When MySQL Connector/Net is installed on Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio integration components are also installed and initialized. This enables the developer to work seamlessly with MySQL Connector/Net in the familiar Visual Studio environment, as described in the following sections of the manual.
MySQL Connector/Net supports Visual Studio versions 2005, 2008, and 2010. However, only MySQL Connector/Net version 6.3 and higher fully integrate with Visual Studio 2010, although applications using earlier versions of the connector can be built with the Visual Studio 2010 environment using .NET 2.x frameworks.
Visual Studio 2010 support was introduced with MySQL Connector/Net 6.3.2. From
version 6.3.2 the connector ships with both .NET 2.x and .NET 4.x
versions of the entity framework support files,
mysql.data.ef.dll and
mysql.visualstudio.dll. The .NET 4.x versions
are required to enable new integration features supported in Visual
Studio 2010, including:
New DDL T4 template for the Entity Framework (EF) - This enables
developers to design an EF model from scratch and use the native
Visual Studio 2010 facility to generate MySQL DDL from that
model. This is done by creating the model, and with the model
open, choosing the SSDLToMySQL template in the properties
window. The correct DDL is then generated. The developer can
then save this code as a .mysql file in
their project and execute it against the MySQL server.
New SQL Editor - A new SQL editor lets you connect to a MySQL
server to execute SQL. This is activated by creating a new file
with a .mysql extension. A new template
lets you create files with this file type using the Visual
Studio 2010 main menu item ,
. Note that the MySQL SQL Editor is also
available in Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.
As of Connector/Net 5.1.2, the Visual Studio Plugin is part of the main Connector/Net package. However, even for versions of Connector/Net older than 5.1.2, the Visual Studio Plugin release notes can be found at MySQL Connector/Net Release Notes.