Connector/NET now supports SHA-256 hashing for user account passwords. After you create an account following the steps outlined in SHA-256 Pluggable Authentication, just open a Connector/NET connection passing user and password. This feature works in both SSL and non-SSL secured connections. (Bug #15935128)

Connector/NET now supports the MySQL 5.6 feature to store connection-specific data in the server. A Connector/NET application can supply to the server a list of key/value pairs at login time. When you specify the connection option Connect_Attrs, a predefined set of attribute values is sent to the server. Connector/NET automatically transmits the following attributes:

To examine these connection-specific attributes on the server, query the Performance Schema tables described in Performance Schema Connection Attribute Tables. (Bug #15935112, WL #5924)

Connector/NET now supports the MySQL 5.6 password expiration protocol. See ALTER USER for the syntax to expire the password for a user. When you open a connection through Connector/NET that logs in as a user with an expired password, any statement issued through the connection produces a SET PASSWORD exception. When you create a connection in Visual Studio Server Explorer to a user with an expired password, a dialog prompts for a new password, after which the connection succeeds. (Bug #15935104, WL #6587)

When defining an entity with a DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity value with Entity Framework Code First, you can now leave this column out of the column list for an INSERT or UPDATE statement. This feature is especially useful for defining a column with a default value corresponding to the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() return value:

[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }

(Bug #15935094)

If a DateTime type in MySQL 5.6 was defined with milliseconds precision using Entity Framework Code First or EF Model First, the expected DateTime(n) column did not include the precision specification. (Bug #15972773)

Calling the method FirstOrDefault “LINQ to Entities” queries caused a System.Data.EntityCommandCompilationException exception. (Bug #15856964, Bug #67377)

Connection attempts using IPV6 addresses in Connector/NET would fail. (Bug #14835718, Bug #67253)

Visual Studio 2012 projects could sometimes give the following error dialog:

Failed to merge object(s).

Keyword not supported.
Parameter name: AttachDbFilename.

This issue affected mostly VisualStudio 2012 projects, either migrated from VisualStudio 2010 or including web sites created with VS2010, connecting to a MySQL 5.5 server. (Bug #14733472, Bug #66880)

In Visual Studio 2005, adding a new data connection through the Server Explorer produced an error message: Package Load Failure. The Visual Studio plugin was dynamically linked against VS2008 version of assembly Microsoft.VisualStudio.Data (v9.0). The fixed plugin links with the VS2005 version (v8.0) of that library instead, which is upward compatible with later Visual Studio versions. (Bug #13491674, Bug #63073)