New Month, New Tech Lesson, brought to you by Vinova’s top tech experts, or tech-xperts! Yan, our IT talent, will share his in-depth understanding and experience with .NET’s database connectivity, from a developer point of view.
Let’s delve into the ever-evolving .NET software framework. This powerhouse is driving countless applications daily. Today, we’re zooming in on its database connectivity.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Connecting to databases from applications and processing data has become familiar and is an indispensable part of software systems. This interaction can range from directly executing SQL statements to mapping entity objects to their corresponding tables. In .NET, a variety of methods and technologies are available to facilitate data connection and processing, and these are continuously being updated. In this article, we will explore some of the popular methods and frameworks for connecting to and working with databases in .NET.
ADO.NET
ADO.NET was introduced by Microsoft in 2002. It is a framework providing a rich set of components for connection, query, and manipulation with databases. It is an important technology as a part of .NET Framework, which helps developers work between applications and relational databases or XML data sources.
It uses some helpful classes such as SqlConnection, SqlCommand, SqlDataReader and SqlDataAdpater to help connect, querying, and access results directly from databases. It also supports a wide variety of databases, including SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and many other database management systems.
Although users have to manage the connection manually and write SQL statements without mapping, ADO.NET is a direct way of interacting with the database, so it is usually faster for basic operations. Additionally, it supports asynchronous operations, improving the responsiveness of the application, and hence improving performance by efficiently utilizing resources.
ADO.NET is less common in new projects due to modern ORM frameworks, holding value for high-performance applications requiring direct SQL control and in maintaining legacy systems.
ENTITY FRAMEWORK
Microsoft introduced Entity Framework in 2008 with .NET Framework 3.5. It is Microsoft’s official ORM for the .NET Framework, helping programmers interact with databases through mapping objects without writing a lot of code to handle database connections or statements. It also supports a wide variety of databases, including SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and many other database management systems.
Entity Framework (EF) provides features like querying, lazy loading, eager loading, and tracking the states of objects. It supports three approaches: Database First, Model First, and Code First. Especially, the framework supplies a strong API to build LINQ queries. It automatically converts LINQ queries into SQL suitable for database management systems.
Because it has to perform multiple steps of converting LINQ queries to SQL, EF is often slower than using direct SQL or other lightweight ORMs. However, if we want to develop an application in a faster way with clean code maintainability, then EF will be a better choice, especially for projects that require absolute stability because it has been through many years of development and is a widely tested product.
DAPPER
Dapper was launched in 2011. It is a popular open-source micro-ORM (Object Relational Mapping) framework developed by Stack Overflow. It is designed to be a lightweight and fast solution that simply maps results from SQL statements directly into objects, allowing developers to quickly write high-performance data access code.
Dapper doesn’t have the full functionality of an ORM but it is often used when high performance is needed or when working with SQL directly is needed, it is very fast and efficient in handling basic query operations. Besides, Dapper doesn’t need to manage bulky object classes or cache SQL queries. This reduces memory footprint and increases execution speed.
Dapper’s API is simple and intuitive. You can perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations with just a few lines of code. It supports mapping SQL query results to objects easily and automatically, including complex objects with relations (e.g. JOIN).
It is the best choice if you want to work with a lightweight framework, high performance, and write SQL commands.
ENTITY FRAMEWORK CORE
Entity Framework Core was released in 2016 as a cross-platform. It is a modernized version of Entity Framework. It is also an ORM framework, helping developers work with databases efficiently by using .NET objects. It was designed primarily for .NET Core but also compatible with .NET Framework 4.6.1+ for versions prior to EF Core 3.0, and later .NET 5,6,7,8+. Now it is being evolved to EF Core 7 or higher (2024).
- Platform Flexibility: EF Core can run on multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS. This makes it more flexible and an ideal choice for cloud-native or cross-platform applications.
- Modern Features: EF Core supports modern features such as JSON support which is leveraged mainly through SQL Server, advanced LINQ, strong improvement in the ability to write and optimize LINQ queries, global query filters, and asynchronous queries.
- Performance Optimization tools: EF Core is optimized for performance, reducing latency when querying data and performing operations on the database. It also supports a wide variety of databases such as SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, and even NoSQL databases, making it easy to integrate with existing infrastructure.
- Migration Management: EF Core provides powerful, flexible, and controllable migration management and execution capabilities. Especially, the built-in “data seeding” feature allows for the automatic initialization of data into the database when performing migrations
Currently, EF Core has a thriving development community, with contributions and support from developers around the world. This keeps it up-to-date and well-documented and is a good choice for new projects.
Conclusion
Numerous technologies and platforms support data connectivity and processing in .NET applications. Depending on the specific requirements of each project, we can select an appropriate technology.
For example, if we prefer writing raw SQL queries with minimal abstraction layers, prioritize system performance, and simplicity, or maintain legacy projects without the need for modern features, ADO.NET or Dapper might be suitable options. On the other hand, if we prefer working with higher-level abstractions, reducing manual effort in handling database connections, and leveraging modern features for new projects, Entity Framework (EF) or EF Core would be better choices.
This article provides an overview of the development stages in database connectivity technologies within .NET applications. There are many other tools and libraries that assist with this process as well. From here, developers can explore their preferred technologies, select the most suitable options for their projects, and stay updated on future trends in this evolving landscape.
But if you still have more questions on the .NET framework, or just have them smoothed over by our amazing talents, contact us for a free consultation.