Can i use entity framework with mysql?

LATEST EDIT

The bug has been fixed.

Chris' comment:

2015-11-07 and you can now get it all working without editing any files or doing weird stuff. Use the MySQL for Windows installer and include the Visual Studio support and the latest Connector.Net. Be sure to update after installing and you will get the latest of each (1.2.5 and 6.9.8). Use NuGet to install EntityFramework, MySql.Data, and MySql.Data.Entity. Finally, built and enjoy code-first reverse engineering goodness by adding an Ado.Net Entity Model.

Original answer

I found out it's a bug from MySQL.

Here's the link explaining a workarround.

On your machine where VS 2013 is installed, VS plugin (1.1.3 GA) and Connector/Net

Close all VS instances before doing the steps.

On a Windows Explorer window go to this path or wherever you installed you Connector/net binaries

C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Connector Net 6.8.3\Assemblies\v4.5\

Copy the file:

MySql.Data.Entity.EF6.dll

And paste it to this folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

If it asks you to overwrite it please do so.

You'll need admin rights in order to overwrite the file.

Then you can try again to generate the script for your model.

It is important that you have the 1.1.3 version of the VS plugin installed since this workaround is for that.

Unfortunately it doesn't work for me, so I downgraded to entity framework 5 until they fix this.

EDIT

Finaly, it works now.

I had to add the 3 following DLLs :

• C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Connector Net 6.8.3\Assemblies\v4.5\MySql.Data.dll
• C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Connector Net 6.8.3\Assemblies\v4.5\MySql.Data.Entity.EF6.dll
• C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Connector Net 6.8.3\Assemblies\v4.5\MySql.Web.dll

Then I changed the EntityFramework part in the web config to :

Don't forget to REBUILD and you should be able to create a entity framework 6 model with MySQL.

IMPORTANT

Make sure you have installed MySQL for visual studio 1.1.3 and MySQL connector .net 6.8.3

Tutorial built with .NET 5.0

Other versions available:

• .NET: .NET 6.0
• Node: Node.js

In this post we'll go through the steps to connect a .NET API to MySQL using Entity Framework Core, and to create a MySQL database from code using EF Core migrations.

We'll start with an example .NET CRUD API from a tutorial I posted recently, it uses an EF Core InMemory database by default for testing, we'll update it to connect to a MySQL database and run EF Core migrations to auto generate the database and tables from code. For full details about the .NET CRUD API see .NET 5.0 - CRUD API Example and Tutorial.

Tutorial Contents

• Tools required for this tutorial
• Download & Run the example .NET API
• Update API to use MySQL
• Create SQL Database with EF Core Migrations
• Restart .NET CRUD API

Tools required for this tutorial

To follow the steps in this tutorial you'll need the following:

• .NET SDK - includes the .NET runtime and command line tools.
• Visual Studio Code - code editor that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. If you have a different preferred code editor that's fine too.
• C# extension for Visual Studio Code - adds support to VS Code for developing .NET applications.
• MySQL - you'll need access to running MySQL server instance for the API to connect to, it can be remote (e.g. Azure, AWS etc) or on your local machine. The Community Server is available for free from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/, ensure it is started so the API can connect to it. Installation instructions are available at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/installing.html.

Download & Run the example .NET API

Follow these steps to download and run the .NET CRUD API on your local machine with the default EF Core InMemory database:

1. Download or clone the tutorial project code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/dotnet-5-crud-api
2. Start the api by running dotnet run from the command line in the project root folder (where the WebApi.csproj file is located), you should see the message Now listening on: http://localhost:4000.
3. You can test the API directly with a tool such as Postman or hook it up with an example Angular or React app available.

Starting in debug mode

You can also start the application in debug mode in VS Code by opening the project root folder in VS Code and pressing F5 or by selecting Debug -> Start Debugging from the top menu, running in debug mode allows you to attach breakpoints to pause execution and step through the application code. For detailed instructions including a short demo video see VS Code + .NET - Debug a .NET Web App in Visual Studio Code.

Update .NET API to use MySQL

Add MySQL database provider from NuGet

Run the following command from the project root folder to install the EF Core database provider for MySQL from NuGet:

dotnet add package Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql

Add connection string to app settings

Open the appsettings.json file and add the entry "ConnectionStrings" with a child entry for the MySQL connection string (e.g. "WebApiDatabase"), the connection string should be in the format "server=[DB SERVER URL]; database=[DB NAME]; user=[USERNAME]; password=[PASSWORD]".

When EF Core migrations generates the database, the database value will be the name of the database created in MySQL.

The updated appsettings.json file with the connection string should look something like this:

{
    "ConnectionStrings": {
        "WebApiDatabase": "server=localhost; database=dotnet-5-crud-api; user=testUser; password=testPass123"
    },
    "Logging": {
        "LogLevel": {
            "Microsoft": "Warning",
            "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
        }
    }
}

Update Data Context to Use MySQL

The DataContext class located at /Helpers/DataContext.cs is used for accessing application data through Entity Framework. It derives from the Entity Framework DbContext class and has a public Users property for accessing and managing user data.

Update the OnConfiguring() method to connect to MySQL instead of an in memory database by replacing options.UseInMemoryDatabase("TestDb"); with options.UseMySql(connectionString, ServerVersion.AutoDetect(connectionString));.

The updated DataContext class should look like this:

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using WebApi.Entities;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class DataContext : DbContext
    {
        protected readonly IConfiguration Configuration;

        public DataContext(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
        {
            // connect to mysql with connection string from app settings
            var connectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("WebApiDatabase");
            options.UseMySql(connectionString, ServerVersion.AutoDetect(connectionString));
        }

        public DbSet Users { get; set; }
    }
}

Create SQL Database from code with EF Core Migrations

Install dotnet ef tools

The .NET Entity Framework Core tools (dotnet ef) are used to generate EF Core migrations, to install the EF Core tools globally run dotnet tool install -g dotnet-ef, or to update run dotnet tool update -g dotnet-ef. For more info on EF Core tools see https://docs.microsoft.com/ef/core/cli/dotnet

Add EF Core Design package from NuGet

Run the following command from the project root folder to install the EF Core design package, it provides cross-platform command line tooling support and is used to generate EF Core migrations:

dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design

Generate EF Core migrations

Generate new EF Core migration files by running the command dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate from the project root folder (where the WebApi.csproj file is located), these migrations will create the database and tables for the .NET Core API.

Execute EF Core migrations

Run the command dotnet ef database update from the project root folder to execute the EF Core migrations and create the database and tables in MySQL.

Check MySQL and you should now see your database with the tables Users and __EFMigrationsHistory.

Restart .NET CRUD API

Stop and restart the API with the command dotnet run from the project root folder, you should see the message Now listening on: http://localhost:4000 and the API should now be connected to MySQL.

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