Npgsql 2.2.0 final release is out!

This is Npgsql 2.2.0 Final Release

This release contains 249 commits since the last stable release. Includes bug fixes, improvements and new features.

Update notice: If you have been using Npgsql 2.2.0-rc2, you don't need to update to this version. They are the same except for the Assembly version information.

Major highlights

Visual Studio DDEX support

 

Kenji Uno added support for DDEX. Now you can use Npgsql with Visual Studio data designer. This is a missing feature a lot of our users requested in the past. Kenji added a tutorial about how to use Npgsql with DDEX. You can find it here: https://github.com/npgsql/Npgsql/wiki/Visual-Studio-Design-Time-Support---DDEX-Provider#install-npgsqlddexprovidervsix

 

Entity Framework

 

David Karlaš added support for EFMigration and Database creation in EF6+.
Now it is possible to start Code First projects without needing to create a database upfront. EntityFramework and Npgsql will take care of it.

Emil Lenngren added support for a lot of missing features of EntityFramework.

A list containing fixes from David and Emil as well as others for EntityFramework can be seen here: https://github.com/npgsql/Npgsql/issues?direction=desc&labels=entity+framework&milestone=2&page=1&sort=created&state=closed

 

SSLStream support

 

In this release, SSLStream is on by default.
If you want to use Mono.Security, you will need to use the following line in your code:

NpgsqlConnection.UseSslStream = false; 

Note that in future releases, this option may not be available anymore as we are removing the dependency on Mono.Security assembly. Let us know in the forums if you have any problem with ssl when using SSLStream. This will help us check if we will be able to remove Mono.Security assembly.

 

Added support for JSON, JSONB and HSTORE datatypes

Shay added support for those datatypes.

 

Added GSSAPI support on Windows

Brian Crowell added support for GSSAPI on windows. Now it is easier to use Active Directory when authenticating users.

 

Removed support for protocol v2

Postgresql versions which use only protocol 2 are very old and don't receive support from postgresql group anymore. By removing support for protocol version 2, we removed a lot of code and can focus on functionalities provided by protocol 3.

 

Removed support for Postgresql 8.4 and below

In this thread, we talked about making Npgsql support the officially supported postgresql versions. we talked about making Npgsql support the officially supported postgresql versions. Postgresql has a table of officially supported versions and we decided to follow this table to guide us which postgresql version we will have support to.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Npgsql won't work on unsupported versions. It may work if we don't add any SQL or unsupported feature. For example, today Npgsql 2.2 works only on Postgresql 8.2 and above because we added server side support for command timeout handling and some other queries which aren't supported on earlier versions.
If you are using earlier postgresql versions, please, use an older version of Npgsql. We are creating a compatibility table to show which Postgresql version Npgsql works with.

 

Fixed bugs:

[#91] Support for EFMigration and Database creation
[#152] NpgsqlInterval different constructors different ToString
[#158] NpgsqlCommand.Dispose() should execute "DEALLOCATE " for a prepared command
[#177] XML data type doesn't seem to be quoting parameters properly on insert
[#179] NpgsqlCommandBuilder automatic sql commands configuration
[#188] Buffer too small problem in NpgsqlCopySerializer
[#201] Dynamic type parameters: Cannot cast System.Int32 into any valid DbType after upgrading from 2.0.14.3 to 2.1.2.0
[#208] ObjectDisposeException
[#217] Impossible to insert a Double.NaN value
[#219] [#1011005] using 2 NpgsqlCopyIn at the same time
[#223] HasRows property's bug
[#231] NpgsqlParameterCollection.Clear() doesn't reset NpgsqlParameter.Collection
[#225] Handle IEnumerable parameter
[#233] Cannot insert to tables which have only one column
[#246] Take followed by Skip is generated incorrectly in Entity Framework
[#262] FirstOrDefault() on navigation property subquery throws “Not Implemented” Exception
[#264] Mono.Security is outdated
[#269] Fix 's' value mapped to the 'a' byte
[#280] Bad SQL produced when selecting a field that was also used in the orderBy of a let subquery
[#287] Fix operator handling and date functions for EF
[#296] parameter parsing fails (regression) and duplicate [#240] NpgSqlCommand does not substitute parameters when there is a string with escaped apostrophe
[#315] Fix query parameter processing to more correctly match PostgreSQL's lexer
A list of the issues and pull requests merged for this release can be found at github here: https://github.com/npgsql/Npgsql/issues?direction=desc&milestone=2&page=1&sort=created&state=closed

 

Known Issues

There are some issues we are working for the next maintenance release 2.2.1. You can check which issues we are working on here: https://github.com/npgsql/Npgsql/issues?q=milestone%3A2.2.1

 

Thanks

I'd like to give a special thanks to Kenji Uno for his excellent work with Npgsql DDEX support. DDEX support was one of the biggest missing features of Npgsql.
I'd like to thank Emil Lenngren for all his work with Entity Framework improvements and insightful comments, David Karlaš for his help with Entity Framework support. Shay Rojansky, Glen Parker and Josh Cooley for all contributions and comments, and a big thanks to all the other contributors who helped us to make this release.

 

Downloads

Downloads are available on Nuget, github and pgfoundry.

Please, give it a try and let us know what you think. Drop by our user forums to discuss or send your bug reports to our issues section on github.

 

 List of contributors for this release

Kenji Uno
Shay Rojansky
Glen Parker
Emil Lenngren
David Karlaš
Brian Crowell
danzel
Tuan Nguyen
windcloud
asgeirh
Frans Bouma
Jaspalsinh Chauhan
Josh Cooley
Martin Willey
Francisco Figueiredo Jr.
shankbond
Javier Torres
Kevin Pullin
Michael de Lang
Oskar Gewalli
Sunny Ahuwanya
Thomas Radioyes
javitonino
mw
samy

Npgsql 2.2.0 Release Candidate 1 released!

This release contains 22 commits since the last release. It contains the following bug fixes:

[#217] Impossible to insert a Double.NaN value
[#179] NpgsqlCommandBuilder automatic sql commands configuration
[#158] NpgsqlCommand.Dispose() should execute "DEALLOCATE " for a prepared command
[#264] Mono.Security is outdated
[#296] parameter parsing fails (regression) and duplicate [#240] NpgSqlCommand does not substitute parameters when there is a string with escaped apostrophe

A complete list of commits for this release can be found here: v2.2.0-beta1...release-2.2.0

Npgsql 2.2.0 beta1 released!

The Npgsql Development team is proud to announce that Npgsql 2.2.0 beta1 is now available!

This release has the following highlights:

Visual Studio DDEX support

Kenji Uno added support for DDEX. Now you can use Npgsql with Visual Studio data designer. This is a missing feature a lot of our users requested in the past. Kenji added a tutorial about how to use Npgsql with DDEX. You can find it here.

Support for EFMigration and Database creation in EF6+

David Karlaš added support for that. Now it is possible to start Code First projects without needing to create a database upfront. EntityFramework and Npgsql will take care of it.

Emil Lenngren added support for a lot of missing features of EntityFramework.

Check out this list containing fixes from David and Emil as well as others for EntityFramework.

SSLStream support

In this release, SSLStream is on by default.

If you want to use Mono.Security, you will need to use the following line in your code:

NpgsqlConnection.UseSslStream = false;

Note that in future releases, this option may not be available anymore as we are removing the dependency on Mono.Security assembly. Let us know in the forums if you have any problem with ssl when using SSLStream. This will help us check if we will be able to remove Mono.Security assembly.

Added support for JSON, JSONB and HSTORE datatypes

Shay added support for those datatypes.

Added GSSAPI support on Windows

Brian Crowell added support for GSSAPI on windows. Now it is easier to use Active Directory when authenticating users.

Removed support for protocol v2

Postgresql versions which use only protocol 2 are very old and don't receive support from postgresql group anymore. By removing support for protocol version 2, we removed a lot of code and can focus on functionalities provided by protocol 3.

Removed support for Postgresql 8.3 and below

In this thread, we talked about making Npgsql support the officially supported postgresql versions. Postgresql has a table of officially supported versions and we decided to follow this table to guide us which postgresql version we will have support to.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Npgsql won't work on unsupported versions. It may work if we don't add any SQL or unsupported feature. For example, today Npgsql 2.2 works only on Postgresql 8.2 and above because we added server side support for command timeout handling and some other queries which aren't supported on earlier versions.

If you are using earlier postgresql versions, please, use an older version of Npgsql. We are creating a compatibility table to show which Postgresql version Npgsql works with.



Complete release notes for this release can be found on our github release page.

Downloads

Downloads are available on Nuget, github and pgfoundry.

Please, give it a try and let us know what you think. Drop by our user forums to discuss or send your bug reports to our issues section on github.

Initial Visual Studio Design time support added to master branch!

Achievement unlocked!

With the merge of Pull Request #213 (PR #213), Kenji Uno added support for Visual Studio Design Time also known as DDEX. 

A most wanted feature

From the statistics of pageviews I get from a previous post about design time support, I can affirm that this is a most wanted feature of Npgsql. And I'm very glad to say that Npgsql is finally having it. I'd like to thank Kenji Uno for all his hard work to make this happen. 

Npgsql DDEX support is done through an extension file which can be easily installed in Visual Studio. This is a much better situation than we had before where it was needed to use an experimental instance of Visual Studio. 

History

The code started with wwindcloud in PR #67 and Kenji started to play with it and said he was working to get it usable in VS2012 and 2013. 

Some time later, Kenji said he had some success to get Npgsql DDEX initially working and started to fix the bugs he was finding. 

In order to be able to add more fixes to the code, Kenji started the PR 213 and started to add more features and fixes until now when we merged all the changes back to master branch.

How to use it

Kenji Uno wrote a tutorial about how to build and use this feature. Below are some screenshots from the tutorial.

Please, give it a try and let us know if it works for you. Remember that this is a work in progress, so you may face bugs and problems. 

I'd like to thank Kenji Uno for all his hard work to get this feature working. And also thank wwindcloud for the initial work.

Sample screenshots

Here is an screenshot when you double click the .vsix file to install the extension:

When you install it, you will be able to select it when creating a new data source connection:

Npgsql 2.1.3 released!

This version restores the @@ operator support removed in the previous version. Thanks Glen Parker who provided a fix.

Downloads can be found at the usual locations:

github download page
and
the nuget repository.

Pgfoundry will be updated soon.