How to handle EF code-first migrations from my local machine when deploying to Azure? - entity-framework

Question

I finally figured out how to get web.config transformations working, so that locally I have one connection (the one in my default web.config), and then when I publish to Azure, the "debug" transformation is applied so that an Azure-SQL database connection string is used.
That much is working, but now I'm running into a problem with database migrations.
In my Configuration:
protected override void Seed(MG.Context.MentorContext context)
{
System.Data.Entity.Database.SetInitializer(new MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion<MentorContext, Configuration>());
if (!WebSecurity.Initialized)
WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection",
"User", "UserId", "Username", autoCreateTables: true);
}
Now, when I'm running locally and want to update my local database, I open up Package Manager Console and type in 'update-database' and everything works wonderfully.
Sometimes I want to update the remote Azure-SQL database though - so in the past I've done this:
Update-Database -ConnectionString "azure connection string here" -verbose
which was working when I was manually updating my local web.config. Now that I'm using the above transformations, even though I specify a connectionString, DefaultConnection in my Seed method resolves to the un-transformed connection string (my local db), so the Membership tables never get created on the Azure database.
This can be solved by manually updating the default web.config, but that defeats the purpose of using these transformations.
How can I have these transformations applied so that the Seed method of my EF migrations uses the Azure connection strings - OR - how can I tell update-database to use the azure connection string?
I'm trying to avoid manually swapping the connection strings if I can.

Answer 1

You mention a Web.config and "publishing" to Azure; are you using Azure Web Sites?
If so, look at this article. In short, if you configure a connection string on the K/V store of Azure Web Sites with the same name as your connection string, the value you set on Azure will automatically take precedence:
Connection strings work in a similar fashion, with a small additional
requirement. Remember from earlier that there is a connection string
called “example-config_db” that has been associated with the website.
If the website’s web.config file references the same connection string
in the configuration section, then Windows Azure
Web Sites will automatically update the connection string at runtime
using the value shown in the portal.
This should ensure that you Seed method attempts to connect to the right database.