VB.NET MySQL connection

Can Visual Studio natively connect to a MySQL database?

Based upon my knowledge, no.

Do I need to install a 3rd party connector first?

Yes, MySQL has their own .NET Connector.

Could someone please provide a small code example either way? I can't seem to make this work.

Here is the link to the MySQL Connector documentation..

In there, I found this example:

Imports System.Data Imports MySql.Data Imports MySql.Data.MySqlClient Public Class Tutorial1 Public Shared Sub Main() Dim connStr As String = "server=localhost;user=root;database=world;port=3306;password=******;" Dim conn As New MySqlConnection(connStr) Try Console.WriteLine("Connecting to MySQL...") conn.Open() Catch ex As Exception Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString()) End Try conn.Close() Console.WriteLine("Done.") End Sub End Class