Question

I am new to ASP.net’s MVC 3 (using VB) and I am trying to create an application that would connect to an SQL 2008 server database. I have gone through a tutorial (Microsoft ASP.net’s Movie DB tutorial) but the tutorial uses SQL compact edition. I am having a hard time connecting. Am I correct in assuming that once I create a model, I should be able to just connect to SQL 2008 by changing the connection string in the Web.config file, found at the root of the application folder? I deleted the sql ce database from the App_Data folder. In Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio I created a new database. I then added this to my Web.config file:

      <connectionStrings>
<add name="ConnectionName"
     providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
     connectionString="Data Source=DELERIUM-PC;Initial Catalog=iDjItDb;Integrated         Security=True" />
       </connectionStrings>

The when I run the app, and try to view the controller associated with the model, i get this error:

The model backing the ‘iDjItDBContext’ context has changed since
the database was created. Either manually delete/update the database,
or call Database.SetInitializer with an IDatabaseInitializer instance.
For example, the DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges strategy will
automatically delete and recreate the database, and optionally seed it
with new data.

What must I do to connect and work with a 2008 SQL database?

Thanks
jason

Answer 1

You can remove the IncludeMetadataConvention in your context class if you are positive that your model is compatible with the database.

public class iDjItDBContext : DBContext
{
    protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        modelBuilder.Conventions.Remove<IncludeMetadataConvention>();
    }
}

Otherwise you need to set the initializer in the Application_Start() method of your Global.asax.cs file.

Database.SetInitializer<iDjItDBContext>(
        new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<iDjItDBContext>());

Otherwise you can take the Migrations option where an external tool will generate the change script.

Edit
Change the connection string name to iDjItDBContext so that the name matches with the DbContext name.

<connectionStrings>
<add name="iDjItDBContext"
     providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
     connectionString="Data Source=DELERIUM-PC;Initial Catalog=iDjItDb;Integrated         Security=True" />
       </connectionStrings>

Or create a constructor in your context and pass the name of the connection string.

public class iDjItDBContext : DBContext
{
     public iDjItDBContext() : base("ConnectionName")
     {
     }
}