That's right ... "EntitySpaces running under Mono on Linux using MySQL as the backend".

If you are an EntitySpaces customer, you can now travel anywhere. From Windows, to Mono/Linux solutions, to the Compact Framework and all kinds of wireless devices, to Web Applications including "Medium Trust" support, or to high-end Enterprise Applications, EntitySpaces can take you there. EntitySpaces is truly a tiny, lightweight, powerful architecture for the Microsoft.NET Framework, and uses zero reflection. If you are a Mono developer, EntitySpaces is a terrific architecture for you. With it, you can work on both sides of the isle. Our database independence can free you from most of the complexities of supporting many types of databases, including those that run under Mono, such as MySQL and VistaDB. No longer will you have to invent new architectures with every new challenge that comes down the road.

Our contest winner goes by the title Pro.Coder, and is a independent contractor. We have received his entry to our Mono contest, and were quite pleased. Pro.Coder sent us a DVD with the EntitySpaces demo running under Mono. Thank you Pro.Coder, you did an excellent job. An image of it is shown below. Pro.Coder added the CRUD and DynamicQuery Join examples, to satisfy our contest requirements.

Below are some comments we received with Pro.Coder's DVD on how he got our EntitySpaces Demo to run under Mono ...

As for EntitySpaces on Mono application development, I did the following Steps:

1. Download and Install Latest Version My Generation 
2. Download and Install Latest Trial Version Of EntitySpaces 2007 
3. Download and Install Latest Version of MySQL Community Edition
4. Download and Version 5.0.7.0 of MySQL .net/Connector (Otherwise EntitySpaces gives Version conflict error)
5. Download and Install Latest Version of Mono for windows
6. Download and Install Latest Version VMware Player
7. Download Mono Suse 10.2 VMware Virtual Machine
8. Imported the Northwind database to MySQL from Sql Server
9. Created CRUD procedures for MySQL Northwind database using My Generation EntitySpaces Template

Once all the installation was done, I was ready develop EntitySpaces on Mono. I used Visual Studio 2005 to develop, and used Mono to test it first on Windows. Once everything was working, I used VMware player and Mono Suse 10.2 VMware Virtual Machine to test it on Linux.

Instead of developing an application from scratch, I used the VB.net example that was shipped with the Trial version of EntitySpaces 2007. The first thing I did was to make EntitySpaces use the configless connection string support, which was very easy. Then, I started the build and debug process. From the features I have tested, CRUD process and Dynamic Query all work fine. While modifying the example application, the main issues I faced were:

Data Binding and Windows Forms
Binding the Windows Forms DataGrid Control to a Data Source
Binding Class
BindingContext Class
BindingsCollection Class 

I think many methods and properties are not yet supported on Mono. Maybe they are supported, and I just have to do some tweaking. I'm not sure. I have not yet gone through the Mono documentation. Grid.DataSource = EntityCollection gives a type conversion error, so I used CreateColumnsForBinding. Even after using it, I still got type conversion error. I'm not sure what exactly CreateColumnsForBinding is for. I thought it should correct it. So, as it didn't work, I did the next best thing, and added a ToDataTable() method to collection class and used it to bind to the grid.

From mobile devices to large scale enterprise solutions in need of serious transaction support, EntitySpaces can meet your needs. Whether you’re writing an ASP.NET application with medium trust requirements, or a Windows.Forms application, the EntitySpaces architecture is there for you. EntitySpaces is provider independent, which means that you can run the same binary code against any of the supported databases. EntitySpaces is available in both C# and VB.NET. EntitySpaces uses no reflection, no XML files, and sports a tiny foot print of less than 200k. Pound for pound, EntitySpaces is one tough, dependable .NET architecture.

The EntitySpaces Team
--

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net

EntitySpaces, LLC is offering $1,000 U.S. dollars to the first person or company to successfully create an EntitySpaces application that runs under Mono version 1.2.5.1 or higher and does so within the constraints of the rules outlined below. We will also make a follow up blog post announcing the winner which could help push traffic to your site if you are interested (and make you famous for at least 15 minutes).

The Rules

1. The Application or Website must use Mono version 1.2.5.1 or higher.
2. The Application must use EntitySpaces 2007 v1119 or higher.
3. The Application must insert, update and delete data from the database using our standard EntitySpaces generated classes via the Save() method.
4. The Application must use the EntitySpaces DynamicQuery API to perform a join and display the results.
5. The Application must be created as an image in the "VMware Virtual Image" file format as found on http://www.mono-project.com/Downloads so that we can run it out of the box with no modifications.
6. The image mentioned above in rule 5 must be submitted on a CD. 
7. All submissions become the property of EntitySpaces, LLC and we reserve the right to make them available for marketing purposes.
8. Your Submission must be received by January 31st, 2008 (only the first working solution submitted by January 31st, 2008 will receive the $1,000 U.S. dollars prize money).

If you are interested write to support@entityspaces.net and we can tell you where to forward your submission.

Most likely this application will use MySql or VistaDB as those are two of the databases we support that run under Mono (others we support might also run under Mono). Also, you might need to use the configless connection support for EntitySpaces configuration information. If you run into issues we are willing to work with you, however we are fairly confident that our assemblies are mono compliant. Of course, the nicer the UI the better, but the idea is to show off EntitySpaces running under Mono.

From mobile devices to large scale enterprise solutions in need of serious transaction support, EntitySpaces can meet your needs. Whether you’re writing an ASP.NET application with medium trust requirements, or a Windows.Forms application, the EntitySpaces architecture is there for you. EntitySpaces is provider independent, which means that you can run the same binary code against any of the supported databases. EntitySpaces is available in both C# and VB.NET. EntitySpaces uses no reflection, no XML files, and sports a tiny foot print of less than 200k. Pound for pound, EntitySpaces is one tough, dependable .NET architecture.

The EntitySpaces Team
--

EntitySpaces LLC
Persistence Layer and Business Objects for Microsoft .NET
http://www.entityspaces.net