This tutorial will walk you through the process of adding MySQL support to Microsoft Visual Studio. With the integration of MySQL and Visual Studio, you may create Microsoft.NET apps that access MySQL databases on Hostginger Hosting servers.
Adding MySQL support to Visual Studio
Visual Studio does not include support for MySQL by default. To add MySQL support to Visual Studio, you must install the following components:
- MySQL for Visual Studio: This component adds MySQL support to Visual Studio's visual database tools, such as Server Explorer. To download MySQL for Visual Studio, please visit here.
- Connector/Net: This component adds .NET drivers for MySQL to Visual Studio. If you want to write .NET code that accesses MySQL databases, you must install this component. To download Connector/Net, please visit here.
You should download and install both of these components to obtain the best possible MySQL integration with Visual Studio.
Using Server Explorer
After installing the MySQL for Visual Studio component, you can access and view MySQL databases on Hostginger Hosting servers using Visual Studio's visual database tools.
The following procedure demonstrates how to use the Server Explorer to view MySQL databases on your Hostginger Hosting account.
- Start Visual Studio.
- On the menu, click .
- Click the Connect to Database icon. The Choose Data Source dialog box appears.
- In the Data source list box, select MySQL Database, and then click .
- In the Server name text box, type the name of the Hostginger Hosting server for your account.
- In the User name text box, type the name of the database user.
- In the Password text box, type the password for the database user you specified in step 6.
- In the Database name text box, type the name of the database you want to access.
- Click Test connection succeeded message. If you do not, check the values you provided in steps 5 to 8, and then try again. . You should receive a
- Click . Server Explorer adds the server and database to the list of available connections.
- Double-click the server and database name to view the following items:
- Tables
- Views
- Stored Procedures
- Stored Functions
- UDFs (User-defined functions)
You can navigate through the database by double-clicking any of these items. For example, to see the tables defined in the database, double-click Tables. To access the actual data stored in a table, right-click the table name and then select Retrieve Data.
Connecting to MySQL using .NET
After you install the Connector/Net component, you can write .NET code that accesses MySQL databases. To do this, you must add a reference to the MySQL .NET library in your project, and specify the correct parameters in a database connection string.
The following procedure demonstrates how to create a simple C# or Visual Basic console application that connects to a remote MySQL database and runs an SQL query.
- Start Visual Studio.
- On the New Project dialog box appears. menu, click , and then click . The
- Under Templates, select your preferred coding language:
- To use C#, select Visual C#.
- To use VB.NET, select Visual Basic.
- In the list of templates, click Console Application.
- In the Name text box, type MySQL_test.
- Click . Visual Studio creates the project.
- In the code window, delete all of the existing code.
-
Copy the following code for the language you selected in step 3, and then paste it into the code window. Modify the connstring definition to use the login information for your own database. Additionally, replace the three instances of table_name with the name of the table you want to query.
Visual C#:using System; using System.Data; using MySql.Data.MySqlClient; namespace MySQL_test { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { string connstring = @"server=example.com;userid=example_user;password=example_password;database=example_database"; MySqlConnection conn = null; try { conn = new MySqlConnection(connstring); conn.Open(); string query = "SELECT * FROM table_name;"; MySqlDataAdapter da = new MySqlDataAdapter(query, conn); DataSet ds = new DataSet(); da.Fill(ds, "table_name"); DataTable dt = ds.Tables["table_name"]; foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows) { foreach (DataColumn col in dt.Columns) { Console.Write(row[col] + "\t"); } Console.Write("\n"); } } catch (Exception e) { Console.WriteLine("Error: {0}", e.ToString()); } finally { if (conn != null) { conn.Close(); } } } } }
Visual Basic:
Imports System Imports System.Data Imports MySql.Data.MySqlClient Module Module1 Sub Main() Dim connstring As String = "server=example.com;userid=example_user;password=example_password;database=example_database" Dim conn As MySqlConnection = Nothing Try conn = New MySqlConnection(connstring) conn.Open() Dim query As String = "SELECT * FROM table_name;" Dim da As New MySqlDataAdapter(query, conn) Dim ds As New DataSet() da.Fill(ds, "table_name") Dim dt As DataTable = ds.Tables("table_name") For Each row As DataRow In dt.Rows For Each col As DataColumn In dt.Columns Console.Write(row(col).ToString() + vbTab) Next Console.Write(vbNewLine) Next Catch e As Exception Console.WriteLine("Error: {0}", e.ToString()) Finally If conn IsNot Nothing Then conn.Close() End If End Try End Sub End Module
- On the Reference Manager dialog box appears. menu, click . The
- Under Assemblies, click Extensions.
- Scroll down the list of assemblies, and then double-click MySql.Data. A check box appears next to the assembly name.
- Click .
- On the menu, click . Visual Studio compiles the application.
- On the menu, click . The application runs and prints all of the data from the selected table.