Specify connection string for a query with DbContextScope project - entity-framework

Question

I am currently using Mehdi El Gueddari's DbContextScope project, I think by the book, and it's awesome. But I came across a problem I'm unsure how to solve today. I have a query that I need to execute using a different database login/user because it requires additional permissions. I can create another connection string in my web.config, but I'm not sure how to specify that for this query, I want to use this new connection string. Here is my usage:
In my logic layer:
private static IDbContextScopeFactory _dbContextFactory = new DbContextScopeFactory();
public static Guid GetFacilityID(string altID)
{
...
using (_dbContextFactory.CreateReadOnly())
{
entity = entities.GetFacilityID(altID)
}
}
That calls into my data layer which would look something like this:
private AmbientDbContextLocator _dbcLocator = new AmbientDbContextLocator();
protected CRMEntities DBContext
{
get
{
var dbContext = _dbcLocator.Get<CRMEntities>();
if (dbContext == null)
throw new InvalidOperationException("No ambient DbContext....");
return dbContext;
}
}
public virtual Guid GetFaciltyID(string altID)
{
return DBContext.Set<Facility>().Where(f => f.altID = altID).Select(f => f.ID).FirstOrDefault();
}
Currently my connection string is set in the default way:
public partial class CRMEntities : DbContext
{
public CRMEntities()
: base("name=CRMEntities")
{}
}
Is it possible for this specific query to use a different connection string and how?

Answer 1

I ended up modifying the source code in a way that feels slightly hacky, but is getting the job done for now. I created a new IAmbientDbContextLocator with a Get<TDbContext> method override that accepts a connection string:
public TDbContext Get<TDbContext>(string nameOrConnectionString) where TDbContext : DbContext
{
var ambientDbContextScope = DbContextScope.GetAmbientScope();
return ambientDbContextScope == null ? null : ambientDbContextScope.DbContexts.Get<TDbContext>(nameOrConnectionString);
}
Then I updated the DbContextCollection to pass this parameter to the DbContext's existing constructor overload. Last, I updated the DbContextCollection maintain a Dictionary<KeyValuePair<Type, string>, DbContext> instead of a Dictionary<Type, DbContext> as its cached _initializedDbContexts where the added string is the nameOrConnectionString param. So in other words, I updated it to cache unique DbContext type/connection string pairs.
Then I can get at the DbContext with the connection I need like this:
var dbContext = new CustomAmbientDbContextLocator().Get<CRMEntities>("name=CRMEntitiesAdmin");
Of course you'd have to be careful your code doesn't end up going through two different contexts/connection strings when it should be going through the same one. In my case I have them separated into two different data access class implementations.