Code First Migrations and Stored Procedures

Question

I have just created a database and done my first migration (just a simple table add). Now I want to add some stored procedures which I have just added by writing the sql an

Answer 1

I will try to provide a different perspective because having SQL code within C# strings is not very appealing and one should expect to change such scripts within a tool that provides intellisense (e.g. SSMS).

The following solution is implemented within a ASP.NET Core 2.0 Web API project.

1. Maintain procedures in the development database using any convenient tool

2. Generate procedures scripts:

   public class ProcedureItemMetadata
   {
       /// 
   
       /// SQL server side object identifier
       /// 
       [Key]
       public int ObjectId { get; set; }
   
       /// 
   
       /// schema name
       /// 
       public string SchemaName { get; set; }
   
       /// 
   
       /// procedure name
       /// 
       public string Name { get; set; }
   
       /// 
   
       /// procedure body
       /// 
       public string Definition { get; set; }
   }
   
   
   public string GetProceduresScript()
   {
      var query = Context.ProcedureItemMetadata.AsNoTracking().FromSql(@"
         SELECT ao.object_id as ObjectId, SCHEMA_NAME(ao.schema_id) as SchemaName, ao.name, sm.definition
         FROM sys.all_objects ao 
         JOIN sys.sql_modules sm ON sm.object_id = ao.object_id
         WHERE ao.type = 'P'
            and execute_as_principal_id IS NULL
         order by 1;");
   
         var list = query.ToList();
         string text = string.Join($" {Base.Constants.General.ScriptGeneratorSeparator}\n", list.Select(p => p.Definition));
   
         // replace create with create or alter
         string replaced = Regex.Replace(text,
            @"(?CREATE\s+PROCEDURE\s+)",
            "CREATE OR ALTER PROCEDURE ", 
            RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
   
         return replaced;
   }
   

This is a manual process, but allows to obtain procedures whenever their development is ready. Also, it can easily be extended to other types of objects (e.g. views).

3. Create a folder within solution to hold scripts to be run at application startup (e.g. _SQL)

4. Copy generated script within the folder (e.g. all_procedures.sql)

One advantage of storing scripts like this is that the IDE might automatically validate the syntax + highlight stuff etc.

5. Create "seed" code to automatically run when application starts

   private static void EnsureSqlObjects(CustomContext context)
   {
       string path = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "_Sql");
       foreach (var file in Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.sql"))
       {
           string fileText = File.ReadAllText(file);
           // escaping { } for those rare cases when sql code contains {..}
           // as ExecuteSqlCommand tries to replace them with params values
           fileText = fileText.Replace("{", "{{");
           fileText = fileText.Replace("}", "}}");
   
           // splitting objects (cannot run more than one DDL in a command)
           string[] ddlParts = fileText.Split(Base.Constants.General.ScriptGeneratorSeparator, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
           foreach (string ddl in ddlParts)
           {
               context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand(ddl);
           }
       }
   }
   

This approach allows for any idempotent scripts that are not easily maintained through migrations to be managed.