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Since System.Data.OracleClient is deprecated in .NET 4.0 and will be discontinued in a future version of the framework, I would like to try to use OleDb as an alternative.

What are the differences between System.Data.OleDb and System.Data.OracleClient when accessing an Oracle database? Is System.Data.OracleClient offering more features?

Will access to Oracle via OleDb continue working with future .NET framework versions?

Note: I tried ODP.NET, but I got the "The provider is not compatible with the version of Oracle client" problem and did not manage to solve it, that's why I was wondering if OleDb could be an alternative.

Community
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Paolo Tedesco
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2 Answers2

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It's only marked as deprecated, which means that it will no longer updated or developed by Microsoft an might be removed in future versions of .NET framework. But it's stil in the .NET 4.5 preview release:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/netfxbcl/thread/71e232a7-e845-442e-9e36-f203e14fa196/

So in my opinion, there is no need to change to an (expensive) 3rd party component at the moment. Of course you can try, but I would wait until the release of .NET 4.5 or a later version and see what will be available then.

Carsten Schütte
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  • This looks like sensible advice :) But what are the differences between the libraries? How should I choose one rather than the other? – Paolo Tedesco May 29 '12 at 20:28
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You really need to resolve your DLL versioning issues that prevent you from using ODP.Net. We use ODP.Net in several enterprise web applications. It is required for proper support of Entity Framework among other things. I recommend a full de-install and re-install of the Oracle Client.

LSU.Net
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    it's a shame that Oracle does not provide a proper installer for Windows for its products. Struggling each time with installation issues, uninstalling, reinstalling and setting environment variables is a huge pain... – Paolo Tedesco May 29 '12 at 20:24