Database Providers provide connections between the Database Repository and specific databases. GenWise uses a separate Database Provider for each supported database platform.
An important task of the Database Provider is to map all database-specific types to a few abstract GenWise Types. It does so
GenWise Database Providers are used during development for the following Datastore-related tasks:
Database Provider Registration
GenWise Database Providers are separate software components that are registered into GenWise Studio, and can be upgraded individually. Use the Database Providers window to manage Database Providers in GenWise Studio. The Installing optional Database Providers topic describes how to register additional Database Providers.
Every registered Database Provider adds a database connection screen matched to the specifics of the target database system. The database connection screen is displayed on the Provider Tab of a Datastore.
Application runtime and software distribution
GenWise Database Providers are not used at runtime by generated applications, these use plain ADO.NET connections instead.
If you distribute applications developed with GenWise to other computers, you do not need to distribute GenWise Database Providers to these computers. Some database platforms will require certain components to be installed to make connections however. Information about this can be found in the Supported Databases section.