Bottom Line

When I created this example, it demonstrated something amazing to me. LINQ isn’t one of those technologies that only works part of the way. Many technologies seem to do that—they give you a glimpse of what could be possible, and then fail to produce anything significant. In this example, you see how to access a non-Microsoft data source using LINQ. This is a proof of concept of sorts. Think about it: with the proper provider, you could access anything. If you haven’t started working with LINQ, you really should. If you’ve already started, this example shows that you really can access anything using typical LINQ techniques.

Now, I don’t want you to walk away thinking that everything’s just going to be simple. I had to get this LINQ provider from a third party—someone who was concerned enough to write and let me use it free. I’m hoping to see a lot more people write providers for LINQ because the magic doesn’t happen without them.

This example also required some glue code. I had to create a host application to serve up my RDF files. In addition, I need to code my application class by hand. LINQ did significantly reduce the work I had to do, but working with RDF is admittedly not quite as simple as working with SQL Server. You may find that you have to provide some additional code when working with third party providers too. Even so, the resulting application is much simpler than if I’d written it without LINQ. I found that it performed well and has proven exceptionally reliable.

BIO

John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 80 books and over 300 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads down programming. His current project is LINQ for Dummies (scheduled for publication in August 2008), which you can preorder at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470277947/datacservip0f-20/. His technical editing skills have helped over 56 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. You can reach John on the Internet at JMueller@mwt.net and his Web site at: http://www.mwt.net/~jmueller/.