Unable to create database when using connection string

Question

I am new to entity framework. I was trying to use connection string along with DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges initializer. I was able to call SaveChanges method and could see primary keys getting generated incrementally. But I was not able to find the database created in the SQL management studio.

Database.SetInitializer<ProjectDataContext>(new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<ProjectDataContext>());

<connectionStrings>
  <clear/>
  <add name="ProjectDatabase" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" 
     connectionString="Data Source=.\EXPRESS2008;Initial Catalog=ProjectDatabase;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True"/>
 </connectionStrings>

public class ProjectDataContext : DbContext
  {
    public ProjectDataContext()
      : base("name=ProjectDatabase")
    {

    }

    
    public DbSet<Property> Properties { get; set; }
    public DbSet<DrawerType> Drawers { get; set; }
  }

using (var context = new ProjectDataContext())
      {
        var unicorns = from u in context.Drawers
                where u.Name.StartsWith("W")
                select u;

        context.Drawers.Add(new DrawerType { Name = "WOWWOWWOW" });
        context.SaveChanges();

        return unicorns.ToList();
      }

If I don't use the connection string everything works fine.

Now I know that this is against code first principle and we have to define our own configuration for mapping using fluent API.

The real issue i wanted to resolve was that I have both SQl2005 and 2008 on my machine and the EF creates the database in SQL2005. I want to force it to use SQL2008 using connection string.

Answer 1

Hi Farahan,

 

Try creating a context class with the class name "ProjectDatabase" which is your connection string name or alternatively you can change your connectionstring name with "ProjectData" like this

<add name="ProjectData" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" 
   connectionString="Data Source=.\EXPRESS2008;Initial Catalog=ProjectDatabase;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True"/>
 </connectionStrings>

Since, by default when we create a DBContext class using EF code-first it check for the connection string with the same name to instantiate.

 

Thanks.

Answer 2

Hi  Umeshv

Cool that do works. Thanks for the reply.

the User Instance = True in the connection string was also one of the culprit. I overlooked my mistake.

 

---

farhan