ODAC consists of 3 components:
Oracle Data Provider for .NET (AKA ODP.NET)
This is Oracle's ADO.NET implementation (Oracle.DataAccess.dll) that supports the latest database features. Some of the new features are:
- Instant Client Support - XCopy installation with small client footprint
- User-Defined Types - Map Oracle objects and collections to .NET custom types and support REFs to object types
- Connection Pool Performance Counters - Option to monitor the connection pool using the Windows Performance Monitor.
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET (AKA ODT.NET)
ODT.NET is now fully integrated with the server explorer, that means it is now consists of a query builder and supports paging, but there is more than that:
- Oracle Database script project - ODT.NET now supports source controlling for the Oracle schema objects. That means that now we can keep versioning on Packages, Stored Procedures, Tables etc.
- Explain plan support - now you don't have to use a command line to view the execution plan. You can see it built in to the Visual Studio.
Oracle Providers for ASP.NET
Ever looked for OracleMembershipProvider, OracleRoleProvider, OracleProfileProvider?
ASP.NET contains new components that can help us implement common use cases, like Login to a system, Roles management, Sitemap, Personalization etc. All of these components now can be now persisted to Oracle using Oracle Providers for ASP.NET.
The full list of features can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/windows/odpnet/newbetafeatures.html
you can download it at the Oracle Technology Network site, for free of course...
