Nik's Technology Blog

Using the DbProviderFactories class in ADO.NET you can retrieve a list of available database factories using the GetFactoryClasses method. This can be useful if you host your ASP.NET site on a shared server and don't have access to the web server and machine.config file.

The output of the GetFactoryClasses method is a DataTable of available factory classes, these are the factory classes that the .NET runtime will have access to.

Here's the kind of output you'll get...

Here's the code you'll need in your code behind file.

DataTable providersList = null;
providersList = System.Data.Common.DbProviderFactories.GetFactoryClasses();
GridView providerGridView = new GridView();
providerGridView.DataSource = providersList;
providerGridView.DataBind();
form1.Controls.Add(providerGridView);