Configuration and Requirements

Requirements

• The .NET Framework, versions 2.0, 4.0, or 4.5.

• InterSystems IRIS.

• Visual Studio 2013 or later.

InterSystems IRIS is not required on computers that run your .NET client applications, but the clients must have a TCP/IP connection to the InterSystems server and must be running a supported version of the .NET Framework.

IRISClient Assembly Setup

The IRISClient assembly (InterSystems.Data.IRISClient.dll) is installed along with the rest of InterSystems IRIS, and requires no special preparation.

• When installing InterSystems IRIS in Windows, select the Setup Type: Development option.

• If InterSystems IRIS has been installed with security level 2, open the Management Portal and go to System Administration > Security > Services, select %Service_CallIn, and make sure the Service Enabled box is checked. If you installed InterSystems IRIS with security level 1 (minimal) it should already be checked.

To use the IRISClient assembly in a .NET project, you must add a reference to the assembly, and add the corresponding Using statements to your code (as described in the following section).

There is a separate version of InterSystems.Data.IRISClient.dll for each supported version of .NET. These files are located in the following subdirectories of <iris-install-dir>\dev\dotnet\bin:

• .NET version 2.0: \bin\v2.0.50727

• .NET version 4.0: \bin\v4.0.30319

• .NET version 4.5: \bin\v4.5

See “Installation Directory” in the Installation Guide for the location of <iris-install-dir> on your system.

All InterSystems assemblies for .NET are installed to the .NET GAC (Global Assembly Cache) when InterSystems IRIS is installed.

Installing from Visual Studio

On Windows, you can install NuGet packages from Visual Studio:

• In the VStudio menu, go to Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Settings -> Package Sources and add a new local repository that points to a directory containing the IRIS NuGet packages.

• For your application, right click the application, choose Manage nuget packages for solution, then click browse, set the source dropdown to point to the local repository from step one and install the packages.

Installing from the Command Line

On Linux and Mac OS, use the dotnet command line tool (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-add-packageOpens in a new tab).

For example:

   dotnet add TestAdd.csproj package IRISProviderCore21 -s <install-dir>\dev\dotnet\bin\Core21\

where -s indicates the path to the IRISProviderCore21.1.0.0.nupkg package.

NuGet packages are installed to the local cache. At some point you may need to issue the following command to clear the cache of NuGet packages:

   dotnet nuget locals all --clear

System Requirements

To use Entity Framework Provider with InterSystems IRIS, the following software is required:

• Visual Studio 2013 or later (first valid release was VS 2013 Professional/Ultimate with update 5).

• InterSystems IRIS Entity Framework Provider distribution, described in the following section.

Creating the IrisEF Directory

The InterSystems IRIS Entity Framework Provider distribution file is IrisEF.zip, located in install-dir\dev\dotnet\bin\v4.0.30309.

1. Create a new directory named install-dir\dev\dotnet\bin\v4.0.30309\IrisEF.

2. Extract the contents of IrisEF.zip to the new directory.

This .zip file contains the following files, which you use in the setup instructions:

• setup.cmd, which installs the DLLs InterSystems.Data.IRISClient.dll and InterSystems.Data.IRISVSTools.dll.

• Nuget\InterSystems.Data.Entity6.4.5.0.0.nupkg which installs the Entity Framework Provider.

• CreateNorthwindEFDB.sql which is used to create a sample database (see “Setting Up a Sample Database”).

Configure Visual Studio and install EF Provider

1. Move to the new IrisEF directory. The following instructions assume that IrisEF is the current directory.

2. Set up the Visual Studio development environment:

   • In Windows, select All Programs > Visual Studio 201x > Visual Studio Tools.

   • In the displayed Windows Explorer folder, right-click Developer Command Prompt for VS201x > Run as Administrator and enter:

     devenv /setup
     

     

   This command repopulates the environment setting from the registry key that specifies the path to your version of Visual Studio.

3. At the command prompt, run setup.cmd. This installs InterSystems Entity Framework Provider files InterSystems.Data.IRISClient.dll and InterSystems.Data.IRISVSTools.dll.

Copy Files to Visual Studio

Copy the following files from IrisEF subdirectory IrisEF\Templates to Visual Studio:

• SSDLToIrisSQL.tt

• GenerateIrisSQL.Utility.ttinclude

Copy from <iris-install-dir>\dev\dotnet\bin\v4.0.30319\IrisEF\Templates

to <VisualStudio-install-dir>\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Entity Framework Tools\DBGen

Connect Visual Studio to the Server

To connect Visual Studio to an InterSystems database instance, follow the steps below:

1. Open Visual Studio and select View > Server Explorer.

2. Right-click Data Connections and select Add Connection. In the Add Connection Dialog:

   1. Select Data source as InterSystems IRIS Data Source (.Net Framework Data Provider for InterSystems IRIS)

   2. Select Server

   3. Enter Username and password. Click Connect.

   4. Select a namespace from the list. Click OK.

Configure the NuGet Local Repository

Follow these steps to configure the Package Manager to find the local NuGet repository:

1. Create a directory as a NuGet repository if you have not already done so. You can use any name and location. For example, you could create directory NuGet Repository in the default Visual Studio project directory (<yourdoclibraryVS201x>\Projects).

2. Copy the InterSystems.Data.Entity6.4.5.0.0.nupkg file from IrisEF subdirectory IrisEF\Nuget\ to your NuGet repository directory. Click OK.

3. In Visual Studio, select Project > Manage Nuget Packages > Settings > Package Manager > Package Sources.

4. Click the plus sign+. Enter the path that contains InterSystems.Data.Entity6.4.5.0.0.nupkg. Click OK