Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider in Visual Studio 2010 Professional

Question

Why am I getting "Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider" when trying to setup a new datasource in Visual Studio 2010 Professional?

My stats:

• Windows 7 64bit 16gig RAM
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional
• SQL Server 2008 (server A, full admin rights)
• SQL Server 2008 (server B, full admin rights)

I have started a test ASP.NET application and when I try to add a new data source, I get:

Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed.

I have .NET 4 installed.

When I build the connection and click "Test Connection" it tests successful. SQL Server Management Studio connects just fine and I have verified the credentials on everything.

Answer 1

I have seen reports of people having and additional, self terminating node in the machine.config file. Removing it resolved their issue. machine.config is found in \Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\vXXXX\Config. You could have a multitude of config files based on how many versions of the framework are installed, including 32 and 64 bit variants.

<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
        <add name="Odbc Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.Odbc" ... />
        <add name="OleDb Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.OleDb" ... />
        <add name="OracleClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data ... />
        <add name="SqlClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data ... />
        <add name="IBM DB2 for i .NET Provider" invariant="IBM.Data ... />
        <add name="Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider" ... />     
    </DbProviderFactories>

    <DbProviderFactories/>  //remove this one!
</system.data>

Answer 2

I like the other suggestions but I would rather not update the machine.config for a single application. I suggest that you just add it to the web.config / app.config. Here is what I needed to use the MySql Connector/NET that I "bin" deployed.

<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories >
        <add name="MySQL Data Provider" invariant="MySql.Data.MySqlClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for MySQL" type="MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory, MySql.Data, Version=6.6.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c5687fc88969c44d" />
    </DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

Answer 3

In my case the Data provider entry for MySQL was "simply" missing in the machine.config file described above (though I had installed the MySQL connector properly)

<add name="MySQL Data Provider" invariant="MySql.Data.MySqlClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for MySQL" type="MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory, MySql.Data, Version=6.5.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c5687fc88969c44d" />

Don't forget to put the right Version of your MySQL on the Entry

Answer 4

I had this problem with version 6.7.4 and resolved it by installing version 6.5.6.

My setup is Win 2008 R2 SP1 Data Center edition, SQL Server 2008 R2 with Business Intelligence Development Studio (VS2008). Very basic install.

When I was installing 6.7.4, i could not even see the MySQL provider as a choice. However, when i looked into the machine.config file, I saw references for MySQL role provider etc, but no entry was added in the .

Answer 5

I thought my issue was due to my machine.config per answers I found online but the culprit turned out to be in the project's web.config that was clearing out the DbProviderFactories.

<system.data>
  <DbProviderFactories>
    <clear />
       ...
  </DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

Answer 6

It works for me thank you. I had this issue when I installed .Net Framework 4.7.1, somehow DbProviderFactories settings under System.Data in machine config got wiped-out. It started working after adding the necessary configuration settings as shown below DataProviderFactories

<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
      <add name="Oracle Data Provider for .NET" invariant="Oracle.DataAccess.Client" description="Oracle Data Provider for .NET" type="Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleClientFactory, Oracle.DataAccess, Version=4.112.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342"/>
      <add name="Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider 4.0" invariant="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0" description=".NET Framework Data Provider for Microsoft SQL Server Compact" type="System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeProviderFactory, System.Data.SqlServerCe, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91"/>
    </DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>