Keyword not supported: “data source” initializing Entity Framework Context

Question

I'm initializing Entity Framework Object context, and this gives me the keyword not supported error:

metadata=res://*/MainDB.csdl|res://*/MainDB.ssdl|res://*/MainDB.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=D:\Workspace\vs\Leftouch\Leftouch.Web\Data\Leftouch.mdf;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True;App=EntityFramework"

I took the connection string directly from web.config which was working, and modified only the path to the file (which I set dynamically), and instead of using the default value, used this connection string explicitly. What could cause this error?

Answer 1

The real reason you were getting this error is because of the " values in your connection string.

If you replace those with single quotes then it will work fine.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rickandy/archive/2008/12/09/explicit-connection-string-for-ef.aspx

(Posted so others can get the fix faster than I did.)

Answer 2

I fixed this by changing EntityClient back to SqlClient, even though I was using Entity Framework.

So my complete connection string was in the format:

<add name="DefaultConnection" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=xxx;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=xxx;Password=xxx" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Answer 3

This appears to be missing the providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" bit. Sure you got the whole thing?

Answer 4

Believe it or not, renaming LinqPad.exe.config to LinqPad.config solved this problem.