Auto Generate Model Files(C#) from DB

Question

Hi,

How can we generate c# Model files automatically. The DB can be SQL Server or Azure SQL .

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @Santhi Dhanuskodi

To generate models and DbContext automatically from the SQL server or Azure SQL database, we could use the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design package and the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer database provider.

You can refer to the following methods:

Create an Asp.net core application and add the connection string in the appsettings.json file, like this:

Method 1: using .Net Core CLI command.

1.Right click the project and select the "open in terminal" option.

2.In the terminal window, use the following command to install the EF core tools:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

like this:

3.Use the following commands to install the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design package and the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer database provider:

dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer --version 7.0.9
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design --version 7.0.9

4.Finally, use the following command to generate the models and dbcontext:

dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold "Name=ConnectionStrings:dbcontectstring" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -o Models -c BlogContext 

Method 2: Using the Package Manager Console

1.Open the Package Manager Console and use the following commands to install the related package:

NuGet\Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -Version 7.0.9
NuGet\Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design -Version 7.0.9
NuGet\Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools -Version 7.0.9

2.Then, use the following command to add the Models and Context

Scaffold-DbContext 'Name=ConnectionStrings:dbcontectstring' Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -context ApplicationDbContext -OutputDir Models

The output like this:

More detail information about the .Net Core CLI or Scaffold-DbContext commands, see:

Entity Framework Core tools reference - Package Manager Console in Visual Studio

Entity Framework Core tools reference - .NET Core CLI

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Best regards,

Dillion

Answer 2

Check out EF Power Tools which will generate all models, some models, include/exclude columns etc. Will even install EF Core required NuGet packages. And if you do a another process EF Power Tools remembers what you did before.