Entity Framework 6 set connection string in code

Question

I have a dll that uses the Entity Framework 6 to do some database operations. I'm using a database first approach. The model and everything concerning the Entity Framework, like the connection string in the App.config, were created via the wizzard in Visual Studio.

So I compiled the dll and put it together with the corresponding .config in the folder where the application using the dll expects it.

Everything works fine until I get to the point where an actual database call is made. There I get the error:

Cannot find connection string for MyDatabaseEntity

The automatically generated connectionstring is, as I said, in the config file of the dll. I cannot change the App.config of the application. But the application hands over an object that has all the information I need to build the connection string myself. So I'm looking for a way to set the connection string in the code without relying on a config file. All the tutorials I find for a database first approach use this method though. I found a post here that says to simply give the connection string as a parameter when creating the Object like

MyDatabaseEntities = new MyDatabaseEntities(dbConnect);

but ´MyDatabaseEntities´ doesn't have a constructor that takes any parameters

public partial class MyDatabaseEntities : DbContext
{
    public MyDatabaseEntities()
        : base("name=MyDatabaseEntities")
    {
    }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        throw new UnintentionalCodeFirstException();
    }

    public virtual DbSet<MyTable> MyTable { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

How about:

public partial class MyDatabaseEntities : DbContext
{
public MyDatabaseEntities(string connectionString)
    : base(connectionString)
{
}

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
    throw new UnintentionalCodeFirstException();
}

public virtual DbSet<MyTable> MyTable { get; set; }

}

Then initialize your database like you did before:

string myConnectionString = "...";
MyDatabaseEntities = new MyDatabaseEntities(myConnectionString);

Answer 2

I had the similar issue. My Edmx and App.Config was in a different project. My startup project was different, had 3 different connection strings, we need to choose one on the fly depending on the environment. So couldn't use a fixed connection string. I created a partial class overload of the Context.cs using the same namespace. Following was my default Context.cs;

namespace CW.Repository.DBModel
{

  public partial class CWEntities : DbContext
  {
      public CWEntities()
        : base("name=CWEntities")
      {
      }

      protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
      {
        throw new UnintentionalCodeFirstException();
      }
  ...
  ...
  }
}

My partial class overload;

namespace CW.Repository.DBModel
{
    public partial class CWEntities : DbContext
    {
        public CWEntities(string ConnectionString)
            : base(ConnectionString)
        {
        }        
    }
}

Lastly, as my connection strings were not for EF, I converted them to a EF connection string.

public static string GetEntityConnectionString(string connectionString)
    {
        var entityBuilder = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();

        // WARNING
        // Check app config and set the appropriate DBModel
        entityBuilder.Provider = "System.Data.SqlClient";
        entityBuilder.ProviderConnectionString = connectionString + ";MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework;";
        entityBuilder.Metadata = @"res://*/DBModel.CWDB.csdl|res://*/DBModel.CWDB.ssdl|res://*/DBModel.CWDB.msl";

        return entityBuilder.ToString();
    }

Lastly, the calling

var Entity = new CWEntities(CWUtilities.GetEntityConnectionString(ConnectionString));

Answer 3

I got this solution using below code, I can hardcode connection string using C# code without using config file.

 public class SingleConnection
    {
        private SingleConnection() { }
        private static SingleConnection _ConsString = null;
        private String _String = null;

        public static string ConString
        {
            get
            {
                if (_ConsString == null)
                {
                    _ConsString = new SingleConnection { _String = SingleConnection.Connect() };
                    return _ConsString._String;
                }
                else
                    return _ConsString._String;
            }
        }

        public static string Connect()
        {
            //Build an SQL connection string
            SqlConnectionStringBuilder sqlString = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder()
            {
                DataSource = "SIPL35\\SQL2016".ToString(), // Server name
                InitialCatalog = "Join8ShopDB",  //Database
                UserID = "Sa",         //Username
                Password = "Sa123!@#",  //Password
            };
            //Build an Entity Framework connection string
            EntityConnectionStringBuilder entityString = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder()
            {
                Provider = "System.Data.SqlClient",
                Metadata = "res://*/ShopModel.csdl|res://*/ShopModel.ssdl|res://*/ShopModel.msl",
                ProviderConnectionString = @"data source=SIPL35\SQL2016;initial catalog=Join8ShopDB2;user id=Sa;password=Sa123!@#;"// sqlString.ToString()
            };
            return entityString.ConnectionString;
        }

and using DbContext using like this:

Join8ShopDBEntities dbContext = new Join8ShopDBEntities(SingleConnection.ConString);

Answer 4

Thanks a lot . I changed little for Code First EF6.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Data
{
    public class SingleConnection
    {
        private SingleConnection() { }
        private static SingleConnection _ConsString = null;
        private String _String = null;

        public static string ConString
        {
            get
            {
                if (_ConsString == null)
                {
                    _ConsString = new SingleConnection { _String = SingleConnection.Connect() };
                    return _ConsString._String;
                }
                else
                    return _ConsString._String;
            }
        }

        public static string Connect()
        {
            string conString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["YourConnectionStringsName"].ConnectionString;

            if (conString.ToLower().StartsWith("metadata="))
            {
                System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient.EntityConnectionStringBuilder efBuilder = new System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient.EntityConnectionStringBuilder(conString);
                conString = efBuilder.ProviderConnectionString;
            }

            SqlConnectionStringBuilder cns = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(conString);
            string dataSource = cns.DataSource;


            SqlConnectionStringBuilder sqlString = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder()
            {
                DataSource = cns.DataSource, // Server name
                InitialCatalog = cns.InitialCatalog,  //Database
                UserID = cns.UserID,         //Username
                Password = cns.Password,  //Password,
                MultipleActiveResultSets = true,
                ApplicationName = "EntityFramework",

            };
            //Build an Entity Framework connection string
            EntityConnectionStringBuilder entityString = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder()
            {
                Provider = "System.Data.SqlClient",
                Metadata = "res://*",
                ProviderConnectionString = sqlString.ToString()
            };
            return entityString.ConnectionString;
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

You can use singleton patter for it . For example

private YouurDBContext context;

    public YouurDBContext Context
    {
        get
        {
            if (context==null)
            {
                context = new YouurDBContext();
            }
            return context;

        }
        set { context = value; }
    }