PackageReference breaks Entity Framework 6

[vsfeedback]

This issue has been moved from a ticket on Developer Community.

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What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Create a new console project ConsoleApp1, specifying PackageReference architecture instead of Packages.config
2. Add the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact package (note that its dependencies include EntityFramework)
3. Add a class to the project that inherits from DbContext
4. Run Enable-Migrations from the Package Manager Console
5. Note the resulting error: "The EntityFramework package is not installed on project 'ConsoleApp1'"

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected:
Creation of a Migrations folder containing a Configuration class (i.e. Code First Migrations are enabled)

Actual:
The above error message

Please provide any additional information below.
Workaround:
We can install the EntityFramework package prior to installing the EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact package in order to mitigate this problem. However, this extra step shouldn't be necessary. The Enable-Migrations CmdLet should be able to walk package dependencies and discover that the requisite packages are installed.

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Original Comments

(no comments)

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Original Solutions

(no solutions)

[ajcvickers]

Which release of EF6 are you using?

[InteXX]

v6.2, the latest stable version.

I also found another related problem: under PackageReference, Add-Migration always uses System.Data.SqlClient—even if there's no reference to the assembly. I wasn't able to get it to use System.Data.SqlCeClient, resulting in a connection-string-related crash while attempting to generate the migration.

The only way I could get it working was to return to packages.config. Here's the code I'm using to create the connection string:

Public Shared ReadOnly Property DbConnectionString As String
  Get
    With New SqlCeConnectionStringBuilder
      .MaxDatabaseSize = 4091
      .MaxBufferSize = 1024
      .CaseSensitive = False
      .FlushInterval = 1
      .DataSource = "Queue.sdf"
      .FileMode = "read write"
      .Encrypt = False
      .Enlist = True

      Return .ConnectionString
    End With
  End Get
End Property

The crash is due to SqlClient not supporting these keywords (CaseSensitive, FileMode, etc.).

[ajcvickers]

@InteXX Generally speaking, EF 6.2 doesn't work with SDK-style projects and package references. This is fixed for 6.3--see #231. However, we are not updating the SQL Compact package for 6.3 because SQL Compact is end-of-life.

[InteXX]

@ajcvickers

Very good, thank you.

Note: SqlCe doesn't hit EOL until July 2021. Nevertheless, is the v6.2 package expected to work with EF6.3?

That said, it appears that v6.3 is being worked on: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact/6.3.0-preview8-19405-04

[ajcvickers]

@InteXX The package still exists, and it may also happen to work with package references due to picking up changes made for the other packages, but it isn't a goal to bring this package to .NET Core or the new project system. What works works, what doesn't work, doesn't work.

[ErikEJ]

@InteXX I have created an unofficial port of the SQL Compact provider to .NET Core: https://github.com/ErikEJ/EntityFramework6PowerTools/tree/community/src/ErikEJ.EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact

[InteXX]

That looks great, thanks. Is there a corresponding NuGet package?

Eventually I'd like to contribute a VB.NET SQL generator for it, but that's only a long-term goal at this point.

[ErikEJ]

There is, just look at the readme at the link

[InteXX]

I did, but I didn't find a package name. Maybe I'm looking right past it.

I did find this in the .csproj, though, inside the <PackageID/> tag: ErikEJ.EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact

[ErikEJ]

That's the package name. Have you added the additional Nuget source?

[InteXX]

No project open at this time. Just looking. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

We should probably stop hijacking this thread. My fault.

[ErikEJ]

I have updated the readme to make the package name clearer