The DBContext used by Entity Framework Code First allows you to set a strategy for how your database is updated when your application starts.  While this is a huge time saver for development it is usually not something you want to allow for production.  The last thing we need is to deploy an update to production and have the application drop and recreate the production database.

The following database initialization options are available:

• DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges – This strategy recreates your database only if the Entity Framework model is different from the database or the database does not exist. This is the most common strategy used while developing
• CreateDatabaseIfNotExists (Default) - If no database is found it will be created according to your Entity Framework Model.
• DropCreateDatabaseAlways - This strategy always drops the database and recreates it. This is helpful for integration and database test projects where a fresh database with deterministic data is created for each test.
• Custom – Used to Implement your own strategies or add seed and test data to an existing strategy. This post shows an example of extending the strategy DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges and seeding the new database with test data
• null – Disables the EF Code First Initialization process

Given the following model and context:

public class Wizard
{
	public virtual int WizardId { get; set; }
	public virtual string Name { get; set; }
	public virtual int Level { get; set; }
	public virtual ICollection<spell> Spells { get; set; }
}

public class Spell
{
	public virtual int SpellId { get; set; }
	public virtual string Name { get; set; }
	public virtual int LevelRequired { get; set; }
}

public class FantasyContext : DbContext
{
	public DbSet<wizard> Wizards { get; set; }
	public DbSet<spell> Spells { get; set; }
}

We can create a Database Initializer strategy that will drop and recreate the database seeding it with test data whenever the model changes.

public class FantasyContextInitializer
	: DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<FantasyContext>
{
	protected override void Seed(FantasyContext context)
	{
		var Gandalf = new Wizard
		{
			Name = "Gandalf the White",
			Level = 100,
			Spells = new[]
			{
				new Spell { Name = "Illumination", LevelRequired = 10 },
				new Spell { Name = "Sword of Power", LevelRequired = 50 },
				new Spell { Name = "Lightning Strike", LevelRequired = 60 }
			}
		};
		var Merlin = new Wizard
		{
			Name = "Merlin",
			Level = 100,
			Spells = new[]
			{
				new Spell { Name = "Magical Kinesis", LevelRequired = 10 },
				new Spell { Name = "Blinding Light", LevelRequired = 50 },
				new Spell { Name = "Destructive Blast", LevelRequired = 60 }
			}
		};
		context.Wizards.Add(Gandalf);
		context.Wizards.Add(Merlin);
		base.Seed(context);
	}
}

The canonical example for adding this strategy to the DbContext is by adding a single line to the Global.asax Application_Start method.

protected void Application_Start()
{
	Database.SetInitializer(new FantasyContextInitializer());
	// Other startup stuff goes here
}

However, this makes it difficult to remove the initializer for release builds or to define a different strategy for Integration Tests. Fortunately, you can define the DbContext Initializers in the config file and change or remove them using XLST transformations (For an excellent primer on Web and App config file transformations see Oleg Sych’s article Here).

To use the web.config you must first remove the SetInitializer line from the Application_Start method. Then add the following section in your web.config file.

<appsettings>
	<add key="DatabaseInitializerForType Wizards.Models.FantasyContext, Wizards"
	         value="Wizards.Models.FantasyContextInitializer, Wizards" />
	<!-- Other stuff here -->
</appsettings>

The key starts with DatabaseInitializerForType and includes the fully qualified assembly name for your Context object. The value is the fully qualified assembly name for the initialization strategy object, FantasyContextInitializer in the example. The next step is to add a transformation to the

Adding  the following lines to your Release config file will remove the Database Initializer from the web.config

<appsettings>
    <add xdt:transform="Remove"
         xdt:locator="XPath(//add[starts-with(@key, 'DatabaseInitializerForType')])" />
</appsettings>

This transformation states: Within the appsettings section locate an add element that has a key attribute that starts with DatabaseInitializerForType and remove it.

Summary

XML Transformations can be a bit tricky at first to setup but, once mastered, can be a powerful tool for setting up your different environments.

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