Question

I’ve been following along with a tutorial by Julie Lerman about using EF CodeFirst to generate the database from code. I’m using MVC4 and working with the default controllers. All I want to do is generate the database. However, in her tutorial, she’s working with a console application and calling a create_blog method in her Main function. The create_blog function does the work of creating the database as the name suggests.

In my Global.asax, I have this:

Database.SetInitializer(new CIT.Models.SampleData());

This is my SampleData class:

 public class SampleData : CreateDatabaseIfNotExists<Context>
    {
        protected override void Seed(Context context)
        {
            base.Seed(context);


            new List<Software> {
                    new Software { Title = "Adobe Creative Suite", Version = "CS6", SerialNumber = "1234634543", Platform = "Mac", Notes = "Macs rock!", PurchaseDate = "2012-12-04", Suite = true, SubscriptionEndDate = null, SeatCount = 4, SoftwareTypes = new List<SoftwareType> { new SoftwareType { Type="Suite" }}, Locations = new List<Location> { new Location { LocationName = "Paradise" }}, Publishers = new List<SoftwarePublisher> { new SoftwarePublisher { Publisher = "Adobe" }}},
                    new Software { Title = "Apple iLife", Version = "2012", SerialNumber = "123463423453", Platform = "Mac", Notes = "Macs still rock!", PurchaseDate = "2012-11-04", Suite = true, SubscriptionEndDate = null, SeatCount = 4, SoftwareTypes = new List<SoftwareType> { new SoftwareType { Type="Suite" }}, Locations = new List<Location> { new Location { LocationName = "81st Street" }}, Publishers = new List<SoftwarePublisher> { new SoftwarePublisher { Publisher = "Apple" }}},
                    new Software { Title = "Microsoft Office", Version = "2012", SerialNumber = "12346231434543", Platform = "PC", Notes = "Macs really rock!", PurchaseDate = "2011-12-04", Suite = true, SubscriptionEndDate = null, SeatCount = 4, SoftwareTypes = new List<SoftwareType> { new SoftwareType { Type="Suite" }}, Locations = new List<Location> { new Location { LocationName = "Paradise" }}, Publishers = new List<SoftwarePublisher> { new SoftwarePublisher { Publisher = "Microsoft" }}}
                }.ForEach(s => context.Software.Add(s));


        }
    }

I get no errors when I compile. I just get no database. I looked in my App_Data and all that’s there is the default database. I have a dbContext that is getting called because when I had errors in it, they pointed to that file. Do I need to have some kind of create method that is called when the site first compiles?

Answer 1

SetInitializer only sets the initializer strategy and the strategy is executed the first time you access the database. Try adding the following after calling SetInitializer

using (var context = new Context()) { context.Database.Initialize(true); }