Jay Hollingum - Works in IT

One of the features of EF CodeFirst is the ability to automatically drop and recreate a database if the model changes or if the database does not exist, which is pretty useful when just doing development work. In a web app this is done in the Global.asax file within "protected void Application_Start()" as per this post from Scott Guthrie -  http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/16/code-first-development-with-entity-framework-4.aspx . An example would be: protected void Application_Start() { Database.SetInitializer<yourdbcontex>(new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<yourdbcontext>()); AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); } However when using the Database.SetInitializer and trying to rebuild the database, the following exception may be encountered, especially if using SQL Server Express: "This operation requires a connection to the 'master'...

Some resources to help learn and understand Microsoft's Entity Framework Code-First ORM. Basic Tutorial http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/getting-started-with-mvc3-part1-cs Advanced Tutorial http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-music-store-part-1 Blog posts with further hints and tips http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/16/code-first-development-with-entity-framework-4.aspx Update to NerdDinner using EF Code-First. Also shows how to synchronise database with the model and seeding database with initial data. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/SimpleCodeFirstWithEntityFramework4MagicUnicornFeatureCTP4.aspx Some useful info demonstrating Data Annotations such as [Key] and [Required]. This post will be added to as time goes by. If there are any other good resources about this MS framework feel free to throw them in to a comment. Updates EF Feature CTP5: Code First Walkthrough http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2010/12/06/ef-feature-ctp5-code-first-walkthrou...