CODEWITHSUNDEEP
entity-framework-coredatabase-migration
nafr1
nafr1

Reputation: 315

Entity Framework Core configurations with existing database

In one of my projects, I am using an existing SQL Server database. All the database scripts are managed using DBUp and SQL script migrations.

In my application, I am using Entity Framework Core to communicate with this database. When I configure my entities in EF configurations, should I still define functions like IsRequired(), HasMaxLenth() etc.?

I am not using these EF configurations to generate migration scripts; all the migration is outside of EF. I am just using these configurations to communicate with the database.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 63

Answers (2)

bricelam
bricelam

Reputation: 30375

In general, yes, you should keep them. Many of these configurations are used throughout EF to make decisions at runtime. For example, some queries can be further optimized if EF knows that a column is never NULL, the max length is used to configure the SQL parameters it sends to the database, and unique constraints are used to sort SQL statements during SaveChanges.

While a few things like constraint names, non-unique indexes, index filters, and sequences aren't currently used at runtime, it's hard to know which ones EF will and won't use, so it's best just to keep them all.

And sometimes, database features like always encrypted on SQL Server, will fail entirely if the mappings aren't precise.

Upvotes: 0

David Browne - Microsoft
David Browne - Microsoft

Reputation: 89090

When I configure my Entities in EF configurations, should I still define functions like IsRequired(), HasMaxLenth() etc.?

Other than table and column name mapping and data type mapping, it's not required, but additional model metadata might be used by front-end components for validation.

Upvotes: 1

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