There are a few terms that the Mimer Provider Manager uses that are important to understand. Each of these are described in this section. All of these objects are defined in the application configuration file.
A provider is used to gain access to a database server. The provider is the database client software in the .NET environment. The Mimer Provider Manager can dynamically map different underlying providers. The provider is not shipped as part of the Mimer Provider Manager, instead the provider is typically shipped with the database software.
A plugin interfaces between the Mimer Provider Manager classes and a specific provider. The plugins are part of the Mimer Provider Manager.
An SQL filter is a piece of software that modifies the SQL statements passed by the application. The modified SQL is then passed to the underlying provider. A number of features are possible to support through this mechanism, for example:
There is a built-in SQL Filter called ParameterMarkers that allows different parameter marker styles to be used.
The data source is referenced by the application to connect to a database server. Associated with the data source are the following:
The data source is an abstraction used by the application to access a specific provider and database. By referring to a data source the application is isolated from the specifics of the underlying providers. Because of the data source concept, it is possible to switch provider and/or backend database without changing the application. The change is a simple modification to the configuration.
Introducing the Mimer Provider Manager | Architecture of the Mimer Provider Manager | The Mimer Provider Manager configuration file