Question

We are using ef code first with the DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges seed model.

The database doesn’t have a lot of sensitive information, so it’s fine if it gets dropped.

However we should be able to backup the old version before dropping it. Is it possible?

Answer 1

We will implement the interface IDatabaseInitializer<T> in the soon future.

For now, we’re using this code (which, I know, is not ideal):

Database.SetInitializer<OurdatabaseModel>(new OurdatabaseInitializer());
_instance = new OurdatabaseModel();

try
{
    // force model creation
    _instance.Database.Initialize(false);
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
    if (_instance == null)
    {
        throw;
    }

    // database exists. Let's back it up.
    string dbPath = _instance.Database.Connection.Database.Replace("|DataDirectory|", Program.DataDirectory);
    File.Move(dbPath, dbPath + "." + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss") + ".sdf");

    // and now the CreateDatabaseIfNotExists<T> will take care of the rest
    _instance = new OurdatabaseModel();
}