I’ve been using MySQL 4.1 and ASP for quite a while. I recently started making .Net 2.0 pages that use the same MySQL Db. One problem I continue to have is mysql server flips out and quits. It happens at least once a month, sometimes more often.

I really want to use MySQL 5.0 in the next version of our website which will be completely .Net 2.0 (VB). I think Microsoft continues to make a mistake limiting their free database. Development using SQL Server is much easier and more stable in my experience than MySQL. But I admit I don’t know many people using this mix either. If MySQL was rock solid stable like SQL SErver I would prefer to use it. I find it hard to justify over $6k for a dual server setup with redundancy.

Sorry to ramble on but I stubled upon your website and wanted to put my name in the hat for the .Net/MySQL conference.

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The “MySQL Connector .NET” also incorporates the “Microsoft Application Blocks for .NET” which makes porting easier if your original application uses this layer.

During the port, I discovered that direct SQL statements with parameters use “?” instead of the “@” that we are all familiar with.

Also you need to choose your database engine per a table. This is a neat feature of MySql that treats SQL statements like an standardized “API” into the database engine.

The common ones are MyIsam and InnoDB. I believe MyISAM is the default. One is good for read mostly apps like Blogs (MyIsam) and has full text search VERSES Read/Write Transaction apps like shopping carts, auctions (Innodb) InnoDb has no Full text search support.

By the way InnoDb is the engine that Oracle bought the intellectual property rights to last year. So it has been a concern in the MySql world. I was waiting for the longest time for the Falcon engine which MySQL is developing from their own acquisition (as a knee jerk response to the Oracle purchase) but it looks like its not coming anytime soon as it was promised to delivered by the end of this year.

Either way I believe MySql/InnoDB-Oracle should be a hell of lot cheaper than what Microsoft charges for their database today and in the future. So I plan to use InnoDB when situation calls for it.

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Thanks for the tip on HeidiSQL, Pete, I am trying it out and it looks cool.

I’m pitching a MySQL/.NET talk to a 2007 developer conference, fingers crossed.

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I will do a follow-up post on GUI tools soon, but in a nutshell, I’ve been pretty happy with MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser. There are some tricks (like, it took me four months to realize that you could edit records in Query Browser and I’m not wild about the way that Query Browser provides complex query authoring — I miss Microsoft Access-style graphical joins and QBE).

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Thanks for the positive post about the provider. The datetime issue is related to System.DateTime not supporting values < 1/1/1 while MySQL can support 0/0/0 has a date.

As for returning null values, please check SqlClient and OracleClient. They both require you to call IsDBNull to check for a fields nullness. The only method that could return null would be GetString(). It just made sense to me to mirror what is done in the SQL Server and Oracle providers. I hope you give Connector/Net 5.0 a second chance.

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Cheers!

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I still have a ghost memory leak that forces me to restart the applcation pool & MySQL service about 1-2 times a month. I cannot figure it out. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but every so often the main web app cannot connect to the MySQL server at all. But the crazy part is that other web apps (running in seperate App Pools on a IIS 6 box) can still connect!

For dates I always cast them ToString(“yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss”) or something similar (see the ToString stuff for DateTime to get the right syntax). Never had any of the date problems people mentioned using that method.

For people on a budget with existing Windows servers, MySQL fits the bill just fine.

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