Command Reference for Entity Framework Code-First Migrations

Entity Framework (6) Migtrations

Enable the migrations

Enable migrations within a specific project, where multiple DbContexts are being used

enable-migrations -ContextTypeName nnnnn -MigrationsDirectory ddddd

where nnnnn = BlogDbContext and ddddd => MigationsBlog

Add a migration

Create a migration to make changes to the underlying database for the current model.

add-migration nnnnnnn -ConfigurationTypeName ccccc -Force

where nnnnnn => Initial and ccccc => Infrastructure.Migrationsblog.BlogDbConfiguration

NB: for ConfigurationTypeName, the value is the fully qualified Name and is case sensitive

The -Force parameter is used to overwrite the migration, allowing it to be generated as often as necessary until the correct configuration is achieved.

Update the Database

Update the database to the latest migration

update-database -ConfigurationTypeName ccccc -Verbose

where ccccc is the same as for Add-Migration

The -Verbose parameter allow the Generated SQL to be sent to the Package Managed Console, which is useful for checking and also generated the necessary SQL for any conversion process.

Common Parameters

The above commande also take the following common parameters:

-ProjectName defines the project the migrations are being applied to or from.

-StartupProjectName defines the startup project for the application, which is used to locate the connection string for the underlying database.  In the case of an MVC project, it's found in the web.config file.

List migrations applied to the database

To list the migrations applied for each DbContext, use the following command

get-migrations -ProjectName -StartUpProjectName

Note:

The DbContext being used with the migrations MUST have a parameterless contstructor for the migrations to work.

A good external reference for EF Migrations commands can be found on Anders Abel site.  See the references below

• EF Migrations Command Reference (Anders Abel)