Must pass connection string to EF 5 DbContext code first else Command Exception

Question

I m just using EF 5.0 and I've recreated a very simple DbContext that was working as is with EF 4.1.

Here context and model

public class AgenciesDatabaseContext : DbContext 
{
   public DbSet<Agency> Agencies { get; set; }
}

[Table("QryAgency")]
public class Agency
{
   [Key]
   public string CardCode { get; set; }
   public string DisplayName { get; set; }
   public string CardFName { get; set; }
   public string Address { get; set; }
   public string ZipCode { get; set; }
   public string City { get; set; }
}

I set in global.asax initializer for this context as null because the table already exists

Database.SetInitializer<ExtranetCentralizerContext>(null);

Here's the connection string in web.config :

<add name="AgenciesDatabase" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" connectionString="..."/>

When I try to use the DbContext in the repository I get this error :

InnerException = {"Invalid column name '...'.\r\n Invalid column name '...'.\r\nInvalid column name '...'."}

It's strange because I could see that there is not connection made to my database.

What I don't understand is that I can make it work if I pass the connection string to the context like this :

 public class AgenciesDatabaseContext : DbContext 
 {
     public DbSet<Agency> Agencies { get; set; }

     public AgenciesDatabaseContext ()
            : base("AgenciesDatabase")
     {

     }
 }

There everything work fine. So my question is : isn't EF suposed to use the connection string that matches it's name (in this case AgenciesDatabase) ??? What makes it fail in this case ?

im confused, you say code first. Then your context's constructor can have ANY value you like. i would expect to some code in the constructor. Either hard coded or injected connection string. — phil soady
– phil soady, Commented Jan 30, 2013 at 11:00
My context's constructor here is only used to pass the name of the connection string. That makes it work but as I understand I should not need to pass it because my Context class has the same name as my Connection string. You follow me ? — Arno 2501
– Arno 2501, Commented Jan 30, 2013 at 11:22
@Arno2501 put your whole inner exception and connection string without modifying. — Sampath
– Sampath, Commented Jan 30, 2013 at 13:45

tschmit · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-30 13:48:52Z

3

in your app.config the name should be AgenciesDatabaseContext, not only AgenciesDatabase.

answered Jan 30, 2013 at 13:48

tschmit

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2 Comments

Arno 2501 Over a year ago

You are right thank you ! I was so blind but this is absolutely true thanks a lot ! Still I don't understand why I was so convinced you just had to name it like your context without the "context" part pfff.

tschmit Over a year ago

@Arno2501 I used to make the same mistake :). It is the inheritance of DbContext that enable the auto search of a connection string named as the class derived from DbContext :).

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