.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) for the Entity Framework

This section describes the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) that enables the Entity Framework to work over Microsoft SQL Server.

Provider Schema Attribute

Provider is an attribute of the Schema element in the storage model file of an Entity Data Model (EDM). The storage model file is written in the store schema definition language (SSDL).

To use SqlClient, assign the string "System.Data.SqlClient" to the Provider attribute of the Schema element.

ProviderManifestToken Schema Attribute

ProviderManifestToken is a required attribute of the Schema element in the storage model file (SSDL) of EDM. This token is used to load the provider manifest for offline scenarios. For more information about ProviderManifestToken attribute, see ProviderManifestToken Attribute (SSDL).

SqlClient can be used as a data provider for different versions of SQL Server. These versions have different capabilities. For example, SQL Server 2000 does not support varchar(max) and nvarchar(max) types that were introduced with SQL Server 2005.

SqlClient produces and accepts the following provider manifest tokens for different versions of SQL Server.

Provider Namespace Name

All providers must specify a namespace. This property tells the Entity Framework which prefix is used by the provider for specific constructs, such as types and functions. The namespace for SqlClient provider manifests is SqlServer. For more information about namespaces, see Namespaces (Entity SQL).

Types

The SqlClient provider for the Entity Framework provides mapping information between Entity Data Model (EDM) types and SQL Server types. For more information, see .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server Types (Entity Framework)

Functions

The SqlClient provider for the Entity Framework defines the list of functions supported by the provider where parameter and return types are expressed in EDM terms. For a list of the supported functions, see .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) for the Entity Framework Functions.

See Also

Concepts

Entity SQL Language
.NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) for the Entity Framework
ADO.NET Metadata

Other Resources

Feature Reference (Entity Framework)