The following line should fire an exception if there is any problem with the connection properties:

EntitySpaces.Interfaces.esConfigSettings.ConnectionInfo.Connections.Add(conn)

I was getting a generic "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." error when I tried to load an element.  There were no indications whatsoever as to the cause of the error.

I spent 4 hours trying to troubleshoot why I couldn't get a database connection, looking at all kinds of issues related to the connection string, firewall issues, and protocol... before it was discovered that the Connection Provider is case sensitive. 

Here was the offending line of code that took 4 hours to locate and change:

conn.Provider = "EntitySpaces.SQLClientProvider"