LightSpeed Configuration Basics

As described above, the LightSpeedContext object contains the configuration and connection settings for a particular database instance.  The usual way to store these settings is in the application configuration file – web.config for Web applications and sites, appname.exe.config for desktop applications – though you can also set them in code.  LightSpeedContext supports a lot of configuration options, which we describe more fully in the relevant sections of this user guide, and summarise in the Appendices.  In this section, we’ll describe the minimal configuration for connecting to a database.

LightSpeed Configuration Section

When you store settings in the application configuration file, you must declare and implement a lightSpeedContexts section, and define your specific settings within that section using the add element, as follows:

<configSections>
   <section name="lightSpeedContexts" 
              type="Mindscape.LightSpeed.Configuration.LightSpeedConfigurationSection, Mindscape.LightSpeed" />
</configSections>

<lightSpeedContexts>
  <add name="Test" /> <!-- We will add more here shortly -->
</lightSpeedContexts>

Loading a LightSpeedContext from Configuration

To load a LightSpeedContext from configuration, pass the name of the configuration file entry to the LightSpeedContext constructor:

private static readonly LightSpeedContext _context = new LightSpeedContext("Test");

Specifying the Data Provider

LightSpeed needs to know what kind of database you are using.  Specify this using the dataProvider attribute:

<lightSpeedContexts>
  <add name="Test" dataProvider="SQLite3" />
</lightSpeedContexts>

The following values are recognised for dataProvider:

The default provider is SqlServer2005 (Microsoft SQL Server 2005).

Specifying the Connection String

Connection strings are stored in the <connectionStrings> element as per the standard .NET configuration file schema.  When configuring LightSpeed you can refer to a connection string by name using the connectionStringName attribute:

<lightSpeedContexts>
  <add name="Test" connectionStringName="Sample" />
</lightSpeedContexts>
<connectionStrings>
  <add name="Sample"
       connectionString="Data Source=sample.db3" />
</connectionStrings>

Other Configuration Options

Other common configuration options include:

·         pluralizeTableNames

·         identityMethod

·         quoteIdentifiers

See the chapter Controlling the Database Mapping for more information on these options.