (1152)
• Design-time execution bug with not caught exception fixed (1123)
• WaitCursor for design-time describe added (1208)
• OraTools version added to About form (1231)

15-May-02 New features in OraDirect .NET 1.10

• DataSet sample project
• DataReader sample project
• Table sample project
• "Designer..." verb added to OracleConnection ComponentDesigner
• Add-in bug with help menu fixed

09-Apr-02 First release of OraDirect .NET 1.00