The SharePoint Data Provider for ADO.NET offers the most natural way to access Sharepoint data from any .NET application. Simply use SharePoint Data Provider objects to connect and access data just as you would access any traditional database. You will be able to use the SharePoint Data Provider through Visual Studio Server Explorer, in code through familiar classes, and in data controls like DataGridView, GridView, DataSet, etc.

Using the SharePoint Data Provider

The SharePoint Data Provider wraps the complexity of accessing Sharepoint services in an easy-to-integrate, fully-managed ADO.NET Data Provider. Applications then access Sharepoint through the SharePoint Data Provider with simple Transact-SQL.

 

The SharePoint Data Provider for ADO.NET hides the complexity of accessing data and provides additional powerful security features, smart caching, batching, socket management, and more.

Working with DataAdapters, DataSets, DataTables, etc.

The SharePoint Data Provider has the same ADO.NET architecture as the native .NET data providers for SQL Server and OLEDB including: SharepointConnection, SharepointCommand, SharepointDataAdapter, SharepointDataReader, SharepointDataSource, SharepointParameter, and SharepointTransaction. Because of this you can now access Sharepoint data in an easy, familiar way.

For example:

using (SharepointConnection conn = new SharepointConnection("...")) {
	string select = "SELECT * FROM SharepointLists";
	SharepointCommand cmd = new SharepointCommand(select, conn);
	SharepointDataAdapter adapter = new SharepointDataAdapter(cmd);
	using (adapter) {
		DataTable table = new DataTable();
		adapter.Fill(table);		
		...
	}
}

More Than Read-Only: Full Update/CRUD Support

SharePoint Data Provider goes beyond read-only functionality to deliver full support for Create, Read Update, and Delete operations (CRUD). Your end-users can interact with the data presented by the SharePoint Data Provider as easily as interacting with a database table.

using (SharepointConnection connection = new SharepointConnection(connectionString)) {
	SharepointDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SharepointDataAdapter(
	"SELECT Id, Where FROM Lists", connection);
  
	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand = new SharepointCommand(
		"UPDATE Lists SET Where = @Where " +
		"WHERE Id = @ID", connection);

	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Where", "Where");
	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", "80000173-1387137645");

	DataTable ListsTable = new DataTable();
	dataAdapter.Fill(ListsTable);

	DataRow firstrow = ListsTable.Rows[0];
	firstrow["Where"] = "New Location";

	dataAdapter.Update(ListsTable);
}