MySQL Connector/Net 6.6.2, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is the first of two beta releases intended to introduce users to the new features in the release.  This release is feature complete it should be stable enough for users to understand the new features and how we expect them to work.  As is the case with all non-GA releases, it should not be used in any production environment.  It is appropriate for use with MySQL server versions 5.0-5.6

It is now available in source and binary form from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/#downloads and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point-if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

The 6.6 version of MySQL Connector/Net brings the following new features:

  * Stored routine debugging
  * Entity Framework 4.3 Code First support
  * Pluggable authentication (now third parties can plug new authentications mechanisms into the driver).
  * Full Visual Studio 2012 support: everything from Server Explorer to Intellisense & the Stored Routine debugger.

Stored Procedure Debugging
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We are very excited to introduce stored procedure debugging into our Visual Studio integration.  It works in a very intuitive manner by simply clicking 'Debug Routine' from Server Explorer. You can debug stored routines, functions & triggers. Some of the new features in this release include:

  * Besides normal breakpoints, you can define conditional & pass count breakpoints.
  * Now the debugger editor shows colorizing.
  * Now you can change the values of locals in a function scope (previously caused deadlock due to functions executing within their own transaction).
  * Now you can also debug triggers for 'replace' sql statements.
  * In general anything related to locals, watches, breakpoints, stepping & call stack should work in a similar way to the C#'s Visual Studio debugger.


Some limitations remains, due to the current debugger architecture:

  * Some MySQL functions cannot be debugged currently (get_lock, release_lock, begin, commit, rollback, set transaction level)..
  * Only one debug session may be active on a given server.


The Debugger is feature complete at this point. We look forward to your feedback.

Documentation
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The documentation is still being developed and will be readily available soon (before Beta 2).  You can view current Connector/Net documentation at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/connector-net.html

You can find our team blog at http://blogs.oracle.com/MySQLOnWindows.
You can also post questions on our forums at http://forums.mysql.com/.

Enjoy and thanks for the support!