REDWOOD SHORES: Oracle today announced it has released beta versions of Oracle Data Provider for .NET and Oracle developer tools for Visual Studio .NET.

In conjunction with Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Oracle is also planning on introducing Oracle providers for ASP.NET - which would integrate with ASP.NET Services to enable ASP.NET applications to transparently manage state and various other useful information within an Oracle database.

The beta versions of Oracle data provider for .NET and Oracle developer tools for Visual Studio .NET plan to introduce new features that greatly simplify .NET application development using Oracle database. Both tools would incorporate significant new capabilities supporting ASP.NET, Microsoft's framework for dynamic Web sites and Web applications, and would enable developers to build .NET applications using complex data types more easily by allowing the creation of .NET custom types from Oracle abstract data types. New capabilities planned include User Defined Type support, Source Control integration, and enhanced integration with Visual Studio 2005.

The beta version of Oracle developer tools for Visual Studio .NET is expected to feature new ASP.NET Web development support enabling developers to automatically generate code by dragging and dropping database objects onto their ASP.NET Web pages.

The release is expected to also include integrated source control capabilities easing the back up and versioning of .NET applications running with Oracle database by allowing Oracle scripts to be source controlled within Visual Studio. Additionally, the tool would offer enhanced script editing and execution allowing for easier testing and deployment.

Oracle developer tools for Visual Studio .NET is a free plug-in that enables developers to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 to develop and deploy Microsoft .NET Framework-based applications and Web services on Oracle database 10g.

Oracle data provider for .NET helps developers to access information from Oracle database more efficiently. The free product enables developers to exploit the unique performance, reliability, scalability and security capabilities of Oracle database 10g such as application security context, clustering, and native Oracle data types such as LOBs and REF Cursors.

Mike Hichwa, vice president of software development, Oracle said "Delivering deeper integration between the Oracle database and .NET is a priority ando our ongoing investment in these developer tools highlights our plans for .NET and is expected to enable .NET Framework-based developers to more easily take advantage of the capabilities and power of the Oracle database."

"With ASP.NET representing a significant percentage of the Microsoft development community, this announcement is underscores Oracle's ongoing support to provide tight integration between Oracle database and Microsoft technologies," said Dwight Davis, Vice President, Ovum.

CIOL Bureau