Cannot resolve SQL Server CE provider factory by invariant name

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/824938

Question

This line of code

DbProviderFactory factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory("Microsoft.SqlServerCe.Client");

throws this exception

System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Failed to find or load the registered .Net Framework Data Provider.

Although my machine.config file contains the following section

<system.data>
  <DbProviderFactories>
    <add name="OracleClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.OracleClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for Oracle" type="System.Data.OracleClient.OracleClientFactory, System.Data.OracleClient, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
    <add name="SqlClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.SqlClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for SqlServer" type="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlClientFactory, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
    <add name="SQL Server CE Data Provider" invariant="Microsoft.SqlServerCe.Client" description=".NET Framework Data Provider for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition" type="Microsoft.SqlServerCe.Client.SqlCeClientFactory, Microsoft.SqlServerCe.Client, Version=9.0.242.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91" />
  </DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

Am I missing something? Should I look somewhere else? Code like DbProviderFactory factory = SqlCeProviderFactory.Instance works fine.

Was it helpful?

Solution

There are multiple SQL Server CE installs. The Visual Studio tools provides the server explorer and design components and places the SQL Server CE DLLs in a location local to Visual Studio. I needed to install the runtime to get the data provider registered in the machine.config file.

OTHER TIPS

In Visual Studio 2012, the default ProviderName is System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0.

This lets me find a factory by name:

String providerName = "System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0";

DbProviderFactory factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(providerName);
if (factory == null)
   throw new Exception("Unable to locate factory for " + providerName);

DbConnection conn = factory.CreateConnection();
conn.ConnectionString = connectionString;
conn.Open();

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