Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is certainly an interesting upgrade for the SQL Server, offering lots of improvements and new features. There are many things that might tempt you to migrate to 2012 or at least to start your new projects based on it, but to name a few:

• Enhancements for higher availability
• New and improved version of the SQL Server Management Studio
• Easier migration – the new Side-by-Side Migration option makes the migration from older versions of SQL Server safer and the rollback easier, which can be crucial. In the same time, you can do even an In Place migration ...

As many of you already know, we are offering you a chance to choose which features of OpenAccess ORM you would like to see implemented in the next releases. You can post your votes and comments in our PITS system, plus you can ask us to put new features there through the support system or forums.

Recently there is one clear winner in PITS – the database default values support. It has been requested many times through our support system as well – and we would like to thank all of you for the feedback, we do appreciate it. We ...

Performing simple string equality tests is often not enough when application user convenience is key. Often only a fragment of a string is known to the user, or many of them. Sometimes there is a need to search for a fragment in multiple columns.

Which options does OpenAccess and LINQ provide to perform string matching? Into which SQL is the LINQ expression translated?
Let’s use a simple class model for this post: a Person with a FirstName, a LastName and a NickName. Let’s assume parameters with the name simpleParam (string) and manyParam (ICollection<string>).

String equality comparison

Using the standard Equals ...

Visual Studio 11 Beta has already been around for several weeks and most of you have already tried it. Plenty of different opinions were out there – from praising the cool new features it offers, to grumbling about the surprisingly changed user interface.

For all of you who are developing your applications leveraging the cutting-edge technologies on the market, we want to assure you: OpenAccess ORM will not be missing in Visual Studio 11 and you will be able to use it immediately, even in the VS's Beta version. In fact, since there is still a long way to go ...

An object relational mapper is about developer productivity, about the ability to quickly and easily make changes to your model, about integrated change tracking, caching and moving to other databases easily. It is also about speed.

In this blog post I will try to explain the most common questions about OpenAccess in regards to performance and how you can improve it.

The OpenAccessContext

When using OpenAccess you always start with a type that derives from OpenAccessContext. Creating an instance of that type is a lightweight operation, typically in the order of a dictionary lookup.

Then you execute your first ...

In previous versions of OpenAccess ORM, configuring large data models could be a bit cumbersome. However, I am happy to say that in Q1 2012 we are adding a new batch operation dialog, which makes configuring data models easier than ever! Using the Batch Operation Wizard, developers can efficiently make updates to several entities, or members, in a single operation!

To launch the batch operation dialog, right click on the visual design surface, and select Batch Operations.

This menu item launches the new wizard:

On the left side of the wizard is a search area. This allows developers to ...

Besides the currently trending MVC framework, the traditional Web Forms are widely used for web applications development, so probably many of you are already familiar with them. OpenAccess ORM is an excellent choice for your Data Access Layer in such situation, as it is easy to integrate in just a few steps. We have already explained those steps in our new ASP.NET Development Guide, but we figured a visual representation of the same will be a faster and more pleasant way of learning what you need to know.

We have created two separate videos: for developing a Web Site...

We believe that the fastest way to learn how to use an OpenAccess model in your ASP.NET MVC 3 application is to watch a video tutorial. Therefore we have prepared some videos, guiding your OpenAccess ORM integration in an MVC project step by step.

Of course, there are different approaches to that based on your needs and personal preferences – you might want to use the strong capabilities of our Visual Designer Database-First scenario to create your Domain Model or you can map everything using our Fluent Mapping API. In any case, each of the dedicated video series ...

As a response to your constant requests for sample projects demonstrating the best practices of using OpenAccess ORM in web projects, we have released some of the new and updated samples before Q1 2012 so that you can benefit from them immediately.

MVC developers will be happy to know that along with the MVC 2 example “MVC Forum”, we are now offering two solutions demonstrating MVC 3 usage with Fluent API or an .rlinq Domain Model – whichever approach you prefer. In addition, you can see an implementation using the Razor view engine as an alternative of the default ...

With the Q3 2011 release of Telerik OpenAccess ORM we introduced three connection pool types which are explained in this blog post. In this blog post we will have a look at the connection pooling behavior of the Oracle driver and what setting to be used when we want to use Telerik OpenAccess ORM with Oracle databases.

Which setting for Oracle and why?

When we want to use Oracle as our backend, it is advisable to use the connection pool type Open Access Connection Pool with OpenAccess Connection Management or the Ado Connection Pool setting. When using one ...