Entity framework 6 connecting multiple database implemention advice - entity-framework

Question

I am a novice when it comes to entity framework.I usually use ado.net because is faster than any ORM and the repetitive code can be easily generated.
Now I have decided to give EF6 a go again and gain some experience in EF
Scenario.
Need to migrate data for many clients.(30 databases)
Each client will have their own staging database
Each database will have different tables
All databases will have/share the same "Views" schema.
Basically we decided that regardless of the clients tables ,they must all share the same Views.
So when we read the data we dont care because the views columnNames will be the same for them all.
Ado.net Implementation
Is very simple.I my dal i have methods like "GetCustomers","GetAccounts" etc... and all I need to do is change the connectionString
and I can read the views from any database.Does not get simpler than this.
EF implementation
Please correct me if I am wrong.
In order for EF to work I would have to generate code for 30 databases (databaseFirst).
Is there a way I can use just a connection string to connect to the right database and based on that connection string read data from the views?
How would you do it using EF6 by just changing the connection string?
Can you give a noddy example how to do it?
Any suggestions

Answer 1

here it is, just a bit more of 10 minutes... (EF 5 on .net 4.5)
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration;
using System.Data.Objects.SqlClient;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
namespace testef {
public class EntityZ {
public Int32 Id { get; set; }
public String P1 { get; set; }
}
public class EntityZConfiguration : EntityTypeConfiguration<EntityZ> {
public EntityZConfiguration()
: base() {
ToTable("v", "dbo"); // the view
HasKey(x => x.Id); //required
//the mapping of properties
Property(x => x.Id).HasColumnName("id");
Property(x => x.P1).HasColumnName("value");
}
}
public class TestEFContext : DbContext {
public DbSet<EntityZ> Entities { get; set; }
public TestEFContext(String cs)
: base(cs) {
//Database.SetInitializer<TestEFContext>(new DropCreateDatabaseAlways<TestEFContext>());
Database.SetInitializer<TestEFContext>(null);
}
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder) {
base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
modelBuilder.Configurations.Add(new EntityZConfiguration());
}
}
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
//creating the db
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=ALIASTVALK;Initial Catalog=master;Integrated Security=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True")) {
conn.Open();
using (SqlCommand com = conn.CreateCommand()) {
com.CommandText = "declare #v int = 0 select #v = 1 from sys.databases where name = 'TestEF' if #v = 1 drop database TestEF";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
com.CommandText = "create database TestEF";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
com.CommandText = "use TestEF";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
com.CommandText = "create table t (i int not null, t nvarchar(max))";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
com.CommandText = "insert into t (i, t) values (1, 'hello world')";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
com.CommandText = "create view v as select i as id, t as value from t";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
}
String cs = #"Data Source=ALIASTVALK;Initial Catalog=TestEF;Integrated Security=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True";
using (TestEFContext ctx = new TestEFContext(cs)) {
foreach (EntityZ z in ctx.Entities) {
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", z.Id, z.P1);
}
}
}
}
}