Connecting to MySQL Database with ASP.NET Web Pages (Razor)

To connect to a MySQL database from ASP.NET Web Pages (Razor) you need to do the following:

1. Add a "Bin" ASP.NET folder to your project and copy the file MySQl.Data.dll in to it.

You can obtain this file by downloading the latest version of the MySQL Connector/NET (http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/), installing it, then locate the file in the installation folder.

2. In your web.config file add a connection string for your database, for example:

<configuration>
    <connectionStrings>
        <add name="Any-name" connectionString="Server=server-name-or-ip;Port=3306;Database=database-name;Uid=username;Pwd=password;" providerName="MySql.Data.MySqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

3. In your code you can then open a connection to your database:

var db = Database.Open("Any-name");

Update

If you get the error message "Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed." then you will also need to add some extra lines to web.config.

<configuration>
    <system.data>
        <DbProviderFactories>
            <add name="MySQL Data Provider" invariant="MySql.Data.MySqlClient" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for MySQL" type="MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory,MySql.Data" />
        </DbProviderFactories>
    </system.data>
</configuration>