One of the dilemmas of "getting started" applications and examples is that creating the database in code when the application starts is by far the easiest way to get up and running with a database, but this is considered an anti-pattern for most production applications. So, even though its a bit harder, we want people to start with something like Migrations which allows us to show best practice from the start. However, using Migrations requires running some commands at the command line.
The idea behind EnsureMigrated is to have a single, simple line of code that can safely be run when starting an application and which will check if Migrations have been created and applied to the database. If no migrations are found in the project, then EnsureMigrated will stop and indicate that the user should run dotnet ef migrations add. For example:
A database must be created for this application. Enter the following commands to create a database using EF Core Migrations:
dotnet ef migrations add InitialMigration
dotnet ef database update
See https://aka.ms/databasemigrations for more information.
We can potentially also detect other conditions such as a migration exists, but update database has not been called. We may also want to check if the dotnet-ef tool is installed and give instructions for that.
To make this easier, we could create a new command that will add a migration and update the database in one go. For example:
A database must be created for this application. Enter the following commands to create a database using EF Core Migrations:
dotnet ef database initialize
See https://aka.ms/databasemigrations for more information.
The end-result is guidance towards best practice with minimal input from the user. It's also not magic--that is, the user knows that they are creating a database.
Thoughts @davidfowl @bricelam @JeremyLikness @halter73 @LadyNaggaga @glennc
One of the dilemmas of "getting started" applications and examples is that creating the database in code when the application starts is by far the easiest way to get up and running with a database, but this is considered an anti-pattern for most production applications. So, even though its a bit harder, we want people to start with something like Migrations which allows us to show best practice from the start. However, using Migrations requires running some commands at the command line.
The idea behind
EnsureMigratedis to have a single, simple line of code that can safely be run when starting an application and which will check if Migrations have been created and applied to the database. If no migrations are found in the project, thenEnsureMigratedwill stop and indicate that the user should rundotnet ef migrations add. For example:We can potentially also detect other conditions such as a migration exists, but
update databasehas not been called. We may also want to check if thedotnet-eftool is installed and give instructions for that.To make this easier, we could create a new command that will add a migration and update the database in one go. For example:
The end-result is guidance towards best practice with minimal input from the user. It's also not magic--that is, the user knows that they are creating a database.
Thoughts @davidfowl @bricelam @JeremyLikness @halter73 @LadyNaggaga @glennc