Add SQL AnyWhere connection Visual Studio 2012 Express

[Former Member]

Hello,

I have downloaded and installed SQL AnyWhere 12 Developer edition and also did 'SetupVSPackage.exe' installation. I was able to successfully run 'SimpleViewer' and 'SimpleWin32' samples.

I am using Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition. For my test project, how do I add a connection to the demo database? When I go to add connection in database explorer, I don't see SQL AnyWhere listed in the 'Choose Data Source' window. Please help.

Thanks. - Milind Joshi

[MarkCulp]

Did you install 32bit or 64bit version of SQL Anywhere? ... and what bitness of Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition are you using? I am expecting that the two bitnesses are not the same. E.g. perhaps you installed the 64bit version of SA and you are using 32bit version of VS? If this is the case then re-run the SA install and be sure to select/include the 32bit client software.

[Former Member]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply. My SQL AnyWhere is 64-bit and it seems my VS Express Edition is 32-bit (because of the location 'C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0').

As rightly mentioned by you, they are two different kinds of installs. I will uninstall 64-bit SA and install 32-bit and hopefully that should fix the problem. I will post the updates here.

Thanks again. - Milind

[Former Member]

Hi Mark,

I uninstalled the 64-bit SA installation and reinstalled it and selected the 32-bit version of the program. But, still SA does not show up in the list of the Data Sources. Any ideas?

• Milind

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am facing the same issue, i am unable to view the SQL AnyWare 12 in 'Choose Data Source' window. I am using VS 2012 and SQL Anyware 12 and both of them are in 32-bit.

Can you please let me know what could be the other reason?

[Former Member]

This sounds very similar to a symptom that a few developers are having related to my question http://sqlanywhere-forum.sap.com/questions/20631/visual-studio-integration# Did you find a way to resolve this?

[jeff_albion]

The way Visual Studio displays the following screen after hitting [Change...]:

is based on the DbProviderFactories information pulled out of the machine.config file for your respective framework (e.g. C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework64\\v4.0.30319\\Config\\machine.config for .NET 4.0, x64). This looks at the registered <system.data> / <DbProviderFactories> section for available providers:

==============================
<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
        <add name="SQL Anywhere 11 Data Provider" invariant="iAnywhere.Data.SQLAnywhere"
             description=".Net Framework Data Provider for SQL Anywhere 11" 
             type="iAnywhere.Data.SQLAnywhere.SAFactory, iAnywhere.Data.SQLAnywhere.v4.0, 
               Version=11.0.1.30694, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f222fc4333e0d400" />
==============================

If you're not seeing the SQL Anywhere .NET Provider in your Visual Studio dialog with the framework and bitness you're expecting when hitting "Change...", check the machine.config information for your targetted framework.

Run the SQL Anywhere .NET installation utility \\Assembly\\V2\\SetupVSPackage.exe or \\Assembly\\v4\\SetupVSPackage.exe to attempt to automatically add the entries in for 2.0/3.x and 4.x .NET frameworks respectively (or manually add the entries), if your framework is missing the required entries.