Sybase ASE ADO.net 2.0 provider?

Question

I'm looking for an ADO.net 2.0 or later provider for Sybase database which seems to be known as Sybase ASE. To clarify, I'm interested in ASE, and not SQL Anywhere. Hopefully the provider will be included with the database, or free.

I can find mention of an ADO.net 1.1 provider; that's not what I want.

I can find mention of ODBC drivers and OLEDB providers; that's not what I want.

I've found the DataDirect ADO.net providers which are paid for; I guess that's the fallback position.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

From the sybase website:

Sybase support for ADO.NET, OLE DB, and ODBC Adaptive Server version 15.0 contains new ODBC and OLE DB drivers developed by Sybase. The third-party rebranded ODBC and OLE DB Driver Kits included with previous versions are no longer shipped.

The retired ODBC Driver Kit was installed in %SYBASE%\ODBC, and registered with the ODBC Driver Manager as “Sybase ASE ODBC Driver”. The new ASE ODBC Driver by Sybase is installed in %SYBASE%\DataAccess\ODBC, and registered as “Adaptive Server Enterprise”. The version shipping with Adaptive Server and SDK 15.0 is version 15.0.0.50.

The retired OLE DB Driver Kit was installed in %SYBASE%\OLEDB, and used the provider short name of “Sybase.ASEOLEDBProvider” and the long name of “Sybase ASE OLE DB Provider”. The new ASE OLE DB Provider by Sybase is installed in %SYBASE%\DataAccess\OLEDB, and uses provider short name “ASEOLEDB”. The version shipping with SDK 15.0 is version 15.0.0.51.

Sybase recommends that you start your migration process the new ODBC and OLE DB drivers as soon as possible. New features introduced in Adaptive Server 15.0 are supported only by the new drivers.

See “New Features for OpenServer 15.0 and SDK 15.0 for Windows, Linux and UNIX”, for instructions on migrating to the new drivers.

Answer 2

Sybase 15 #ESD10 has support for ADO.NET 2.0, according to this link at Sybase: http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc20155.1500/html/newfesd/CBHJAABF.htm

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New Features Open Server 15.0 and SDK 15.0 for Microsoft Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Mac OS X ADO.NET 2.0 support

ASE ADO.NET Data Provider 2.0 is shipped with this SDK release. The ADO.NET 2.0 features supported in this version are:

*      Provider factories
*      Provider statistics
*      Bulk update
*      Bulk copy
*      Asynchronous commands
*      Extended pooling support to clear pools
*      Common base classes
*      Database metadata

For more information on the supported ADO.NET 2.0 features, see What’s New in ADO.NET 2.0.

Answer 3

Having recently been down this road myself, I can only suggest that you wont find the answer through searching the net. If you are connecting to an ASE server, then you have a customer technical contact. Use that person, asking them to download the earlier mentioned Sybase 15 #ESD10.

From my experience (which I freely admit, was a bad one);

Sybase makes this sort of developer resource available to paying customers only.

The download, once you have it, will include a whole bunch of extras that you wont need. I still think that PowerDesigner is a great utility, but I think that what is included is a trial version, of limited long term value. I believe that what you want from the set is the OpenClient install, selecting the ADO.NET features.

I found the whole experience, from acquiring the developer resources (just identifying the right download was a struggle), to isolating out the two files necessary from the hundreds of installed files, to the fact that the install broke my existing RapidSql and DbArtisan installs, and finally that the current version goes no further than ADO.NET 2 provider support (you wont get EF wiring for example), to be truly frustrating.

No surprise then that I have not been able to find much support for ASE using nHibernate or subsonic either.