Preface : Using This Book
 
Using This Book
This book assumes that you are familiar with your operating system and its commands, the definition of directories, and accessing a database through an end-user application.
This book contains the following information:
• Quick Start provides information about connecting to a database with your .NET data provider.
• Using the Data Providers provides information about using .NET applications with the PSQL data provider and provides information about developing .NET applications in the .NET environment.
• Advanced Features describes advanced features of the data providers, including connection pooling, statement caching, configuring security, and using PSQL Bulk Load.
• The ADO.NET Data Provider describes connection string options, data types, and other information for the PSQL Entity Framework data provider.
• The ADO.NET Entity Framework Data Provider describes features of the ADO.NET Entity Framework data provider. It explains how to create a Entity Data Model for the PSQL ADO.NET Entity Framework data provider.
• Using the PSQL Data Providers in Visual Studio describes how to use the PSQL data provider and the Performance Wizard from within Visual Studio.
• Using the Microsoft Enterprise Libraries describes how to configure the Data Access Application Block and Logging Application Block, and use them in your application code.
• .NET Objects Supported provides the .NET public objects, properties, and methods supported by the PSQL data provider.
• Getting Schema Information describes the schema collections supported by the PSQL data provider.
• SQL Escape Sequences for .NET describes the scalar functions supported for the PSQL data provider. Your data store may not support all of these functions.
• Locking and Isolation Levels discusses locking and isolation levels and how their settings can affect the data you retrieve.
• Designing .NET Applications for Performance Optimization provides recommendations for improving the performance of your applications by optimizing its code.
• Using an .edmx File explains the necessary changes to an .edmx file in order to provide Extended Entity Framework functionality to the EDM layer.
• Bulk Load Configuration Files provides samples of the files created during bulk load operations.
• IANA Code Page Mappings maps the most widely used IBM code pages to IANA code page names.
• Glossary defines terms used in this guide.
Note: This book refers the reader to web URLs for more information about specific topics. Because it is the nature of web content to change frequently, we can guarantee only that the URLs referenced in this book were correct at the time of publishing.