Entity Framework: DbContext and setting the ProviderName

Question

When you derive from DbContext and use the parameter-less constructor it will load a connection string from web.config. You also have the option of explicitly specifying the

Answer 1

Create your DbConnection manually and pass it to the DbContext constructor as follows:

var conn = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory("MY_CONN_PROVIDER").CreateConnection();
conn.ConnectionString = "MY_CONN_STR";

new DbContext(conn, true);

Notice the second parameter bool contextOwnsConnection is true. Since you don't re-use the connection elsewhere, it lets the context manage the connection and Dispose() it when needed.