How to deploy WinForm application with its db using EF6

Moussa Arbid

I just finished building a C# WinForms application, and after publishing it using Microsoft Visual Studio Installer projects, I have realized that the database has not been added to the application...

How can I attach the database along with the .EXE file? I have selected the needed prerequisites (.NET and SQL Server Express).

I am using Entity Framework 6 (EF6) and my database has a username and password (SQL Server authentication).

I have tried to include the .mdf file in the project, but no results.

I have also tried to include SQL(localDB), but it throws an exception: make sure to include entity framework connection string...

5 Replies

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Moussa Arbid7y ago
and here is the exception

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Moussa Arbid7y ago
Hi bro, please check the picture, this is what I have done so far.
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Amit Gupta7y ago
Can you share your connection string? As there is nothing special in EF (it is basically behaves like a top layer in ado), just be sure that all the respective runtime dll's of EF and project dependencies were present in the directory of executable.
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Moussa Arbid7y ago
I tried that, but it seems there is something wrong with the connection string, as I have mentioned in the question that I am using Entity Framework, so there must be another method to deploy the project when using Entity Framework.
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Amit Gupta7y ago
Save your connection string to config file (attach mdf file connection)-> add ur mdf file -> install sqlexpress on the production computer and thats it.
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