Entity Framework generated Context uses wrong connection string

Question

I added an ADO.NET Entity Data Model to my project, which created a connection string in app.config looking like this:

<add name="KeyTranslatorEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/DAL.Model.csdl|res://*/DAL.Model.ssdl|res://*/DAL.Model.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;data source=ZZZZZ.database.windows.net,1433;initial catalog=KeyTranslator;persist security info=True;user id=YYYYY;password=XXXXX;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

It also generated the class KeyTranslatorEntities which inherits from DbContext and has this default constructor:

public KeyTranslatorEntities()
        : base("name=KeyTranslatorEntities")
    {
    }

I create a KeyTranslatorEntities using the default generated constructor but upon inspection, the instance uses the connection string:

"data source=localhost;initial catalog=KeyTranslator;integrated security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework"

Why is it not using the correct connection string?

I set a breakpoint just before the program was crashing and inspected the DbContext object using debugmode — Emil Kantis
– Emil Kantis, Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 15:18

Emil Kantis · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-02 04:46:59Z

1

The problem was that the solution consisted of two different projects. One containing the EntityFramework code and another which was a WebService project with a dependency on the other project. The WebService project contained the first connection string which was being used.

Lesson learned: Make sure the startup project's config files are updated.

answered Jul 2, 2013 at 4:46

Emil Kantis

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3 Comments

Wouter Schut Over a year ago

How exactly did you get it to work? I'm able to pass a connection name, and when its wrong I get an error. But it still uses the default connection string (based on the Context class name). Very weird

Emil Kantis Over a year ago

My problem was that the default connection string was defined in two projects. I was looking at (and changing) the connection string from one project while it was using connection strings from the other, hence the confusion.

Wouter Schut Over a year ago

i heard that the default connection string (based on the context's class name) has a higher preference before explicitly named ones. Weird.

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