Tag: entity framework

Using PostgreSQL with Entity Framework

The most widespread O/R (object-relational) mapper for the .NET platform is the Entity Framework. It is most often used in combination with Microsoft SQL Server as database. But the architecture of the Entity Framework allows to use it with other databases as well. A popular and reliable is open-source SQL database is PostgreSQL. This article shows how to use a PostgreSQL database with the Entity Framework.

Installing the Data Provider

First you need an Entity Framework data provider for PostgreSQL. It is called Npgsql. You can install it via NuGet. If you use Entity Framework 6 the package is called EntityFramework6.Npgsql:

> Install-Package EntityFramework6.Npgsql

If you use Entity Framework Core for the new .NET Core platform, you have to install a different package:

> Install-Package Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL

Configuring the Data Provider

The next step is to configure the data provider and the database connection string in the App.config file of your project, for example:

<configuration>
  <!-- ... -->

  <entityFramework>
    <providers>
      <provider invariantName="Npgsql"
         type="Npgsql.NpgsqlServices, EntityFramework6.Npgsql" />
    </providers>
  </entityFramework>

  <system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
      <add name="Npgsql Data Provider"
           invariant="Npgsql"
           description="Data Provider for PostgreSQL"
           type="Npgsql.NpgsqlFactory, Npgsql"
           support="FF" />
    </DbProviderFactories>
  </system.data>

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="AppDatabaseConnectionString"
         connectionString="Server=localhost;Database=postgres"
         providerName="Npgsql" />
  </connectionStrings>

</configuration>

Possible parameters in the connection string are Server, Port, Database, User Id and Password. Here’s an example connection string using all parameters:

Server=192.168.0.42;Port=5432;Database=mydatabase;User Id=postgres;Password=topsecret

The database context class

To use the configured database you create a database context class in the application code:

class AppDatabase : DbContext
{
  private readonly string schema;

  public AppDatabase(string schema)
    : base("AppDatabaseConnectionString")
  {
    this.schema = schema;
  }

  public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; }

  protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder builder)
  {
    builder.HasDefaultSchema(this.schema);
    base.OnModelCreating(builder);
  }
}

The parameter to the super constructor call is the name of the configured connection string in App.config. In this example the method OnModelCreating is overridden to set the name of the used schema. Here the schema name is injected via constructor. For PostgreSQL the default schema is called “public”:

using (var db = new AppDatabase("public"))
{
  var admin = db.Users.First(user => user.UserName == "admin")
  // ...
}

The Entity Framework mapping of entity names and properties are case sensitive. To make the mapping work you have to preserve the case when creating the tables by putting the table and column names in double quotes:

create table public."Users" ("Id" bigserial primary key, "UserName" text not null);

With these basics you’re now set up to use PostgreSQL in combination with the Entity Framework.