* ADO.NET

	<p>Mono's ADO.NET Developers:
	<ul>
	<li>rodrigo -AT- ximian.comNOSPAM - <b>Rodrigo Moya</b> - coordinator 
	for the ADO.NET implementation and works on the OLE DB provider</li>
	<li>danmorg -AT- sc.rr.comNOSPAM - <b>Daniel Morgan</b> - works on
	the MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle providers</li>
	<li>tim -AT- timcoleman.comNOSPAM - <b>Tim Coleman</b> - works on
	the Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, and TDS providers</li>
	<li>brianlritchie -AT- hotmail.comNOSPAM - <b>Brian Ritchie</b> - works on
	the ODBC provider and the ProviderFactory</li>
	<li>vladimir -AT- pobox.comNOSPAM - <b>Vladimir Vukicevic</b> - works on
	the SQL Lite provider</li>
	<li>cleared -AT- rogers.comNOSPAM - <b>Christopher Bockner</b> - works on
	the IBM DB2 provider</li>
	<li>vi64pa -AT- koti.soon.fiNOSPAM - <b>Ville Palo</b> - works on XML stuff in System.Data
	including DataSet, XmlDataDocument, and has done lots of testing</li>
	</ul>
	
* Action plan

	<p>The current plan to implement ADO.NET is as follows:

	<ul>
		<li>Either create ADO.NET providers or modify pre-exiting ADO.NET providers to
		work with Mono</li>
		
		<ul>
			<li>Create ADO.NET Providers
			
			<ul>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/ibmdb2.html">IBM DB2 Universal Database</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mysql.html">MySQL</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/odbc.html">ODBC</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/oracle.html">Oracle</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/oledb.html">OLE DB</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/postgresql.html">PostgreSQL</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/sqlclient.html">Microsoft SQL Server</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/sqlite.html">SQL Lite</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/sybase.html">Sybase</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/tdsclient.html">TDS Generic</a></li>
					<li>Providers which we do not have, but we would like to have.  Currently,
					some of these databases are supported via the ODBC or OLEDB providers.</li>
					<ul>
						<li><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sqlxml_intromanagedclasses.asp?frame=true">Managed Classes for SqlXml</a> which is
						a .NET data provider for retrieving XML data from a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database.  The System.Data.SqlClient provider
						in Mono can be used as a starting point at mcs/class/System.Data/System.Data.SqlClient.</li>
						<li><a href="http://www.hughes.com.au/">miniSQL</a></li>
						<li><a href="http://www.sleepycat.com/">BerkeleyDB (Sleepycat)</a></li>
						<li><a href="http://www.sapdb.org/">SapDB</a></li>
						<li>Microsoft Access - could be done by creating C# bindings to <a href="http://mdbtools.sourceforge.net">MDB Tools</a></li>
						<li>dbase or xbase type database files</li>
						<li>Others are welcome</li>
					</ul>
				</ul></li>
				<br>
			<li>Modify Pre-existing ADO.NET Providers to work with Mono.  This may
			require fixing or implementing areas of Mono too.
				<ul>
					<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/firebird.html">Firebird Interbase</a></li>
					<li><a href="http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/npgsql/projdisplay.php">Npgsql</a> is a 
					   PostgreSQL Managed data provider written 
					   in 100% C#, does not require a client library, and works on Mono</li>
					<li><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysqlnet/">MySQLNet</a> is a 
					   MySQL Manager data provider written in 100% C#, does not
					   require a client library, and works on Mono</li>
				</ul>
			</li>
		</ul>
	<br>
	<li>Create Tools for Configuration, Testing, and Entering SQL Queries  
	<ul>
		<li><b>SQL# CLI - a command-line tool</b> written in C# to 
		  execute SQL commands,
		  test connection strings, and connect to various ADO.NET
		  providers in Mono.  The SQL# CLI can be found in
		  mcs/tools/SqlSharp/SqlSharpCli.cs</li>
		  
		<li><p><b>SQL# GUI - a GUI tool</b> written in C# to 
		  execute SQL commands. 
		  Currently, there is SQL# For GTK# which
		  can be found at 
		  mcs/tools/SqlSharp/gui/gtk-sharp  
		  It has a SQL editor with 
		  syntax hi lighting of SQL keywords.  This will be
		  moving to its own cvs modeul sqlsharpgtk.</li>
		  
		<li><b>Configuration Command-Line and GUI Tools for ADO.NET</b>.  
		  These tools have not been started.  The tools would be written in
		  C# and run on Mono. The
		  configuration tool can be used to do the following:
		  <ul> 
			<li>setup DSNs for the ODBC and OLE-DB
				providers and configurations for 
				their underlying libraries (unixODBC and libgda)</li>
		    <li>setup configurations for the Mono.Data.ProviderFactory
				that Brian Ritchie created</li>
		    <li>setup native database client library configurations too, such as,
				freetds.conf for Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase</li>
		  </ul>
		</li>
	</ul>
</ul>
	
* Current Status

	<p>Variouls ADO.NET Providers have been created: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Sybase, SQL Lite,
	Microsoft SQL Server, OLE DB, ODBC, and TDS Generic.  See their respective web page for
	more information.
	
	<p>Constraints need lots of work
	
	<p>TypeDataSetGenerator needs to be stubbed and implemented.
		
	<p><b>DataSet, DataAdaptor, DataTable, DataRelation, DataRow, DataColumn,
	DataColumnCollection, DataRowCollection, and others</b> need more work.  There are
	many classes that are just stubs and need to be implemented.  

	<p><b>XML support in System.Data</b> needs work.  This involves working on
	the classes: DataSet, XmlDataDocument, and the method ExecuteXmlReader() that
	exists in a provider's class that implements IDbCommand, and others.
	Stuart Caborn has started the XML support in a DataSet.  Tim Coleman started
	XML support in the ExecuteXmlReader() in a SqlCommand.  Ville Palo has been
	heavily modifying DataSet, XmlDataDocument, and other classes for reading
	and writing XML.
	
	<p><b>ADO.NET Provider Factory</b> has been started by Brian Ritchie.  The 
	Provider Factory is way to dynamically create
	connections, commands, parameters, and data adapters based on configuration information.  The
	provider factory also provides utility functions needed by a lot of 
	providers but are not exposed via the provider.  The ProviderFactory
	is found at mcs/class/Mono.Data and includes a test named test.cs for it in
	mcs/class/Mono.Data/Test.  Also, take a look at the sample .config file for the
	test.exe application named test.exe.config.  The .config file is automatically
	read when you use the Mono.Data.ProviderFactory or Mono.Data.DataTools.
		
	<p><b>Integration with ASP.NET</b> has not been started, such as, data binding
	to a System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGrid.  This may involve implementing many classes
	in System.Web and System.Data. If you want to help, 
	contact Gonzalo Paniagua Javier. Here is information about using ADO.NET in ASP.NET:
	<ul>
		<li>Take a look at xsp in cvs and look at the examples in test: dbpage1.aspx
		and dbpage2.aspx:
			<ul>
				<li>Notice that the namespace System.Data is imported via <b>import</b></li>
				<li>A NameValueCollection is gotten using ConfigurationSettings.AppSetings. These
				settings are gotten from the file server.exe.config which is a XML file.   The XML
				file has a section appSettings.  In the appSettings section, you have keys 
				for DBProviderAssembly, DBConnectionType, and DBConnectionString.
				<ul>
					<li><b>DBProviderAssembly</b> is the assembly of the ADO.NET provider.  
					      For example: 
					      "Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient"</li>
					<li><b>DBConnectionType</b> is the System.Type of the class that 
					      implements System.Data.IDbConnection that is found
				          in the DBProviderAssembly.  
				          For example: 
				          "Mono.Data.PostgreSqlClient.PgConnection"</li> 
				    <li><b>DBConnectionString</b> is the ConnectionString to set to the
				          IDbConnection object to use in opening a connection to a data source.
				          For Example: 
				          "hostaddr=127.0.0.1;user=monotest;password=monotest;dbname=monotest"</li>
				</ul>
				<li>The function GetConnectionData() gets the database provider assembly, connection type,
				and connection string parameters if they exist; otherwise, it uses default values.  This is
				done during the loading of the web page.</li>
				<li>With the connection parameters, the assembly is loaded, the connection type is verified that
				it implements IDbConnection and an instance of the class can be created, creates a instance
				of the class, sets the connection string, and opens the connection.</li>
			</ul>
		</li>
	</ul>
	
	<p><b>Integration with Windows.Forms</b> has not been started, such as, data binding 
	to a System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid.  This may involve implementing many classes
	in System.Windows.Forms and System.Data.
	
	<p><b>Integration with <a href="http://gtk-sharp.sourceforge.net/">GTK#</a></b> 
	has not been started, such as, data binding
	to a GtkTreeView.  This may involve creating new classes
	to go between the glist data model and the ADO.NET data model.
	Mike Kestner would be the best person to ask for help on GTK#.
	
	<p><b>Integration with QT#</b> has not been started.  Any information on 
	how this can be done is appreciated.  Adam Treat would be the best 
	person to ask about QT#.
	
	<p><b>Building System.Data</b>
	
	<p>The System.Data.dll gets built with the rest of the class library.
	To compile the System.Data.dll assembly separately, you need:

	<b>On Unix</b>

	<ul>
		* update your mono sources. Be sure you have latest mcs.exe
		  and .dll's, since there have been many fixes needed for
		  compilation on Linux.

		* compile System.Data.dll:
<pre>
 cd mcs/class/System.Data<br>
 mcs --target library -o \
    System.Data.dll @list
</pre>
	</ul>

	<b>On Windows</b>

	<ul>
		* update your mono sources. Be sure you have latest mcs.exe
		  and .dll's.  You can use the same method as Linux, 
		  or you can use NAnt.

		* To use NAnt:

<pre>
 cd mcs/class/System.Data
 ../../nant/NAnt.exe
</pre>
			
		* This will automatically copy the System.Data.dll to Test.
		  If you need to do a clean for the System.Data.dll assembly,<br><br>

<pre>
 cd mcs/class/System.Data
 ../../nant/NAnt.exe clean 
</pre>
	</ul>

* Testing

<ul>
	<li>Testing connection-oriented classes are done via the provider specific tests

	<li><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/testing.html">Testing non-connection classes</a> are 
	done via mono's modified version of NUnit.</li>

</ul>