EF 4.1 June CTP seems to break model first database generation

Question

Hi,

After installing Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP, I can no longer run the "Generate Database from Model..." function from within the EF designer. It produces the following error:

 

Inspecting C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Entity Framework Tools\DBGen\SSDLToSQL10.tt learns that the template uses the method GetAllAssociationSets. This is probably the one defined in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.DatabaseGeneration, which is not part of the CTP release. I assume the cause of my problem is that this dll cannot be used in combination with the CTP release. Is this assumption right? Is there a solution for this issue?

After deinstalling the CTP release everything works normal again.

Thanks,

Merijn

Answer 1

Hi Merijn;

Did you change the projects target framework from 4.0 to one of the following, Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP or Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP Client Profile as stated in the ReadMe file. From the ReadMe file :

In order to use the new features of the Entity Framework in Visual Studio, you will need to change your project's target.
This target framework allows use of the CTP versions of the Entity Framework assemblies in addition to the standard .NET 4.0 RTM assemblies.

To retarget a C# project:

1. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and choose Properties or select <Project> Properties from the Project menu.
2. On the Application tab, select Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP or Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP Client Profilefrom the Target framework dropdown.
3. A dialog box will appear indicating that the project needs to be closed and reopened to retarget the project. Choose Yes.

To retarget a VB.NET project:

1. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and choose Properties or select <Project> Properties from the Project menu.
2. Select the Compile tab and then the Advanced Compile Options… button on the bottom left of the dialog.
3. Select Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP or Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP Client Profilefrom the Target framework dropdown.
4. Choose OK.
5. A dialog box will appear indicating that the project needs to be closed and reopened to retarget the project. Choose Yes. 

 

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Fernando (MCSD)

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Answer 2

Hi Fermando,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I did exactly that. But that doesn't help.

Merijn

Answer 3

Hello,

Have you installed Visual Studio 2010 SP1 on your machine before installed June 2011 CTP? http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetentityframework/thread/c98bc26a-65f5-425a-af48-dd765519594a

Thanks,

Werewolf,

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Just a newbie for everything.

Answer 4

Hi Werewplf,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I installed VS2010.SP1.

BTW I do have this problem also on a freshly installed computer.

Kind regards,

Merijn

Answer 5

Hello,

I tried install CTP June 2011 on my side, but it's in order. like your description, Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.DatabaseGeneration this assembly wasn't related to CTP June 2011 onto your machine. IMO, it looks that your question maybe related to Entity Designer Database Generation Power Pack, perhaps you should repair this tool.

Thanks,

Werewolf,

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Just a newbie for everything.

Answer 6

Hi Werewolf,

Thanks again for your help.

But no, I didn't install the Entity Designer Database Generation Power Pack. I installed Dev Studio 2010sp1 on a brand new x64/Window7 laptop. I installed NuGet (this is unrelated but I mention it just to be complete), Silverlight and WCF RIA Services and then I installed EF June CTP. When I uninstall this CTP I can run "generate database from model" from within the entity designer without any problems. When I install the CTP again, I get this exception.

I've created a new console app solution. Then I added a new entity model. Then, even without adding anything to the empty model, I receive the error when I try to generate a database from the model.

Does this information give you any ideas?

 

Best reards,

Merijn

Answer 7

Hello MdeJ,

Honestly, I installed June CTP EF installation package on my side. Everything looks OK. I didn't reproduce your question on my side. I suggest you use ProcessMonitor to collect more detailed information to us to analyze your question further. You can get it here. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645 

Thanks,

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Larcolais Gong[MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
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Answer 8

Hi Larcolais,

Thanks for your help. I also find it strange to happen. It's even more strange that you cannot reproduce it, while I can on two different machines.

I downloaded ProcessMonitor, but I'm not sure what to look for. Can you maybe give me a hint what (and how) I should look for using that tool?

Thanks again,

Merijn

Answer 9

Hello again Merijn,

I reproduced this issue on the other two machines. Like you said, it works OK after uninstalled June CTP from them. I suggest you submit this feedback into Connect portale site. https://connect.microsoft.com/data/Feedback

Every feedback submitted will be evaluated carefully by our engineers. If this suggestion is reasonable and other customers have the similar concern on this feature, they will let us know their comments further through that portal. This would be helpful to improve Visual Studio products.

Please feel free to share the feedback link in your reply, which help other members to find out how the thing are going.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any concern.

Thanks,

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Larcolais Gong[MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 10

Thank you for posting this and confirming the repros. The designer team is looking at this. Please feel free to file a Connect issue as Larcolais mentioned (https://connect.microsoft.com/data/Feedback) so that we can track it and please mention any other details that you think would be useful.

-adi

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Adi Unnithan | Software Design Engineer | SQL Server Developer Tools | Please mark the post as answered if it sufficiently answers your question

Answer 11

Hello MDej,

 

I have couple questions which could greatly help us to identify the issue.

1. Did you install  EF 4.1 Release Candidate or  EF June 2011 CTP ? They are not the same.

2. If you installed EF June 2011 CTP, did you also installed Entity Framework Tool CTP update?

The download link as well as the instruction (I highly recommend reading it the before  proceeding with installation) can be found in the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26660

 

Thank you,

- Alex

 

Answer 12

Larcolais, Adi,

I've submirtted a feedback form about this issue. This is the url: https://connect.microsoft.com/data/feedback/details/685572/ef-4-1-june-ctp-breaks-model-first-database-generation.

Alex,
here are the answer to your questions:

1. I installed EF June 2011 CTP. (After I installed VS2010 SP1)
2. No, I did not install the Entity Framework Tool CTP update. Is this needed? In the docs I see references to SQL Server Tools for Data Framework, is this the same as EFTools?

Thank you all for your help.

Kind regards,

Merijn

Answer 13

Hi Mdej,

 

Yes, EF Tool CTP update is required for EF June 2011 CTP. EF Tools and  SQL Server Tools for Data Framework are one and the same.

We recommend you to install in the following order:

• Microsoft Entity Framework June 2011 CTP
• Microsoft Data Services June 2011 CTP
• Microsoft SQL Server Data Framework Tools June 2011 CTP

Please let me know how this goes.

 

Thank you,

 

Alex

 

Answer 14

Yes, after installing the other two updates it works again.

Thanks!

 

Answer 15

I too am having issues creating a data model now.

 

Also many people having issues with it here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adonetefx/thread/1aa3d8b7-14e5-4182-b08e-9563cfc737ca/

 

I've installed sp1 for vs2010.

I've installed all 3 products in the suggested order:

1. EF_JUNE_2011_CTP.msi
2. DS_JUNE_2011_CTP.msi
3. EFTools.msi

I've switched the target framework to Entity Framework June 2011 CTP.

Still same issues, based around "Type Constructor threw an exception"

Even more unfortunate for me is that I'm unable to uninstall and get back to a working state for my project.

 

Error Details:

Error 6 Error 6039: error CS0006: Metadata file 'C:\WINNT\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Data.Entity\v4.0_4.2.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.Entity.dll' could not be found

error CS0006: Metadata file 'C:\WINNT\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Data.Entity.Design\v4.0_4.2.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.Entity.Design.dll' could not be found

Do I need to reinstall the .net 4 framework??

Any ideas of where I can go from here, this is turning into a bit of a crisis for me. 

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 16

Hi Mike,

Did you install the CTP bits on Windows XP? Unfortunately, WindowsXP is not a supported OS.

The following are the requirements:

System requirement:
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

Other requirements
Microsoft .NET Framework 4
Microsoft Visual Studio® 2010 SP1 or Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 SP1 Express Edition
Microsoft Silverlight® 4 SDK and Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2010 (both optional)

There is information on how to get back to the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 state in the readme file which can be found in:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26660

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you,

Alex

 

 

 

Answer 17

Ya, I'm using XP.

That would be the reason for my problems.

I should have read all the details before I went ahead with the install.

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 18

 

You can get errors running Entity Designer Database Generation Power Pack along with Entity Framework Junce 2011 CTP

It happens because the dll running the workflow for the database sql generation is trying to find the assembly Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.DatabaseGeneration with version 10.0.0.0. (specific version reference) if you have entity framework june 2011 CTP installed, then you have the version 10.6.0.0. and it gives you an error.

Workaround: You can do a binding redirect on the visual studio exe ( devenv.exe.config) to force the generation workflow to use the new dll : Add this under dependentassembly tag: <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.Entity.Design.DatabaseGeneration" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="10.0.0.0" newVersion="10.6.0.0"/>

 

It seems work ok but I haven't fully tested it.