About the Data Provider

The Pervasive.SQL data provider is compliant with the .NET 1.1 Framework Software Development Kit (SDK). The Pervasive.SQL data provider is built with 100% managed code; it can run and connect to the database entirely within the common language runtime (CLR).

Code that runs in the native operating system, such as client libraries and COM components, is called unmanaged code. You can mix managed and unmanaged code within a single application. However, unmanaged code reaches outside the CLR, which means that it effectively raises complexity, reduces performance, and opens possible security risks.

The following figure shows the difference between using a managed data provider that calls the client library and the Connect for .NET Wire Protocol data provider that connects directly to the DBMS.

Assemblies

A .NET assembly is a compiled representation of one or more classes. Each assembly is self-contained, that is, the assembly includes the metadata about the assembly as a whole.

Assemblies can be private or shared. Private assemblies, which are used by a limited number of applications, are placed in the application folder or one of its subfolders. For example, even if the client has two different applications that call a private assembly named formulas, each client application loads the correct assembly.

Shared assemblies, which are available to multiple client applications, are placed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). Each shared assembly is assigned a strong name to handle name and version conflicts.

The assembly name for the Pervasive.SQL data provider is Pervasive.Data.SqlClient.dll. The assembly is strongly named and signed, and is placed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) during installation.

Namespace

The namespace for the Pervasive.SQL data provider is Pervasive.Data.SqlClient. When connecting to the Pervasive.SQL database, you use the PsqlConnection and PsqlCommand objects in the Pervasive.Data.SqlClient namespace.

The following C# code fragment shows how to include the Pervasive.SQL data provider's namespace in your applications:

// Access Pervasive.SQL in C# 
using System.Data; 
using Pervasive.Data.SqlClient;