ADOMD.NET Client Object Architecture

New: 5 December 2005

The ADOMD.NET data provider is a Microsoft .NET Framework data provider that can be used to communicate with analytical data sources. The following diagram illustrates the ADOMD.NET object hierarchy.

ADOMD.NET Object Model

Interaction with the ADOMD.NET object hierarchy typically starts with one or more of the objects in the topmost layer, as described in the following table.

To	Use this object
Connect to an analytical data source	AdomdConnection The AdomdConnection object represents both a connection to a data source and the data source metadata. For example, you can connect to a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) local cube (.cub) file, and then examine the Cubes property to obtain metadata about the cubes present on the analytical data source. This object also represents the implementation of the IDbConnection interface, an interface that is required by all .NET Framework data providers.
Discover the data mining capabilities of the data source	AdomdConnection The AdomdConnection object exposes several mining collections: The MiningModelCollection contains a list of every mining model in the data source. The MiningServiceCollection provides information about the available mining algorithms. The MiningStructureCollection exposes information about the mining structures on the server.
Query the data source	AdomdCommand The AdomdCommand object represents the statement or query that will be sent to the server. Once a connection is established to a data source, you use a AdomdCommand object to run statements in the supported language, such as Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) or Data Mining Data Mining Extensions (DMX). You can also use a AdomdCommand object to return results in the form of CellSet or AdomdDataReader objects.
Retrieve data in a fast, efficient way	AdomdDataReader The AdomdDataReader can be created with a call to the Execute or ExecuteReader method of an AdomdCommand object. This object implements the IDbDataReader interface from the System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework class library.
Retrieve analytical data with the highest amount of metadata	CellSet The CellSet can be created with a call to the Execute or ExecuteCellSet method of an AdomdCommand. Once an AdomdCommand has returned a CellSet, you can then examine the analytical data contained by the CellSet.
Retrieve metadata about cubes, such as available dimensions, measures, named sets, and so on	CubeDef The CubeDef represents metadata about a cube. You reference the CubeDef from the AdomdConnection.
Retrieve data using the System.Data.IDbDataAdapter interface	AdomdDataAdapter The AdomdDataAdapter provides read-only support for existing .NET Framework client applications.

See Also

Reference

ADOMD.NET Client Programming

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance