What is the path from a model to the database? - entity-framework

I have a project created from the ASP.NET Core Web Application template in VS. When run, the project creates a database to support the Identity package.
The Identity package is a Razor Class Library. I have scaffolded it and the models can be seen. The models are sub-classed from Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.RazorPages.PageModel.
I am tracing the code to try and get a better understanding of how it all works. I am trying to find the path from the models to the physical database.
In the file appsettings.json, I see the connection string DefaultConnection pointing to the physical database.
In startup.cs, I see a reference to the connection string DefaultConnection:
services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
options.UseSqlServer(
Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));
After this, I lost the trail. I can't find the link from a model in code to a table in the database. What is the code needed to perform a query like select * from AspNetUsers?

As #Daniel Schmid suggested , you should firstly learn the Dependency injection in ASP.NET Core.
ASP.NET Core has an excellent Dependency Injection feature through which this framework provides you with an object of any class that you want. So you don’t have to manually create the class object in your code.
EF Core supports using DbContext with a dependency injection container. Your DbContext type can be added to the service container by using the AddDbContext<TContext> method.
Then you can use the instance like :
public class MyController
{
private readonly ApplicationDbContext _context;
public MyController(ApplicationDbContext context)
{
_context = context;
}
...
}
or using ServiceProvider directly, less common :
using (var context = serviceProvider.GetService<ApplicationDbContext>())
{
// do stuff
}
var options = serviceProvider.GetService<DbContextOptions<ApplicationDbContext>>();
And get users by directly querying the database :
var users = _context.Users.ToList();
Please also read this article .

Related

Using Entity Framework Core DbContext Pooling with Simple Injector

Looking at the examples of how to use db context pool I see it was designed to be used with ServiceCollection:
var serviceProvider = new ServiceCollection()
.AddDbContextPool<AdventureWorksContext>(options => { //options })
.BuildServiceProvider();
But what about Simple Injector? is it possible to register DB pooling in the Simple Injector container?
p.s. My app is not ASP.NET MVC, it's just a kinda DAL
EF Core DbContext pooling in ASP.NET Core
When integrating Simple Injector in ASP.NET Core, you keep framework and third-party components inside the .NET Core configuration system. This means that enabling Entity Framework Core context pooling is done exactly as Microsoft documents it:
services.AddDbContextPool<BloggingContext>(
options => options.UseSqlServer(connectionString));
As Simple Injector does not replace the built-in configuration system, you will have to instruct Simple Injector to automatically load missing registrations (such as your DbContext) from the .NET Core configuration system. This can be done by using the AddSimpleInjector and UseSimpleInjector extension methods, as shown here.
private SimpleInjector.Container container;
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
...
services.AddDbContextPool<BloggingContext>(
options => options.UseSqlServer(connectionString));
services.AddSimpleInjector(container, options =>
{
options.AddAspNetCore();
});
}
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
app.UseSimpleInjector(container);
container.Verify();
...
}
Using this setup, the BloggingContext can be injected into any component that is resolved from Simple Injector, while the BloggingContext is pooled by Entity Framework. For intance:
// Application compoment registered in and resolved from Simple Injector
public class CommentIsNoSpamValidator : IValidator<PostComment>
{
private readonly BloggingContext context;
// Is injected with BloggingContext from IServiceCollection
public CommentIsNoSpamValidator(BloggingContext context)
{
this.context = context;
}
public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(PostComment command)
{
// Complex business logic here.
}
}
EF Core DbContext pooling in a .NET (Core) Console application
When it comes to using Entity Framework Core context pooling in a .NET Core console application, the solution will be very similar, although you will have to set up a little bit more:
public void Main()
{
var container = new Container();
var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddDbContextPool<BloggingContext>(
options => options.UseSqlServer(connectionString));
services.AddSimpleInjector(container);
services
.BuildServiceProvider(validateScopes: true)
.UseSimpleInjector(container);
container.Verify();
// Run application code
using (AsyncScopedLifestyle.BeginScope(container))
{
var service = container.GetInstance<MainService>();
service.DoAwesomeStuff();
}
}
So in the end, the DbContext's lifetime is managed by the MS.DI scope, but that scope is managed by Simple Injector's scope.
EF Core DbContext pooling in a library
In case you are building a library, i.e. a non-startup project, please stop what you're doing. Only the application's startup assembly should have a Composition Root, and only the Composition Root should use a DI Container (such as Simple Injector or MS.DI's ServiceCollection). All other libraries in your application should stay oblivious of the (possible) existence of a Container.
You could use
container.Register(() =>
serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<AdventureWorksContext>());
to have the ServiceProvider resolve the dependency as it's requested.
Adding to #Steven's excellent answer, here's his console application answer, but with the context (implicitly) using UseInternalServiceProvider.
var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddEntityFrameworkSqlServer();
services.AddSingleton<Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.ILoggerFactory>(new Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.LoggerFactory());
services.AddSingleton<IInterface>(new MyImplemenation());
services.AddDbContextPool<EFViewAndManyToManyDb>(optionsBuilder => {
optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer("");
});
services.AddSimpleInjector(container);
services
.BuildServiceProvider(validateScopes: true)
.UseSimpleInjector(container);
Here's why you'd want to use UseInternalServiceProvider. TLDR: if your DbContext has a dependencies, e.g. IInterface. You'll also need to add the SimpleInjector.Integration.ServiceCollection Nuget package.

EF Core 2.0 IDesignTimeDbContextFactory implementation issues

Using EF Core 2.0 i am trying to implement IDesignTimeDbContextFactory to read connection string from the appsettings.json file. I am getting following error on call to SetBasePath
ConfigurationBuilder does not contain a definition of SetBasePath( )
public class DbContextFactory : IDesignTimeDbContextFactory<TestDbContext>
{
public TestDbContext CreateDbContext(string[] args)
{
IConfigurationRoot configuration = new ConfigurationBuilder()
.SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
.Build();
var builder = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<TestDbContext>();
var connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");
builder.UseSqlServer(connectionString);
return new TestDbContext(builder.Options);
}
}
Second Question : Using this approach is it necessary to use dotnet CLI, will this method be called if i am just running my migration commands using "Package Manager Console" ?
The SetBasePath() method is an extension method in FileExtensions.
You can get it by adding the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.FileExtensions package. I see you have AddJsonFile() also, so you might want to use Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json instead since it depends on FileExtensions (i.e you'll get both).
On the 2nd question, you don't need the IDesignTimeDbContextFactory<>, but without if you'll need to set the connection string in another place that is accessible during design time. Another example is to set it in the constructor of your DbContext, but that has various design problems like if you want to run a test vs production instance.
If you don't have a factory the DbContext is created using a public parameterless constructor.

Entity Framework - Existing Database, classes in seperate library

I'm looking for information about using entity framework with an existing database, but to keep my poco classes in another library.
I've done this a number of times in the past, but I've always ended up with my model classes in my data access library using EF and my domain classes in a separate library. Inevitably this meant writing code to translate between my domain classes and my model classes. This seems pointless and inefficient since the classes are usually almost identical.
Can anyone point me to a walkthrough keeping my classes are materialized by EF in a separate library? I would need to be able to do some minor name correction (eg Filter_Rule --> FilterRule). I would also like to be able to keep anything EF specific in the data access library so that I can swap out the data access library if I need to.
Thanks,
Jason
This should be quite straightforward. Create a DbContext code-first style as normal, adding DbSets and configurations as necessary to tell EF about your database. Set your initializer to null so it doesn't try to mess with your existing database, and voila...
public class YourContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<YourPoco> YourPocos { get; set; }
static YourContext()
{
Database.SetInitializer<YourContext>(null);
}
public YourContext() : base("database_name")
{
}
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder builder)
{
base.OnModelCreating(builder);
builder.Entity<YourPoco>().Property(x => x.FilterRule).HasColumnName("Filter_Rule");
//OR
builder.Configurations.Add(new YourPocoConfig());
//OR
builder.Configurations.AddFromAssembly(typeof (YourContext).Assembly);
}
}
public class YourPocoConfig : EntityTypeConfiguration<YourPoco>
{
public YourPocoConfig()
{
HasKey(x => x.Id);
Property(x => x.FilterRule).HasColumnName("Filter_Rule");
}
}
If you are worried about getting everything to match your database structure, you can use Entity Framework Tools for Visual Studio to reverse engineer your models, then match the configuraiton or copy the generated POCO's into your other library and convert the data annotations into respective EntityTypeConfiguration classes to keep the POCO's clean.
MSDN document on reverse engineering code-first.

Using Entity Framework in a modular application

I'm currently working on an MVC-project that should be highly modular. For example I want to have a user-module, a menu-module and a page module.
Because the modules need to be highly re-usable in different visual studio solutions I create separate projects for each module.
For the database mapping I would like to make use of the entity framework. I've created a separate DbContext in each module-project. Each DbContext contains the entities associated with the module.
Unfortunately I'm not able to let EF create foreign keys between entities in different modules/dbContexts.
For example:
Core module contains User-Entity
Page module contains Page-Entity which has an author that links to the User-entity defined in the core-module dbContext.
Has anyone an idea how I can create foreign keys across modules/dbContexts?
Are all of your entities in the same database? I would suggest separating your assemblies like this:
Data - project containing your Entity Framework model and/or class/entity definitions (depending on which type of EF approach you are using).
Service - project containing interfaces and classes that manipulate your data. Example, for your User entity (and related items), you might have this:
public interface IUser : IDisposable
{
Data.User Get(int userId);
IQueryable<Data.User> GetAll();
//other method definitions for User entity CRUD
}
Then, you implementation:
public class User : IUser
{
private readonly DataEntities _dataContext = new DataEntities(); //this is from your EF Data assembly
public Data.User Get(int userId)
{
return _dataContext.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.UserId == userId);
}
public IQueryable<Data.User> GetAll()
{
return _dataContext.Users;
}
//other method implementations
public void Dispose()
{
_dataContext.Dispose();
}
}
Then, reference both your Service and Data assemblies in your module projects.

Using Entity Framework w/o Global State

I made a small test function for creating an Entity Framework Code-First DbContext instance directly connected to a SQL CE 4.0 file but I really don't like the global state approach. Isn't there a better way to do this, without using DbDatabase static properties?
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Data.Entity.Database;
using System.Data.SqlServerCe;
public class SqlCeDb
{
public static T Instance<T>() where T: DbContext, new()
{
DbDatabase.DefaultConnectionFactory = new SqlCeConnectionFactory("System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0");
DbDatabase.SetInitializer<T>(new DropCreateDatabaseAlways<T>());
return new T();
}
}
Dependency Injection is what a lot of people are doing. You write a class that has a dependency on DbContext (i.e. it's a constructor argument or a property decorated as a dependency), and the IoC (Inversion of Control) container will give you an instance of it when the class is created. Every IoC container I've worked with has a way of registering a single instance (instead of creating a new instance every time).
Popular IoC Containers:
StructureMap
Unity
Ninject
There are others, but these are the ones I see used most often.