Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC application with the default membership database. I am accessing it by ADO.NET Entity Framework.

Now I want to move it to IIS, but several problems showed up. I had to install SQL Server Management Studio, Create new DB, import there all the data from the previous .MDF file. Only thing left to do (as far a I know) is to change to connection string. However, I am not really experienced with this and keep getting the exception:

Keyword not supported: ‘data source’.

Here is my connection string:

<add name="ASPNETDBEntities" 
     connectionString="Data Source=MONTGOMERY-DEV\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ASPNETDB;Integrated Security=True;" 
     providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

Any ideas, what’s wrong?

Answer 1

What you have is a valid ADO.NET connection string – but it’s NOT a valid Entity Framework connection string.

The EF connection string would look something like this:

<connectionStrings> 
  <add name="NorthwindEntities" connectionString=
     "metadata=.\Northwind.csdl|.\Northwind.ssdl|.\Northwind.msl;
      provider=System.Data.SqlClient;
      provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=SERVER\SQL2000;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=False&quot;" 
      providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" /> 
</connectionStrings>

You’re missing all the metadata= and providerName= elements in your EF connection string…… you basically only have what’s contained in the provider connection string part.

Using the EDMX designer should create a valid EF connection string for you, in your web.config or app.config.

I understand what you’re trying to do: you need a second "ADO.NET" connection string just for ASP.NET user / membership database. Your string is OK, but the providerName is wrong – it would have to be "System.Data.SqlClient" – this connection doesn’t use ENtity Framework – don’t specify the "EntityClient" for it then!

<add name="ASPNETMembership" 
     connectionString="Data Source=MONTGOMERY-DEV\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ASPNETDB;Integrated Security=True;" 
     providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

If you specify providerName=System.Data.EntityClient ==> Entity Framework connection string (with the metadata= and everything).

If you need and specify providerName=System.Data.SqlClient ==> straight ADO.NET SQL Server connection string without all the EF additions