EF Code First, IoC and DbConnection - entity-framework

Question

I'm using Entity Framework Code First. I want to be able to inject a System.Data.Common.DbConnection object when instantiating the context that derives from System.Data.Entity.DbContext. This is so that I can pass different types of connections depending on what environment the code is running in, i.e. use System.Data.SqlClient (SQL Server) in development, System.Data.SQLite when unit testing and something else in production. The pertinent parts of Context looks like this:
public class Context : DbContext
{
public Context(DbConnection dbConnection)
: base(dbConnection, true)
{
}
protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
Database.SetInitializer(new MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion<Context, Configuration>());
base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
}
public DbSet<Test> Tests { get; set; }
}
That gives me the following error: The target context 'Services.Persistence.Context' is not constructible. Add a default constructor or provide an implementation of IDbContextFactory. I think this happens during model initialization when Entity Framework apparently feels it needs to new up it's own Context, independent of the IoC pattern I'm trying to achieve. The lack of a default constructor is by design. The IDbContextFactory interface is just as useless - it has to have a default constructor too.
Is Entity Framework Code First completely wedded to the idea of setting up it's config by reading a connectionstring from a config file (or alternatively getting the connectionstring passed directly) or can one work around this?
UPDATE, here's the Windsor config:
container.Register(Component
.For<DbConnection>()
.UsingFactoryMethod(() =>
new SqlConnection("Data Source=(localdb)\\v11.0;Database=ThatProject;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"))
.LifeStyle.Transient);
container.Register(Component
.For<Context>()
.UsingFactoryMethod(k => new Context(k.Resolve<DbConnection>()))
.LifeStyle.PerWebRequest);
container.Register(Component
.For<IRepository>()
.UsingFactoryMethod(k => new Repository(k.Resolve<Context>()))
.LifeStyle.PerWebRequest);

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure your issue is nothing to do with EF but I'm not really a user of Windsor so i cant tell you for sure what your config issue is. What I have done is to reproduce a similar configuration with ninject which works exactly as you would expect, see below:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IKernel kernel = new StandardKernel();
kernel.Bind<DbConnection>().ToMethod((ctx) =>{return new SqlConnection("Data Source=(localdb)\\v11.0;Database=ThatProject;MultipleActiveResultSets=true");});
kernel.Bind<Context>().ToSelf();//not really needed
kernel.Bind<TestRepository>().ToSelf();//not really needed
kernel.Get<TestRepository>();
}
}
public class Context : DbContext
{
public Context(DbConnection dbConnection)
: base(dbConnection, true){}
public DbSet<Test> Tests { get; set; }
}
public class TestRepository
{
public TestRepository(Context c)
{
c.Tests.Add(new Test());
c.SaveChanges();
var all = c.Tests;
}
}
public class Test
{
public int Id { get; set; }
}
This means that EF isn't trying to do any funkiness with context creation (as a non-empty constructor works fine for me).
From your Windsor config I would expect you need to do something like the following however im not too sure of the exact syntax:
container.Register(Component
.For<DbConnection>()
.UsingFactoryMethod(() =>
new SqlConnection("Data Source=(localdb)\\v11.0;Database=ThatProject;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"))
.LifeStyle.Transient);
container.Register(Component
.For<Context>()
.ImplementedBySelf()//this probably isn't the correct syntax
.LifeStyle.PerWebRequest);//per request is good, i have some details around why this is good practice if you are interested
container.Register(Component
.For<IRepository>()
.ImplementedBy<ConcreteRepository>()//you arent really calling a method and creating the object yourself you are letting Windsor create the object and sort out the dependancy tree
.LifeStyle.PerWebRequest);