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What is Migration in Entity Framework Core?
Migration in entity framework core
Migration in ASP.NET Core refers to the process of managing changes to a database schema over time. It involves creating, modifying, or deleting database tables, columns, and relationships to accommodate changes in your application's data model.
ASP.NET Core provides a feature called Entity Framework Core (EF Core) that simplifies database migrations. With EF Core migrations, you can define changes to your data model in code and then apply those changes to the database without manually writing SQL scripts. This helps keep your database schema in sync with your application's evolving data requirements
In summary, migration in ASP.NET Core involves using tools like Entity Framework Core to automate the process of updating and maintaining your database schema as your application evolves.
Migration is a way to keep the database schema in sync with the EF Core model by preserving data.
As per the above figure, EF Core API builds the EF Core model from the domain (entity) classes and EF Core migrations will create or update the database schema based on the EF Core model. Whenever you change the domain classes, you need to run migration to keep the database schema up to date.
EF Core migrations are a set of commands which you can execute in NuGet Package Manager Console or in dotnet Command Line Interface (CLI).
The following table lists important migration commands in EF Core.
Adding a Migration
At the very first time, you defined the initial domain classes. At this point, there is no database for your application which can store the data from your domain classes. So, firstly, you need to create a migration.
Open the Package Manager Console from the menu Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Console in Visual Studio and execute the following command to add a migration.
If you are using dotnet Command Line Interface, execute the following command.
In the above commands, MyFirstMigration is the name of a migration. This will create three files in the Migrations folder of your project, as shown below.
1-<timestamp>_<Migration Name>.cs: The main migration file which includes migration operations in the Up() and Down() methods. The Up() method includes the code for creating DB objects and Down() method includes code for removing DB objects.
2-<timestamp>_<Migration Name>.Designer.cs: The migrations metadata file which contains information used by EF Core.
3-<contextclassname>ModelSnapshot.cs: A snapshot of your current model. This is used to determine what changed when creating the next migration.
Now, after creating a migration snapshot, it's time to create the database.
Creating or Updating the Database
Use the following command to create or update the database schema.
The Update command will create the database based on the context and domain classes and the migration snapshot, which is created using the add-migration or add command.
If this is the first migration, then it will also create a table called __EFMigrationsHistory, which will store the name of all migrations, as and when they will be applied to the database.
Removing a Migration
You can remove the last migration if it is not applied to the database. Use the following remove commands to remove the last created migration files and revert the model snapshot.
The above commands will remove the last migration and revert the model snapshot to the previous migration. Please note that if a migration is already applied to the database, then it will throw the following exception.
The migration <migration name> has already been applied to the database. Revert it and try again. If the migration has been applied to other databases, consider reverting its changes using a new migration.
Reverting a Migration
Suppose you changed your domain class and created the second migration named MySecondMigration using the add-migration command and applied this migration to the database using the Update command. But, for some reason, you want to revert the database to the previous state. In this case, use the update-database <migration name> command to revert the database to the specified previous migration snapshot.
\
The above command will revert the database based on a migration named MyFirstMigration and remove all the changes applied for the second migration named MySecondMigration. This will also remove MySecondMigration entry from the __EFMigrationsHistory table in the database.
Note: This will not remove the migration files related to MySecondMigration. Use the remove commands to remove them from the project.
Thank You
About Author
Brijesh Kumar
Database Developer
I have more then 6 years Experience in Microsoft Technologies - SQL Server Database, ETL
Azure Cloud - Azure SQL Database, CosmosDB, Azure Data Factory, PowerBI, Web Job, Azure Function, Azure Storage, Web Apps, Powershall
and Database Migration On-Premise to Azure Cloud.
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com