CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netentity-frameworksql-server-cedata-access-layer
Mauro Sampietro
Mauro Sampietro

Reputation: 2814

Data access layer assembly reference chain

I have a DataAccess assembly refering to the SQL Server Compact dlls.

From my main app I just add a reference to DataAccess assembly. I'd like my main app not to have any reference to any dll referenced by DataAccess internally, specifically a reference to SQL Server Compact assemblies, so that if I change to another provider I don't have to change reference in the main project or update app.config configuration.

By the way at runtime I get the following error:

No Entity Framework provider found for the ADO.NET provider with invariant name 'System.Data.SqlClient'.
Make sure the provider is registered in the 'entityFramework' section of the application config file.
See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information.

If I directly add a reference to SQL Server Compact everything works fine but I don't think I should do that.

If I copy all dlls used by DataAccess into main app output folder everything works fine, but should't dlls be copied automatically?

What's the right way to handle this?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 604

Answers (1)

Michał Komorowski
Michał Komorowski

Reputation: 6238

In your solution:

  • Find DataAccess project.
  • Expand References node for this project.
  • Find SqlServerCompact on the list of references.
  • Right click it.
  • Change Copy Local from False to True.

UPDATE

I was able to reproduce your problem. It seems to me that a reason behind it is that in DataAccess project you are not using directly classes from SQL Server Compact assembly. In this case a build engine tries to be smart and doesn't copy assemblies that ''are not used''. However, it takes into account only a source code and not a configuration. There is a great answer about this problem worth reading. The suggested solution is to add a dummy code that directly uses SQL Server Compact assembly. This code (placed somewhere in DataAccess project) should worke:

var t = typeof (System.Data.Entity.SqlServerCompact.SqlCeFunctions)

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions