ADO.Net is a collection of classes which is provided facility to connect with database and fetch, retrieve and manipulate data.
Evolution of ADO.NET
The first data access model, DAO (data access model) was created for local databases with the built-in Jet engine which had performance and functionality issues. Next came RDO (Remote Data Object) and ADO (Active Data Object) which were designed for Client Server architectures but soon ADO took over RDO. ADO was a good architecture but as the language changes so is the technology. With ADO, all the data is contained in a recordset object which had problems when implemented on the network and penetrating firewalls. ADO was a connected data access, which means that when a connection to the database is established the connection remains open until the application is closed. Leaving the connection open for the lifetime of the application raises concerns about database security and network traffic. Also, as databases are becoming increasingly important and as they are serving more people, a connected data access model makes us think about its productivity. For example, an application with connected data access may do well when connected to two clients, the same may do poorly when connected to 10 and might be unusable when connected to 100 or more. Also, open database connections use system resources to a maximum extent making the system performance less effective.
Why ADO.NET?
To cope up with some of the problems mentioned above, ADO .NET came into existence. ADO .NET addresses the above mentioned problems by maintaining a disconnected database access model which means, when an application interacts with the database, the connection is opened to serve the request of the application and is closed as soon as the request is completed. Likewise, if a database is Updated, the connection is opened long enough to complete the Update operation and is closed. By keeping connections open for only a minimum period of time, ADO .NET conserves system resources and provides maximum security for databases and also has less impact on system performance. Also, ADO .NET when interacting with the database uses XML and converts all the data into XML format for database related operations making them more efficient.
In ADO.net, data access is achieved through two components – the DataSet and the Data Provider.
DataSet:
DataSet is like a copy of the actual database that you have on your local storage. The dataset is a disconnected, in-memory representation of data.
DataProvider:
Data Provider is the component that actually gives the connection to the database and then maintaining that connection.The .NET Framework currently comes with two DataProviders: the SQL Data Provider which is designed only to work with Microsoft’s SQL Server 7.0 or later and the OleDb DataProvider which allows us to connect to other types of databases like Access and Oracle.Each DataProvider consists of the following component classes:
The Connection object which provides a connection to the database.
The Command object which is used to execute a command.
The DataAdapter object a bridge used to transfer data between a Data source and a DataSet object.
The DataReader object which provides a forward-only, read only, connected recordset.
