auto create database in Entity Framework Core

Question

My application which is being ported to  NET core will use the new EF Core with SQLite  I want to automatically create the database and table structures when the app is first run  According to the EF core documentation this is done using manual commands   dotnet ef migrations add MyFirstMigration  dotnet ef database update   However I don t want the end user to enter these commands and would prefer to have the app create and setup the database for first use  For EF 6 there is functionality like   Database SetInitializer new CreateDatabaseIfNotExists lt MyContext gt        But in EF Core these don t seem to exist  I can t find any examples or documentation on something equivalent for EF core and it is not mentioned in the list of missing features in the EF core documentation  I have the model classes setup already so I could write some code to initialize the database based on the models but it would be heaps easier if the framework did this automatically  I don t want to auto build the model or migrate  just create the table structures on a new database   Am I missing something here or is auto create table function missing in EF core

User · Answer

My answer is very similar to Ricardo s answer  but I feel that my approach is a little more straightforward simply because there is so much going on in his using function that I m not even sure how exactly it works on a lower level   So for those who want a simple and clean solution that creates a database for you where you know exactly what is happening under the hood  this is for you   public Startup IHostingEnvironment env        using  var client   new TargetsContext                  client Database EnsureCreated              This pretty much means that within the DbContext that you created  in this case  mine is called TargetsContext   you can use an instance of the DbContext to ensure that the tables defined with in the class are created when Startup cs is run in your application

User · Answer

If you get the context via the parameter list of Configure in Startup cs  You can instead do this   public void Configure IApplicationBuilder app  IHostingEnvironment env   LoggerFactory loggerFactory      ApplicationDbContext context           context Database Migrate

User · Answer

If you have created the migrations  you could execute them in the Startup cs as follows   public void Configure IApplicationBuilder app  IHostingEnvironment env  ILoggerFactory loggerFactory           using  var serviceScope   app ApplicationServices GetService lt IServiceScopeFactory gt    CreateScope                        var context   serviceScope ServiceProvider GetRequiredService lt ApplicationDbContext gt                 context Database Migrate                              This will create the database and the tables using your added migrations  If you re not using Entity Framework Migrations  and instead just need your DbContext model created exactly as it is in your context class at first run  then you can use   public void Configure IApplicationBuilder app  IHostingEnvironment env  ILoggerFactory loggerFactory           using  var serviceScope   app ApplicationServices GetService lt IServiceScopeFactory gt    CreateScope                        var context   serviceScope ServiceProvider GetRequiredService lt ApplicationDbContext gt                 context Database EnsureCreated                              Instead  If you need to delete your database prior to making sure it s created  call              context Database EnsureDeleted     Just before you call EnsureCreated   Adapted from  http   docs identityserver io en latest quickstarts 7 entity framework html highlight entity

User · Answer

For EF Core 2 0  I had to take a different approach because they changed the API  As of March 2019 Microsoft recommends you put your database migration code in your application entry class but outside of the WebHost build code   public class Program       public static void Main string   args                var host   CreateWebHostBuilder args  Build            using  var serviceScope   host Services CreateScope                          var context   serviceScope ServiceProvider GetRequiredService lt PersonContext gt                 context Database Migrate                      host Run               public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder string   args    gt          WebHost CreateDefaultBuilder args               UseStartup lt Startup gt

User · Answer

If you haven t created migrations  there are 2 options  1 create the database and tables from application Main   var context   services GetRequiredService lt YourRepository gt     context Database EnsureCreated      2 create the tables if the database already exists   var context   services GetRequiredService lt YourRepository gt     context Database EnsureCreated    RelationalDatabaseCreator databaseCreator    RelationalDatabaseCreator context Database GetService lt IDatabaseCreator gt     databaseCreator CreateTables      Thanks to Bubi s answer

User · Answer

If you want both of EnsureCreated and Migrate use this code       using  var context   new YourDbContext                                  if  context Database EnsureCreated                                            auto migration when database created first time                        add migration history table                      string createEFMigrationsHistoryCommand      quot  USE   context Database GetDbConnection   Database    SET ANSI NULLS ON  SET QUOTED IDENTIFIER ON  CREATE TABLE  dbo     EFMigrationsHistory        MigrationId   nvarchar  150  NOT NULL       ProductVersion   nvarchar  32  NOT NULL   CONSTRAINT  PK   EFMigrationsHistory  PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED         MigrationId  ASC  WITH  PAD INDEX   OFF  STATISTICS NORECOMPUTE   OFF  IGNORE DUP KEY   OFF  ALLOW ROW LOCKS   ON  ALLOW PAGE LOCKS   ON  OPTIMIZE FOR SEQUENTIAL KEY   OFF  ON  PRIMARY    ON  PRIMARY    quot                       context Database ExecuteSqlRaw createEFMigrationsHistoryCommand                          insert all of migrations                     var dbAssebmly   context GetType   GetAssembly                        foreach  var item in dbAssebmly GetTypes                                                  if  item BaseType    typeof Migration                                                         string migrationName   item GetCustomAttributes lt MigrationAttribute gt    First   Id                              var version   typeof Migration  Assembly GetName   Version                              string efVersion     quot  version Major   version Minor   version Build  quot                               context Database ExecuteSqlRaw  quot INSERT INTO   EFMigrationsHistory MigrationId ProductVersion  VALUES   0   1   quot   migrationName  efVersion                                                                                     context Database Migrate

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