Question

I am new to EF using EF4 with Database First and generation taking place.
I have to place the connection string in a different config than the app.config.

How can I do it? How can I bypass it?

I have a partial class of MyTextContext
and I have a method like this

   public static string GenerateConnectionString()
  {
     SqlConnectionStringBuilder sqlBuilder = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();

     // Set the properties for the data source.
     sqlBuilder.DataSource = dbServer;
     sqlBuilder.InitialCatalog = dbName;
     sqlBuilder.UserID = "YOUR_USERNAME";
     sqlBuilder.Password = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
     sqlBuilder.IntegratedSecurity = false;

     // Build the SqlConnection connection string.
     string providerString = sqlBuilder.ToString();

     // Initialize the EntityConnectionStringBuilder.
     var entityBuilder = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();

     //Set the provider name.
     entityBuilder.Provider = "System.Data.SqlClient";

     // Set the provider-specific connection string.
     entityBuilder.ProviderConnectionString = providerString;

     // Set the Metadata location.
     entityBuilder.Metadata = @"res://*/myTestModel.csdl|
                            res://*/myTestModel.ssdl|
                            res://*/myTestModel.msl";


     return entityBuilder.ToString();
  }

I have noticed that my EFModel.designer has a constructor like these:

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new MyTestContext object using the connection string found in the 'MyTestContext' section of the application configuration file.
    /// </summary>
    public MyTestContext() : base("name=MyTestContext", "MyTestContext")
    {
        this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
        OnContextCreated();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Initialize a new MyTestContext object.
    /// </summary>
    public MyTestContext(string connectionString) : base(connectionString, "MyTestContext")
    {
        this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
        OnContextCreated();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Initialize a new MyTestContext object.
    /// </summary>
    public MyTestContext(EntityConnection connection) : base(connection, "MyTestContext")
    {
        this.ContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;
        OnContextCreated();
    }

How can I use my “GenerateConnectionString” rather then EF reading from the app.config?

Thanks for any suggestions

Answer 1

Did you try using the 2nd ctor overload?

public MyTestContext(string connectionString)

e.g

var ctx = new MyTestContext(GenerateConnectionString());

From MSDN:

The Entity Data Model tools generate a named connection string that is stored in the application’s configuration file. This named connection string can be supplied instead of the connectionString parameter when instantiating the ObjectContext class.

So in theory, it should use the one you supply (unless you use the parameterless constructor).

I’ve never tried this though (i don’t use code generation, i hand craft everything).