Script EF migration seed from Configuration class

Question

I have EF migrations working nicely, but I also want to generate the sql script for the seed data from my DbMigrationsConfiguration class. The seed data runs ok when I do Up

Answer 1

I know it's bit of an old thread but, here is an answer that could help someone else looking for an answer.

You can use the Migrate.exe supplied by Entity Framework. This will allow you to run the Seed method on the database context.

If you need to run a specific Seed method you can place that in a separate migration config file like this:

Enable-Migrations -MigrationsDirectory "Migrations\ContextA" -ContextTypeName MyProject.Models.ContextA

Command:

Migrate.exe MyAssembly CustomConfig /startupConfigurationFile=”..\web.config”

Look for it in the NuGet packages directory: "..\packages\EntityFramework.6.1.3\tools"

You can specify migration configuration as an argument to it. The CustomConfig should contain your code based Seed method. So, This way you do not require SQL scripts to be generated from the migration.

More info here:

http://www.eidias.com/blog/2014/10/13/initialcreate-migration-and-why-is-it-important

http://www.gitshah.com/2014/06/how-to-run-entity-framework-migrations.html

Using this solution, you do not need to generate an SQL script and can run multiple Seeds for different environments.