Code First

ADO.NET EF providers Devart dotConnect for Oracle, dotConnect for MySQL, dotConnect for PostgreSQL, and dotConnect for SQLite implement support for Entity Framework 4.3 Beta 1 (Entity Framework Code-First Migrations). To use it in your applications, you need to download and install the corresponding Entity Framework NuGet package first. You can read about Entity Framework Code-First Migrations functionality in the corresponding MSDN articles.

• Code-First Migrations Features
  • Database Initialization Strategies
  • EdmMetadata and __MigrationHistory Tables
  • dbo
  • ColumnTypeCasingConvention
• Configuration and Deployment of Entity Framework Provider
  • New Assembly
  • Registration of Code-First Migrations SQL Generator
  • EntityFramework.dll Assembly Versions
• Migration Operation Support
• Additional Database-specific Customization of Migrations
  • Creating Tables
  • Creating Columns
  • Creating Indexes
  • Modifying Columns
  • Dropping Tables
• Ideas for Future

Code-First Migrations Features

Entity Framework Code-First Migrations continues the development of Entity Framework Code-First functionality from Entity Framework 4.1 and Entity Framework 4.2, extending the functionality of dynamic database creating and deleting with the possibility of dynamic database schema modification (adding new columns/tables/foreign keys, creating and modifying existing database objects).

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Released soon after Entity Framework 4.1, EF Power Tools CTP1 is intended to provide design-time support for the development that involves the use of the Entity Framework Code-First approach. EF Power Tools CTP1 can be downloaded from Visual Studio Gallery. Further in the article, you will find an explanation on how to use Entity Framework Power Tools with Devart dotConnect providers for Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite, as well as information on Entity Developer that can be used as an alternative to Entity Framework Power Tools.

This article deals with the following:

• Use of Existing DbContext
  • Connection String
  • Using DefaultConnectionFactory
  • Instance of Provider-Specific Connection
• Generation of Code-First Model from Existing Database

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Note: To use the template “DbContext”, Entity Framework 4.1 and Entity Framework 4.0 must be installed on your computer.

April 2011 saw the release of a new version of Entity Framework 4.1 that supports fluent mapping and DbContext API. The latest version of Devart Entity Developer is extended with the DbContext template that enables the use of new features in EF v4.1. Initially, fluent mapping was intended to be used in the Code-First (Code Only) approach. However, thanks to our new template, fluent mapping can now be used not only in the Code-First approach, but in the Database-First/Model-First approaches as well.
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April 2011 saw the release of a new version of Entity Framework 4.1; this blog article and samples of code contained in it have been correspondingly updated to match the new features that are now available.

The latest versions of Devart dotConnect for Oracle, dotConnect for MySQL, dotConnect for PostgreSQL, and dotConnect for SQLite contain the most recent version of Code-First (Code Only) support that was added in Entity Framework 4.1. One of the primary advantages of the Code-First approach is a higher level of abstraction from the database and the capability to develop applications using the domain-driven design (DDD) approach.

This article does not provide detailed examples of different aspects related to the use of the Code-First (Code Only) approach. For detailed information on the Code-First approach, see the series of publications on the ADO.NET team blog or MSDN documentation.

This article deals with the following:

• Peculiarities of Dynamic Database Creation and Dropping Implementation
  • Database Creation
  • Database Existence Check
  • Database Dropping
• Code-First Sample
  • Entity Creation
  • DbContext Creation, Mapping Customization
  • Database Fill
  • Database Call
• DefaultConnectionFactory
• Creating Entity Framework Model with Fluent Mapping in Designer
• Code-First for All Databases

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