Preface

This document is your primary source of introductory, installation, postinstallation configuration, and usage information for Oracle Data Provider for .NET.

Oracle Data Provider for .NET is an implementation of the Microsoft ADO.NET interface.

This document describes the features of Oracle Database for Windows that apply to the Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

This Preface contains these topics:

Audience
Documentation Accessibility
Related Documents
Conventions

Audience

Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide is intended for programmers who are developing applications to access an Oracle database using Oracle Data Provider for .NET. This documentation is also valuable to systems analysts, project managers, and others interested in the development of database applications.

To use this document, you must be familiar with Microsoft .NET Framework classes and ADO.NET and have a working knowledge of application programming using Microsoft C#, Visual Basic .NET, or another .NET language.

Although the examples in the documentation and the samples in the sample directory are written in C#, developers can use these examples as models for writing code in other .NET languages.

Users should also be familiar with the use of Structured Query Language (SQL) to access information in relational database systems.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

TTY Access to Oracle Support Services

Oracle provides dedicated Text Telephone (TTY) access to Oracle Support Services within the United States of America 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For TTY support, call 800.446.2398.

Related Documents

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

Many of the examples in this book use the sample schemas, which are installed by default when you select the Basic Installation option with an Oracle Database installation. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

Printed documentation is available for sale in the Oracle Store at

http://oraclestore.oracle.com/

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). You must register online before using OTN; registration is free and can be done at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/contact/welcome.html

If you already have a username and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html

For additional information, see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework

and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention	Meaning
boldface	Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic	Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.
`monospace`	Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.