As Entity Framework simplifies working with data – and I mean basic operations like querying and updating – there’s also of course demand to simplify other parts of an application developer’s life. The data needs to be stored somewhere. Somewhere in a database with structure that, preferably, matches your Entity Framework model and classes!

Code First Migrations is the part of Entity Framework that makes it easier to manage the structure of a database as an application evolves over time. You don’t have to deal with DDL commands and so on; you just let the logic update your database to the current state of the model. And, of course, you can change the result before it’s applied and even add elements as you see fit, such as indexes.

(In the example that follows, I’ll outline a simple example of how to work with Migrations. Visit MSDN if you need help getting started with Entity Framework.)

If you install (or update) a freshly-released Entity Framework driver for NuoDB from NuGet by invoking the Tools | NuGet Package Manager | Package Manager Console and issuing the command Install-Package EntityFramework.NuoDb you’ll be ready to go.

Let’s start with a simplified Entity Framework model, similar to the “Hockey” example:

class HockeyContext : DbContext
{
       public HockeyContext()
              : base(new NuoDbConnection(Config.ConnectionString), true)
       { }
 
       protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
       {
              base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
 
              modelBuilder.HasDefaultSchema("migrations");
 
              var playerConf = modelBuilder.Entity<[Player]>();
              playerConf.ToTable("PLAYERS");
       }
 
       public DbSet<[Player]> Players { get; set; }
}
 
class Player
{
       public string PlayerId { get; set; }
       public string FirstName { get; set; }
       public string LastName { get; set; }
}