Reverse Engineer: Visual Studio Item Template Wizard

[bricelam]

We've talked about this, but I couldn't find an issue for it...

We should have a workflow similar to EF6:

1. Project > Add New Item... > ADO.NET Entity Data Model
2. Choose Code First from database
3. Specify a provider and connection string
4. Select database objects and specify additional options

[ErikEJ]

In the meantime, I have added a simple GUI Tool to my SQLite / SQL CE Toolbox for VS 2010 and later, that allows you to generate a EF Core Model for SQL Server, SQLite and SQL Server Compact https://github.com/ErikEJ/SqlCeToolbox (currently included in the "daily" build)

[rowanmiller]

@ErikEJ nice, just tried it out. Not sure if you have these planned... but it would be good to be able to put the output files into a folder. Also would be cool to install the EF Core runtime packages if they aren't already in the project 😄.

[ErikEJ]

Thanks, Rowan.
Re folder: Yes, it is planned.
Re runtime: yes, thought about at least adding a check for that, but first I would like to wait for VS 2017 RTM to test with the new project system. And what if the user wants to drop the poco classes in one project and the DbContext in another... then I would avoid requiring EF Core runtime..

Actually I think I will make an option to specify what to drop (poco, dbcontext or both)

[ErikEJ]

@rowanmiller Thanks for taking your time to provide feedback!
The latest daily build supports OutputPath, and warns if the provider package is missing. (In addition to some UI fixes re Window location, control layout and tab order)

[mguinness]

Have MSFT considered working w/ a 3rd party to achieve this? There is an excellent product by Devart called Entity Developer which has EF Core support.

They've done this in the past with Dotfuscator Community Edition and Devart has a similiar Entity Developer Express Edition (which is limited to 10 tables). Seems like this could be advantageous for both companies if a licensing deal could be agreed upon.