Using Visual Studio 2010, it’s possible to use MySQL databases. The trick is to use the MySQL DotNET Connector.
Everything was going swimmingly until for what appeared to be no reason, until one day I went to work on my project and I started getting a strange error message for what appeared to be no reason.
Error 0.
Unable to find the request .NET Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed.
Exploring the exception shows that a connection to the database is made, but the login has failed for the username. However, the username and password work when logging in using the MySQL client. No drivers have changed, and MySQL works with all other applications just fine, just not the Microsoft development IDE. The connection string validated in a test environment, as did a raw connection with the MySqlConnection. EntityFrameworks, not so much.
Attempting to use EntityFrameworks from VS2010 results in an error dialog box that when dismissed goes back to the database wizard that brings up the dialog box again; the only way out is using Task Manager and violently killing the IDE’s process.
Attempting to use the .MySQL .NET/Connector installer to repair the installation doesn’t help, either. Yes, it updates the .dll files, yes it tweaks the registry, but no, it doesn’t help.
Making a new project and creating a new ADO.NET Data Model reveals something interesting: the MySQL providers are not listed anymore in VS2010.
The solution is to UNINSTALL the DotConnector and then re-INSTALL the same MySQL .NET/Connector.
The full installer indicates that it updates the VS2008 and VS2010 development environments. Trying the IDE again works perfectly. The ADO.NET Data Model shows the MySQL Data Provider, the Entity Frameworks doesn’t get stuck in an endless loop, and my code worked again without change.
What happened to cause all this? Turns out I had installed a minor VS2010 hotfix service pack at the end of the weekend. The result? The update silently uninstalled all non-Microsoft data providers.
Updates, please don’t do that…
Clearly, I’m not happy about that. Especially since it did it silently. If it told me that it was going to, or if it asked me to reinstall after the fact, I could live with it.