Mashup: SQL Server on Linux in Docker on a Mac with Visual Studio Code

Data Access,

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the new mssql extension for Visual Studio Code. I have an article coming in MSDN Magazine and am planning more fun as well. My latest experiment was doing a big mashup taking advantage of the fact that there is now a Linux version of SQL Server. So we are no longer limited to hosting it on Windows or Azure. The most lightweight way to host SQL Server on Linux is in a Docker container. While I am sitting in front of a MacBook typing this I’m by no means working towards abandoning my Windows development or Windows machines. I’m just happy to have more options at my disposal as well as have the ability to share what I am learning work beyond the world of Windows developers.

Containers are not stateful. There are ways around that (I’ll show you below) but I only know enough to be dangerous here. This is a great way to use SQL Server at design time. Using this for production is a totally different story and you need to do a lot more research and soul-searching before using that option.

On the other hand, there are those who do have that particular goal:

I had to go through a number of documents to do this and of course I got stuck even with those resources at my disposal. So I will share the full path of how I got this setup working.

Pre-Requisite

I already have Docker for Mac installed on my MacBook. Here is the installation link if you need to perform that step. Keep in mind that you can’t do this on a VM. I tried as I wanted to repeat this with a clean setup.

Be sure that Docker is set to use at least 4GB of memory.

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Getting the SQL Server Docker Image

This is what makes the whole thing so easy! Microsoft has created an official docker image with SQL Server for Linux already on it.

In the terminal window, you can pull and install the official image with

 sudo docker pull microsoft/mssql-server-linux

Once it’s installed, the ‘docker images’ command will show you that the image is now available on your machine.

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Although I just installed it today, you can see that the image I’m using — which is the latest version — was created by Microsoft 3 weeks ago.

Spinning Up a Container (or Two) From the Image

Now that Docker is aware of the image, you can create a container from it — which is running instance of the image.

Because we’re on a Mac and awaiting for a “bug” to get fixed, we will actually create two containers.

Depending on your familiarity with Docker, you may or may not be aware that containers are not stateful. Once you delete a container, it’s all gone! If you have persisted data in that container, it, too, is all gone. However, Docker has a feature called “Volumes” which are a way to retain state between docker instances. So when one instance is shut down, the state is stored in a Volume. When another container instance is spun up, that volume provides the container with the state from the previous instance. This is how it’s possible to use containers for databases.

Here’s a great tutorial on volumes: https://rominirani.com/docker-tutorial-series-part-7-data-volumes-93073a1b5b72
And the official docker doc:  https://docs.docker.com/engine/tutorials/dockervolumes/#/creating-and-mounting-a-data-volume-container

However there’s an issue (which looks like the resolution is around the corner) with Docker on Mac hosting the sql-server-linux image. This prevents us from using a volume for persistence in the simple way. So instead, we’ll create a separate container that is a “data volume container”, then we will point the container that will run SQL Server to the data volume container.

Creating the volume container

I’ll name mine mssqldata. Here’s the command to create it. (Don’t miss the full length of the command!)

docker create -v /var/opt/mssql --name mssqldata  microsoft/mssql-server-linux /bin/true

This volume container still uses the image as its base. But we won’t be running SQL Server from this instance.

Creating the SQL Server container

Now you can create an container where you will run SQL Server and that container will use the data volume container for the persisted data.

docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=Passw0rd' -p 1433:1433 --volumes-from mssqldata -d --name sql-server microsoft/mssql-server-linux

The two environment variables (accept_eula and sa_password) are required. The userid is (gulp) ‘sa’. The password requirements are: “At least 8 characters including uppercase, lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.”. Mine’s really fancy!

Once these exist,

docker ps

will only show you the regular container. The volume container is hidden so you need

docker ps -a

to see it.

2017-04-07_16-07-49.jpgNotice that the container I will run SQL Server on is on a port whereas the data volume container has a different status “Created”, and is not exposed on a port.

Test the Connection From the SQL Command Line

You don’t have to do this but it made me happy and it was fun. Did you know that you can interact with SQL Server from the command line? The tools are installed inside the container but that’s a messy way to use them. It’s easier to just install them on your computer directly. The command lines tools for Mac are sql-cli.

Note: On May 16th, Microsoft released the macOS version of sqlcmd and bcp (bulk copy). Good to know if you are already familiar with sqlcmd. Here’s their blog post with more details.

You can install that with:

npm install -g sql-cli

Start it up with the mssql command.

To minimum you need connect is to identify the server (which is at localhost by default, you don’t need to specify the port) and the password. It will presume sa for userid.

mssql -s localhost -p Passw0rd

If it’s successful, you’ll get some information followed by a new prompt, mssql.

Connecting to localhost...done

sql-cli version 0.4.14
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
mssql>

 Enough of that. Now I get to use my new favorite tool. The mssql extension in Visual Studio Code.

Connect in Visual Studio Code

Once you have mssql installed in VS Code, you can begin by creating a new sql file. Either via the commands (F1 for the command pallete, MS SQL to see the commands and then New Query. This will prompt you for a connection – one parameter at a time. YOu can also start with the MS SQL Connect command (⇧⌘C). The extension will prompt you for each parameter.

Server name:  localhost
Database name: (enter)
User name: sa
Password: Passw0rd
Save Password (yes or no)
Profile name: [your choice]

If you enter everything correctly, not only will it connect, but the details will get stored as a connection profile in the VS Code settings and be available for subsequent connections.

You can see the connection status as it is connecting and then when connected in the lower right hand corner of the IDE.

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In the SQL file open in the editor, you can type SQL and see some existing snippets as well as get help from Intellisense whicih has read the schema of the data on the server. So far there’s not much.

Selecting the  sqlListDatabases snippet and then executing it (right click for Execute Query on the context menu or ⇧⌘E) displays the databases:

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Now you can use TSQL to create databases, database objects, query data. In the results pane you will see data as a grid similar to what you might see in SSMS. You can also export results to CSV or JSON. I’ve recently written an article about all of the cool things you can do with mssql which will be in teh June 2017 MSDN Magazine. But that connects to a SQL Azure database. In the meantime you can just go to the docs for the extension (aka.ms/mssql-marketplace).

Creating a Database and a Table

I let some more snippets help me to create a database and a table.

The first was the sqlCreateDatabase where I changed the snippet’s database name placholder to create a new database called LinuxReally then executed that with ⇧⌘E.

Re-running the select name from sys.databases command showed that the new database was now in the list.

Next I leveraged the sqlCreateTable snippet to help me create a new table. I named teh table DatabasesIKnow and gave it three columns

CREATE TABLE dbo.DatabasesIKnow
(
  Id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, -- primary key column
  DatabaseName [NVARCHAR](50) NOT NULL,
  KnowIt [Bit]
);

For some reason, the intellisense cache did not automatically refresh when I created this. Possibly becuse it was a new database. Even the mssql extension’s Refresh Intellisense Cache command did not kick it in. I got it working by disconnecting and reconnecting this time choosing the LinuxReally database rather than letting the extension connect to master by default. When I did that, I could see the message “Updating Intellisense…” in the status bar. After I had done this, the intellisense did auto refresh any time I modified the database schema.

Once i had the new database, I could execute “select * from dbo.DatabasesIKnow” and see the proper results. In my case, since I haven’t added data, there were no rows. But clearly it was reading from my table.

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Taking Down the sql-server Container

Now come the big docker volume tests. I first disconnected from the database inside of VS Code with⇧⌘E. Then I stopped and removed the sql-server container with the two commands:

docker stop sql-server
docker rm sql-server

But I left the data volume container (mssqldata) running.

I then created a new container instance using the same command as earlier:

docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=Passw0rd' -p 1433:1433 --volumes-from mssqldata -d --name sql-server microsoft/mssql-server-linux

In VS Code, I think reconnect to the server and my new database which was easy since it had been stored in the connection profiles . It’s the first one, localhost: LinuxReally.

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The connection was successful and listing databases showed my new DatabasesIKnow database . Select * from that database showed the schema. So my database was persisted in the data volume container even though I had killed and recreated the sql server container.

Next test: take down both containers.

Now it was time to see what happens when I stop and remove both containers!

docker stop sql-server
docker rm sql-server 
docker stop mssqldata
docker rm mssqldata

Next I use the same command I used previously to restart the sql-server container with the parameter to use the (not running) mssqldata volume container.

docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=Passw0rd' -p 1433:1433 --volumes-from mssqldata -d --name sql-server microsoft/mssql-server-linux

That fails. I need to first run the data volume container. Unfortunately, I re-ran the create command for that and overwrote the existing container, so all was lost. GOOD LESSON THERE! 🙂

So I started from scratch. In the brand new data volume container I recreated my database and table.

After more experiments, I realized that I had misunderstood the Docker documentation on volumes. You can create copies of data volume containers and remove those. But you need to be more of a docker ninja. While you can make all kinds of copies of the container, once you RM all of the related volumes, it is gone gone. This blog post does clarify some of the info I was still confused about wrt creating/backing up/restoring data volume containers: tricksofthetrades.net/2016/03/14/docker-data-volumes/.

So the bottom line is you need to leave the Data Volume Container running in some format (the original or some flavor of copy). (I’m still finding it hard to believe that it doesn’t somehow get stored as a file you can re-run so I will update this as soon as someone corrects me!)

Windows, Mac, Linux, Azure and Anwhere You Can Host a Docker Container

And if you think this is only somehting to do on OS X (because that’s where I’m doing it) .. no no no! Did you know there is now Docker for Windows? And that VS Code is cross platform? This is such a great way to quickly get SQL Server up and running in your development environment.

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And as I said on twitter, comparing the experience of pulling the docker image and spinning up a container to the experience of installing SQL Server  on windows is something like this:

Quick Start EF Core Videos on Channel 9

Data Access, , , ,

My Pluralsight course, Entity Framework Core: Getting Started, is a pretty thorough exploration for learning about EF Core. But at 5 hours, it may not be the VERY first thing you want to look at. So I’ve created some 12 minute videos on Channel 9 that will, in that very short time, walk you through building some tiny apps that use EF Core so you can get your hands dirty. While you won’t learn much in the way of ins & outs, they will walk you through:

  • creating a new app from scratch,
  • adding in a domain class
  • add in EF Core
  • creating an EF Core data model
  • creating a database from the model
  • creating and saving some data
  • reading, updating and modifying some data.

That’s a lot for 12 minutes, but I have done it in a way that you can just watch and learn, or follow along to build the apps yourself . For some of the code that is not related to the EF Core lesson, you can even copy that code from my GitHub account and paste it into your solution.

There are currently 2 videos.

EF Core in a Full .NET Application Using Visual Studio 2015
This one is designed to assure you that you can use EF Core in a full .NET application and using totally familiar tools. You’ll build a little .NET console app that uses EF Core to read and write some movie data.

EFCoreQS1Lerman_512 2017-03-22_18-21-35

EF Core in an ASP.NET Core Application Using Visual Studio 2017
This video will give you the full leading edge .NET Core experience as you use the brand new Visual Studio 2017 to create a tiny ASP.NET Core MVC App that uses EF Core to interact with the data. Again, some of the code that is not about EF Core is available to copy/paste from my GitHub account, making it easy to follow along with the demo.EFCoreQS2Lerman_512

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I’ll be adding anther one showing  Creating an ASP.NET Core App with EF Core Using Visual Studio Code in OS X . You can keep an eye on my Channel 9 Niners page or this blog to see what that gets published.

When your ready to really learn about EF Core, head over to Pluralsight for my Entity Framework Core: Getting Started Course. If you don’t have a subscription, contact me for a 30-day free trial code.

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Cloning a GitHub Repo in Visual Studio 2017 …and a Quiz

Tools, ,

When showing off some VS2017 features at our VTdotNET meetup, I made a last minute decision to demo the ability to clone a repository right from GitHub. Then I thought I would combine that with other things I planned to demo.

I already had just the right repo sitting in my GitHub account. A small ASP.NET Core project that was built with Visual Studio 2015 using project.json for its metadata. It’s at https://github.com/julielerman/NetCoreSolutionToMigrateToVS2017.

I had this same solution on my laptop already to use for another demo: showing off VS2017’s ability to auto-migrate a project.json based solution to the new csproj based format for .NET Core projects.

Clever me, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Clone the repo and have the migration run as it was opening that solution.

So I started up Visual Studio 2017 (since I wanted to show how fast that is) and began the process of cloning the solution from my GitHub repo. I already had my credentials set up and was able to go to File, Open and Open from Source Control.

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This opens the Team Explorer window and I clicked the Clone option, which then opened a window showing all of the accounts I’m connected to.

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I expanded my own account and scrolled down to the repo I wanted, selected it and clicked the Clone button.

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The solution got cloned and then it opened up in Visual Studio.

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But it never triggered the migration! And if you look at the solution, you can see that the project I expanded still has its xproj file and its project.json file. At the time I was confused but now that I know what happened, the answer to why this didn’t migrate is very visible in that screenshot of the Solution Explorer. However, one of the developers who was watching this and had just done another demo with Visual Studio 2017, identified the problem quickly.

Let’s move on for some more clues.

I closed the solution. Then from File/Open, I browsed to the place where it had been saved on my computer, and selected the sln file to open. This time, the same exact solution opening up in VS2017, did indeed trigger the migration, which is quite obvious thanks to this screen.

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Then I let the migrate feature do its job. When it was finished, you can see that the project no longer has its xproj and project.json files.

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Now, look at this new Solution Explorer screenshot compared to the previous one.

And then take a look at the list of new VS2017 features in the Release Notes (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/vs2017-relnotes) under the section IDE and see if you can tell what the cloning did differently when opening the solution than just opening the solution directly from the drive.

Also, I will find out if this is by design or possible a behavior that can get modified to behave the way I had expected. 🙂

DotNet Core Version Confusion

dotNET, , ,

I see people scratching their heads over this a lot so am dropping it here even though I’m sure it’s stated in many places already.

When you are at the dotnet command line (aka the CLI aka Command Line Interface) and type ‘dotnet’ you will be shown the version of the runtime.

When you add the version parameter (‘dotnet –version’) that will return the version of the SDK (aka CLI aka Command Line Interface) that you are working with.

Here’s an example:

If you are confused, you’re not alone. There’s a good discussion/debate on GitHub about how to alleviate this confusion at  What should dotnet –version display?

 

Changes to EF Core With the RTM of VS2017 and Tools

Data Access, ,

When Visual Studio 2017 released today a few other things happened that are relevant to Entity Framework Core.

For more on EF Core, watch my EF Core: Getting Started course on Pluralsight.

EF Core Migrations Tools Release

First – something we were prepared for – the .NET Core SDK was also released. The last stable version was 1.0.0-preview2-1-003137. It’s now simply 1.0.0. Along with this, its dependent tooling, including EF Core Tools for PowerShell and dotnet were also released. As the .NET Core support evolved from project.json to msbuild, the EF Core tools split . We have been using 1.0.0-preview4 (for .NET and project.json) and 1.0.0-msbuild3 for msbuild/csproj support.

Now the tool packages are 1.1.0 (Tools) and 1.0.0 (Tools.DotNet)

For PowerShell support: Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools 1.1.0
For dotnet CLI support: Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet 1.0.0

In Visual Studio 2015 (for full .NET projects) and Visual Studio 2017 (shown here, for full .NET or .NET Core projects), the Package Manager will show the RTM versions:

image

Notice that I do not have “Include prerelease” checked.

If using PMC to install, it’s just

install-package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools

That’s for the PowerShell tools, otherwise, add .DotNet to the name.

But notice that you no longer need to add the –pre.

When using the CLI version of the tools, the command

dotnet ef –version

results in

Entity Framework Core .NET Command Line Tools 1.0.0-rtm-10308

Changes to Migrations Commands

As the tools evolved through the previews, some details changed for example, the scaffolding command got smarter.

But one change that is notable is with respect to EF Core in class libraries. You still need to point to an executable project (exe or test) to run most of the commands, but now you can at least just use “dotnet ef” to get the help file without having to set the –startup-project parameter. There are a few other commands that will run without knowledge of the startup project. You can read more about this in this GitHub thread. Check some of the later comments by Brice Lambson as he worked on evolving the commands.

EF Core 1.1.1 – Patch

This was a more subtle part of the release. Even though the 1.1.1 milestone on GitHub had 30 bug fixes that are all closed , there hadn’t been any mention that this was going to get pushed out and the milestone had no target date on it. Though I had my suspicions! Here’s a screenshot I happened to take on March 5.

image

And yes, the newest version of the EF Core packages is now 1.1.1. These are bug fixes …as the increment suggests.  Most of them are edge cases, but regardless, you should definitely update your EF Core packages to ensure you have these latest fixes. If you’re creating new projects, 1.1.1 is what you’ll see available from NuGet.

Note: there was a regression introduced in EF Core 1.1.1 that is targeted to get fixed with the next patch. You can read about this issue here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42708522/loading-related-data-aspnet-core-1-1

You can learn much more about EF Core in my EF Core: Getting Started course on Pluralsight.

Vermont .NET Birthday Cakes Throughout the Years

dotNET

As Visual Studio prepares for the VS2017 launch and the 20th anniversary of Visual Studio, I started reminiscing of Vermont.NET birthdays of the past. Our first meeting was in February 2002. Here’s a screenshot (thanks to the way back machine!) from October 2002 of our hand-made (by yours truly) ASP.NET 1.0 website:

image

More fun though is the various cakes we’ve had throughout the years when we’ve celebrated the passing time.

First is the cake made by user group member Laura Blood for our Feb 2003 meeting, our first anniversary.

image

According to my blog, we had cake at our Feb 2006 meeting with special guest (thank you INETA), Ken Getz. I don’t seem to have a picture though.

Another was from our 6th year. We had  a presentation on unit testing that night by Sarah Cameron who came down from Montreal.

vtdotnet6b

2010 was our 8th year. We didn’t have cake for our Feb meeting but we DID for the April meeting which was the launch of Visual Studio 2010.  Dave Burke designed this cake and it was implemented by the bakery at a local supermarket:

IMG_3373

For our 10th year, the supermarket bakery suggested balloons and I asked for green ones in honor of Vermont. Many jokes have been made about this cake. I did NOT see the problem until someone pointed it out at the meeting. Then we were all giggling like school boys.

Rob Hale was quick to tweet it so I was able to find this picture easily enough!

730514006

Here was my own creation for Vermont.NET’s 12th anniversary in 2014. Notice that the sprinkles are dinosaurs. Smile

Image result for cake vtdotnet

I wasn’t here for our February 2017 meetup, but our upcoming March meetup will celebrate the VS2017 launch so I plan to make or get a cake to celebrate for sure!

Troubleshooting the dotnet ef command for EF Core Migrations

Data Access, ,

Updated March 7, 2017 after Visual Studio 2017 was released.
Also, keep in mind that I have been updating this post (and will continue to do so) as I discover new ways people are hitting problems with dotnet ef.

When using EF Core in a .NET Core app (ASP.NET Core or other app sitting on .NET core), it’s easy to run into a problem when attempting to use EF Core migrations at the command line. The most common one is

No executable found matching command "dotnet-ef"

A Note If Your Coming from My Pluralsight EF Core Course

Microsoft supports developing .NET Core apps in VS2017. The tooling for VS2015 is outdated and there are no plans to bring them up-to-date for the new csproj support. I recorded my Entity Framework Core: Getting Started  course on Pluralsight while VS2017 was still in beta. While I did recreate the VS2017 demos in RC3 right before we published the course, we chose to leave the  rest of  the .NET Core demos that are in VS2015 alone.  VS2015 only supports project.json and the project templates set you up for .NET Core 1.0, not .NET Core 1.1. So in the course means that we’re stuck with project.json support and tooling that’s not quite aligned. But Pluralsight and I both agreed that it made sense not to ALSO force users to the bleeding edge, not even released VS2017 for the demos. The course’s focus is on EF Core, so as long as I could hand-hold users through the project.json setup stuff without the need to make them expert at that, it was the right way to go.

Of the nearly 2000 who have already watched the course since it’s release less than 2 weeks ago,  a few people ran into some confusion with the versioning and getting the “no executable found” message. I worked through these with them but wanted to write down the suggestions I’d made and have a single blog post I could point to.

Problems You May Encounter with ‘dotnet ef’

While some of these notes are specific to the project.json use in the course, I’ve also added tips for using dotnet ef with the newer csproj/msbuild support.

There are a few key things to watch out for.

  1. The current stable tooling for EF Core migrations is split into two packages.
         Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools is for PowerShell
        Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet is for the CLI (dotnet commands)
    Be sure you’ve referenced the Tools.DotNet version of the package so that you have access to the CLI commands. If you’re following my course, that’s explained.
  2. dotnet ef only works in .NET Core projects. If your project targets the full .NET framework, then you’ll need to use the PowerShell commands e.g. add-migration, update-database.
  3. Make sure that you are running the command from the folder that contains the project where the Tools package is referenced. This is explained in the course demos, but still a step you may overlook in your excitement!
  4. If you are using project.json*, make sure that you have the Tools.DotNet package in the Tools section, not the dependencies section. After March 7 release, this will just be “1.0.0”.
    *Going forward, you should only be using project.json with .NET Core 1.0 projects. If you are using the current .NET Core (1.1+) you should be using csproj/msbuild.

    "tools": {
   "Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet": "1.0.0"
 }
  5. If you’re using csproj/msbuild, make sure the tools package is listed in the DotNetCliToolsReference tag.  After March 7 release, this will just be version “1.0.0”.

    <DotNetCliToolReference   
    Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet"
    Version=”1.0.0” />
  6. If you’re using csproj/msbuild, make sure the casing is correct if you’re manually adding that package in csproj! I’ve seen people get tripped up by typing Dotnet rather than DotNet.
  7. It’s possible that you have to Tools correctly placed but your IDE did not trigger a dotnet restore. So you may need to do that manually. Here’s an example where that bit someone. https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework/issues/7801
  8. You shouldn’t be using an RC of VS2017 at this point but I’m leaving this one here.
    If you are using an older Release Candidate of Visual Studio 2017 (before RC3) , the CLI tooling was not yet aligned with the msbuild support so with that version, you have to use the PowerShell commands to do migrations. Therefore you have to use the Tools package and work in the package manager console, not the command line.

    <DotNetCliToolReference   
    Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools"
    Version="1.1.0-preview4" />

    As of  VS2017 RC3 (which is what I show in the last module of the course) it was possible to use msbuild3 as shown in point #4 above and the CLI commands. After March 7 release, this will just be “1.0.0”.

  9. Be sure you’re targeting a relational database. Migrations only work with those and not, for example, InMemory. A twitter friend accidentally ran into this problem and was getting the “no executable found” error message.
  10. Make sure that the version of the EF Core tools you are using aligns with the version of .NET Core on your machine.

In my EF Core course, I’m using EF Core 1.1 and for EF tools and in all but the last module, I’m using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet 1.0.0-preview4. (I’m in the process of  updating the course to use the new 1.0.0 package)

You’ll need .NET Core 1.1 installed and the related dotnet SDK – which is not numbered as simply. Today the  .NET Core SDK tools are still in preview so the version number of the current “stable” build that goes with .NET Core 1.1 is 1.0.0-preview2-1-001377.  

Note that on March 7  when VS2017 has its official release, the .NET Core SDK tools will also be released so the versions will just be normal numbers like 1.0.0.

Here’s an example of what the dotnet ef command will tell you if you don’t have .NET Core 1.1 installed:

The specified framework 'Microsoft.NETCore.App', version '1.1.0' was not found.
 - Check application dependencies and target a framework version installed at:
 C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App
 - The following versions are installed:
 1.0.1
 - Alternatively, install the framework version '1.1.0'.

You can get the correct version via the download grid at microsoft.com/net/download/core. The grid only exposes stable releases. If you’re looking for nightly builds (which at this time you need for using the csproj support), there’s a link to those just below the grid.

The set of downloads you get via the LTS button is for .NET Core 1.0.3. The Current button gives you the latest stable versions. The SDK button gets you the Runtime + SDK, whereas the Runtime button gives you ONLY the runtime.

The SDK installs will give you the SDK and the runtime. When you’ve selected the SDK set of installs, it says that it’s .NET Core 1.0. That’s referring to the version of the SDK. It will also install both the .NET Core 1.0 and .NET Core 1.1 runtimes. That single SDK is able to work with both of the runtimes. I’m on Windows x64 so my download is the first one on the list…the Windows x64 installer.netcoresdk10

Just as an FYI, if you select the Runtime set of downloads, then you will only be getting a specific version of a runtime and not the SDK.

netcore11runtime

After it’s installed, typing dotnet will show you that you the runtime version that your machine is running by default. That’s the later one. After installing the 1.0 SDK with both runtimes, dotnet tells me I’m running Version 1.1.0 of the runtime. 

 dotnet –version gives you the version of the SDK. That’s already showing me that there was a patch because the result says “1.0.1”.

If you installed this new SDK but are still seeing the old SDK version (1.0.0-preview2-001313), that is likely because that version is specified in the global.json file of your solution. That shouldn’t create a problem for using the migration commands, but it’s a good idea to have the correct version listed in global.json.

Some additional tips for you!

Commands can only run from an executable/test project

In my Pluralsight EFCore course, I have the DbContext in its own class library project. So when running dotnet ef, after solving all of the above problems, you’ll get a new message which is just pointing out that the commands depend on an executable to run. That message looks like this:

Could not invoke this command on the startup project 'TestEFCore.Data'. This version of the Entity Framework Core .NET Command Line Tools does not support commands on class library projects in ASP.NET Core and .NET Core applications.

In my case, I wasn’t ready to add a UI or test to the solution,  so I added a minimal console app just to cover this need. And it needs to reference the project with the DbContext. Once that’s sorted, you can use the —startup-project parameter of the dotnet ef command to point to that project. While I show all of this in my course, you can also see that in my MSDN Magazine article here: msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/mt742867

This will get a touch easier with the msbuild version of the EF Core tools. With the newer tooling, you’ll at least be able to run dotnet ef to get the command’s help without pointing to a startup-project, although to run sub commands, you’ll still need to specify the startup project.

Installing the EF Core Tools via NuGet in Visual Studio 2015

One of the viewers of the course reported a strange problem. He was able to add the EF Core Tools package in project.json and use the migrations from the CLI as expected. But if he attempted to add the package from the NuGet Package Manager or the Package Manager Console instead, he was back to the old ‘No executable found matching command “dotnet-ef”‘ error.

He finally noticed that there were errors when NuGet attempted to download the package. But in his IDE the errors were subtle, so he was unaware that the tools package was not installed. Here’s a screenshot he shared:

frsBKTFTRSjBGOFFZDJ6_nugetmanager

I figured out how to get myself into a similar bind and got a much more helpful error message:

2017-02-27_17-08-52

Package 'Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet 1.1.0-preview4-final' uses features that are not supported by the current version of NuGet. To upgrade NuGet, see http://docs.nuget.org/consume/installing-nuget.

Even though Visual Studio extension manager did not indicate an available update AND it listed my NuGet Package Manager version as 3.5 (the latest), I learned that the team responsible for this extension had temporarily stopped pushing notifications for updates! That change is noted in the “No Auto Updates” section of this blog post: http://blog.nuget.org/20161027/Announcing-NuGet-3.5-RTM.html

So I had to explicitly download the latest VSIX (ignoring the fact that it seemed to have the same version # as the one I had installed!) from the NuGet  distributions page. After installing that, it resolved the problem of installing the EF Core tools package from the Package Manager and Package Manager Console.

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There’s a sneak peek at EF Core with msbuild in VS2017

A few people mentioned to me that they decided to go straight to VS2017 when working through the demos in the course. And they also said they were confused by some differences and had to do some research. I know for sure that one of these devs was kicking himself when I asked if he had watched the VS2017 demo I did at the end of the course before trying to VS2017 along with the early demos. (His answer was “umm, now you tell me!”)  It’s listed in the table of contents for the course. So if you take a peek at that first, I think doing all the demos in VS2017 will be a lot easier! I am currently in the process of updating the VS2017 demos to use the RTM and latest tools.

Hope this helps!

Entity Framework Core: Getting Started on Pluralsight

Data Access, ,

I’m happy to share a new course on Pluralsight with you – Entity Framework Core: Getting Started.

Here’s how I described it in the trailer:

Most software – whether for business or entertainment – is driven by data that users need to interact with. In Entity Framework Core: Getting Started, you will learn how to use Microsoft’s modern data access platform, Entity Framework Core. You will learn how to build data models, use EF Core to bridge your software with  your data store and how to incorporate all of this into desktop, mobile and web applications. When you’re finished with this course, you will have a foundational knowledge of Entity Framework Core that will help you as you move forward to build software in .NET, whether you are targeting Windows, OS X or Linux. Software required: Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017.

pluralsight course

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Here is the list of modules in the course. You can see the titles of various clips in each module on Pluralsight.

To see the full list of my courses on Pluralsight, go to pluralsight.com/authors/julie-lerman

EF Core CLI Commands with VS2017 RC3

Data Access, , ,

Visual Studio 2017 RC3 was released yesterday but unfortunately an install issue has take it back off the shelf for a brief period. Watch this space for the return of RC3!

But I did manage to get it installed and wanted to show you that the EF Core CLI commands are now working. If you’ve been playing with VS2017 RC and EF Core you may have run into the problem that the EF Core tooling package was not in sync yet with the MSBuild tooling for .NET Core. That’s fixed now and not only does it work but there’s a change that I’m really happy to see.

As always, I have my dbcontext in its own project. Here are the csproj contents for that project:

image

 

Notice that the DotNetCliToolReference is pointing to Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet . The dotnet and PowerShell commands are exposed in separate packages. With “.DotNet” is the package that has the CLI commands. Without “.DotNet” is the package that contains the PowerShell commands.

More importantly, the package version went from “1.1.0-preview4” to “1.0.0-msbuild3-final”. I can’t explain why we went from 1.1.0 down to 1.0.0 but this is the newer and correct package.

With that in place,  I then open up a command prompt. I can use a regular one but I’m using a PowerShell command for a single benefit…that I can shorten the prompt. Here’s the command I did to trim most but not all of the path:

Quora: How do I get just the current folder name in my Windows Powershell prompt function?

Remember that I’m pointed to the path of a class library. DotNet EF requires you to point to a path containing an executable in order to run the commands. However with the latest bits, you can get HELP without having to point to the executable. Thank you Brice Lambson. It was a little meta to have to figure that out because rather than just getting help from the command, you had to googlebing for help on how to get help. So here are a simple dotnet ef command to get top level dotnet ef help, followed by dotnet ef dbcontext to get help on the dbcontext sub-commands.

image

To run commands that depend on the APIs, you still have to point to a startup-project if you are running the commands from a class library. Here I’ve run the command to list the migrations in my project. I’ve only got one, sqlite-init.

image

Some Insights into Features (Besides EDMX) Being Dropped in the Move From EF6 to EF Core

Data Access,

I had written these details for my Pluralsight EF Core course (hopefully published at end of Jan 2017) but decided not to spend the time on this explanation in the course. Instead, I’ll put it here and the course will have a link to this blog post! Clever, huh?

You’ve probably heard a lot about EF Core not bringing forward  the designer based EDMX from EF Core. This is a feature cut that I’ve heard the most feedback about. But there are other EF features that are also getting cut. These are not as worrisome to developers — based on my own experience and paying attention to response in social media — but it’s important to be aware of the biggest of these cut features.

ObjectContext API

The first is the ObjectContext API. This was the original mechanism for EF’s change tracking and database interaction. Since EF4.1 was released with the DbContext in early 2011, Microsoft has recommended that all new projects use DbContext. The DbContext sits on top of the ObjectContext and does the more cumbersome work of interacting with the ObjectContext on your behalf. But the ObjectContext has remained a public API for backwards compatibility with EF4 and EF3.5 projects. Also, we could access the ObjectContext to do low level tasks as needed.

There will not be an ObjectContext API in EF Core. Rather than relying on the ObjectContext for metadata work, change tracking and database interaction, this low-level activity is being  restructured and we’ll get at it directly from the DbContext. If you have old software that is still using the ObjectContext and you haven’t updated it by now, hopefully, you won’t want to update it to EFCore anyway. I wrote a 2 part article for MSDN magazine in 2014 that included guidance for moving ObjectContext code to DbContext if you think you may want to explore that.

Data Points : Tips for Updating and Refactoring Your Entity Framework Code Part 1

Data Points : Tips for Updating and Refactoring Your Entity Framework Code Part 2

Entity SQL

Entity SQL was the original string-based querying SQL like language written for EF. By the time EF was first released, it had already embraced the also-new LINQ. ESQL is only usable with the ObjectContext API. I think I  used to be one of the few people in the world who really knew how to use ESQL because I wrote about it extensively in my first EF book, giving it equal visibility as LINQ to Entities. In the 2nd edition, I had split the ESQL details out into their own chapter because by then it was clear that it was barely being used. I haven’t had any reason to use ESQL in many years. I’ve not heard of anyone using it either. So it is going to fade away along with the ObjectContext API and won’t be part of EFCore.

Edge-Case Mappings & the Original Metadata APIs

Entity Framework has allowed a lot of variations on mappings between your classes/properties and your database tables/fields. It has even let you combine many of these crazy mappings in one model. The EF team blog post highlights and example: “an inheritance hierarchy that combined TPH, TPT, and TPC mappings as well as Entity Splitting all in the same hierarchy.” This was possible because of the Metadata Workspace API. But building in this flexibility also meant that using that API was very complex. Internal query compilation was difficult to design. And for developers, discovering information about a model’s metadata has been very cumbersome.

So, EFCore has a simpler metadata model which means some of the truly edge case mappings won’t be achievable. This doesn’t mean things like inheritance will go away (although currently, EF Core only supports TPH), just the funky, rare mapping combinations.

MEST (Multiple Entities for a Single Type)

One single mapping technique that will go away is MEST. In all of my years of working with EF, I’ve never come across anyone who was taking advantage of it. It was only supported with EDMX and ObjectContext and the team decided not to bring it forward to the code-based model and DbContext for EFCore.

Automatic Migrations

Migrations are a critical technique for evolving a database schema from a code-based model. We’ve had two ways to use EF migrations – the default way which is to explicitly add migrations through the package manager console and then to apply those migrations using a variety of techniques. Another option has been to use automatic migrations that are worked out and executed on the fly at run time. Supporting automatic migrations caused a number of major headaches for migrations support overall. It forced migrations to store model snapshots directly in the database. This caused problems for developers using regular migrations – especially with source control. I’ve been in loops where I can’t add a migration because it thinks I need to execute one, but when I try to execute a migration it tells me I have to add one. I’m  not the only one who has gotten all tangled up in some circular problems when trying to manage migrations. These problems will go away because EFCore will not attempt to automate migrations at all. You can read more about this in Brice Lambson’s blog post about EFCore Migrations at design time. Brice is an engineer on the EF team and has a lot of other interesting blog posts worth checking out.

These are the most notable EF features that the team is not planning to implement at all in EFCore. Personally, I have not been using any of them ever or in a long time and I have guided my clients away from them as well. So if you are on that same path, you are well-positioned to use EF Core without having to worry about them.