Is there an alternative to Code First Migrations with EF when all code changes are done by a DBA?

Question

I\'ve read about Code First Migrations but it seems that this is not really suited to the Enterprise.

We have a DBA that does all our Database changes and we don\'t nee

Answer 1

To me it doesn't seem like these other answers are sufficient.

You can turn off the EF initializer:

public ApplicationContext : DbContext
{
    public ApplicationContext()
        : base("ConnectionStringName")
    {
        Database.SetInitializer(null);
    }

    // DbSets here
    public DbSet Parts {get; set;}

    // override OnModelCreating below ...
}

And then use Fluent API / data annotations however you normally would to setup your POCOs/models to match the existing DB.

Details at this blog: http://cpratt.co/entity-framework-code-first-with-existing-database/

In case that URL does not work in the future - here's what I mean:

After having set the Initializer off above, configure your POCO's that correspond to a table:

public class Part
{
    public string PartID {get; set;}
    public string Description {get; set;}
    public decimal Weightlbs {get; set;}
    public decimal Price {get; set;}
}

Then map your POCO to the existing DB table by overriding this method in your Application Context class:

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
    // Code First will assume a lot, but if you need to override things:

    modelBuilder.Entity().ToTable("db_PartTable");
    modelBuilder.Entity().Property(p => p.PartID) 
        .HasColumnName("Part_ID");
    modelBuilder.Entity().Property(p => p.Description)
        .HasMaxLength(100)
}

Another good blog for this, by Scott Guthrie: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/using-ef-code-first-with-an-existing-database