title: MySQL & .NET: System.ArgumentException: Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0
body: <p>I wanted to use SubSonic as it said it would be easy to use and a time saver.</p>
  
  <p>After 3 hours trying to get the connection string for MySQL right I'm about to give up on it.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Building configuration from C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\Visual Studio 2
  
  008\Projects\ConfigurationItems\ConfigurationItemsMVC\Web.config
  Adding connection to MySqlDataProvider
  ERROR: Trying to execute generate
  Error Message: System.ArgumentException: Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I can't shift this: Error Message: System.ArgumentException: Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0.</p>
  
  <p>I get it every time I try and run subsonic.exe /generate</p>
  
  <p>IT ALL LOOKED SO EASY!!!</p>
  
  <p>Here is my Web.Config</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;!-- connectionString="Persist Security Info=False;database=config;server=localhost;user id=config;Password=config" --&gt;
    &lt;connectionStrings&gt;
      &lt;remove name="ConfigConnectString"/&gt;
      &lt;add name="ConfigConnectString" connectionString="Persist Security Info=False;database=config;server=localhost;user id=userid;Password=password" providerName="MySql.Data.MySqlClient"
        /&gt;
      &lt;/connectionStrings&gt;
  
    &lt;SubSonicService defaultProvider="ConfigDatabase"&gt;
        &lt;providers&gt;
          &lt;add type="SubSonic.MySqlDataProvider, SubSonic" 
               name="MySqlDataProvider" 
               generatedNamespace="Config" 
               connectionStringName="ConfigConnectString" 
               /&gt;
  
        &lt;/providers&gt;
    &lt;/SubSonicService&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've tried a few things:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Specifying path to webconfig using /config on the external tool path. </li>
  <li>Downgrading from the 6.0 .NET MySQL connector to the latest 5.2 version in line with samples.</li>
  <li>Adding MySQL.Data as a reference direct from the SubSonic folder to the DLL in there.</li>
  <li>Trying various formats for the connection string, based off <a href="http://www.connectionstrings.com/mysql#28" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.connectionstrings.com/mysql#28</a></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>( other connection string: "Server=localhost;Database=config;Uid=user;Pwd=password;"- also "blah" / "anything" throws the same error...)</p>
  
  <p>No joy! Very close to giving up on SubSonic. Please help if you can!</p>
  
  <p>Btw I am using Subsonic 2.2</p>