Sharing database connection with controls

[Mike P2]

Hi. I'm writing controls that have to query the database, and it
bothers me that I might have several of these controls on a page that
each create, open, and close their own connection with the same
connection string, and the page class has a connection object too.

I'm using the code-behind way of doing things, and I considered
leaving the database connection open as a field in the page's class
and somehow letting the controls use that same connection, but then I
want to be sure that every page does have a database connection
object.

What is the best way of sharing the database connection object between
the page's class and the controls' classes? Can I create a connection
object on the page automatically some way in global.asax?

Thanks,
Mike PII

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

If you use exactly the same connection string, asp.net (rather ado.net for
this matter) will automatically share the same connection between all your
objects. This is called "connection pooling". The best practice is to put
the code to open connection just before the database access operation and to
close it as soon as you finish the operation. Ado.net will take care about
actual opening and closing connections. Trying to keep connection open will
result in degrading performance.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer & Consultant
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

 

[Mark Rae]

I considered leaving the database connection

As Eliyahu mentions, this is one of the worst things you can do in terms of
performance and scalability of an ASP.NET app...

 

[Mike P2]

If you use exactly the same connection string, asp.net (rather ado.net for
this matter) will automatically share the same connection between all your
objects. This is called "connection pooling". The best practice is to put
the code to open connection just before the database access operation and to
close it as soon as you finish the operation. Ado.net will take care about
actual opening and closing connections. Trying to keep connection open will
result in degrading performance.

Cool. So is the stuff in the System.Data.SqlClient Ado.net? Or do I
have to use those OLE classes?

Thanks for your replies,
Mike PII

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

System.Data.SqlClient is fine.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer & Consultant
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

If you use exactly the same connection string, asp.net (rather ado.net
for
this matter) will automatically share the same connection between all
your
objects. This is called "connection pooling". The best practice is to put
the code to open connection just before the database access operation and
to
close it as soon as you finish the operation. Ado.net will take care
about
actual opening and closing connections. Trying to keep connection open
will
result in degrading performance.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer & Consultant
Microsoft MVP
[ASP.NET]http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldinhttp://usableasp.net

Cool. So is the stuff in the System.Data.SqlClient Ado.net? Or do I
have to use those OLE classes?

Thanks for your replies,
Mike PII