Question

Is there an equivalence in Entity Framework to NHibernate SchemaExport?

Given I have a working Entity-Model, I would like to programmatically initialize a database.

I would like to use this functionality in the setup of my integration tests.

Creating the matching DDL for an Entity-Model would also suffice.

Answer 1

Yes – given that you’re working with Entity Framework 4 (which is, confusingly enough, the second version…)

Edit: This is the way to do it with just EF4. In my original post below is described how to accomplish the same thing with the Code-Only approach in EF CTP3.

How to: Export model to database in EF4
To export a model to database, right-click anywhere in the designer (where you don’t have an entity) and choose “Generate database from model…” and follow the steps described in the wizard. Voila!

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Original post, targeting EF4 CTP3 and Code-Only: This is code I use in a little setup utility.

var builder = new ContextBuilder<ObjectContext>();

// Register all configurations you need here
builder.Configurations.Add(new EntryConfiguration());
builder.Configurations.Add(new TagConfiguration());

var conn = GetUnOpenedSqlConnection();
var db = builder.Create(conn);

if (db.DatabaseExists())
{ db.DeleteDatabase(); }

 db.CreateDatabase();

It works on my machine (although here I’ve simplified a little bit for brevity…), so if something does not work it’s because I over-simplified.

Note that, as TomTom stated, you will only get the basics. But it’s pretty useful even if you have a more complicated schema – you only have to manually write DDL to add the complicated stuff onto the generated DB schema.