Deploying a test database with Entity Framework core is ridiculously easy

08 Feb 2018

For years I’ve been advocating that you deploy your database in your integration tests.

It gives your team the confidence that everything is running as expected without some wolly mocked or faked data access layer.

Recently I’ve been working with Entity Framework Core and once again came the task of automating a database deployment for my integration test run.

And for once it couldn’t be easier!

[TestFixture]
public class FooTests
{
    private const string DatabaseName = "My.Service.TestRun";
    private static string ConnectionString => $@"Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database={DatabaseName};Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true";

    [OneTimeSetUp]
    public async Task SetUp()
    {
        var optionsBuilder = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<MyContext>();
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(ConnectionString);

        var dbContext = new MyContext(optionsBuilder.Options);
        await dbContext.Database.EnsureDeletedAsync();
        await dbContext.Database.EnsureCreatedAsync();
    }
}

NB: using NUnit syntax.

Kudos to the EF Core team on this one :D

See also: Using localdb with VSTS

— Dan

ctrl alt dan

Deploying a test database with Entity Framework core is ridiculously easy