Entity Framework Migration | Best Practices!

Ibrahim Jaber
4 min readApr 20, 2023

Introduction: Entity Framework (EF) is a popular Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework for .NET applications that simplifies database access and manipulation. One of the powerful features of EF is its built-in migration system, which allows developers to easily manage database schema changes over time, while preserving existing data. In this blog, we will explore some best practices for using Entity Framework Migrations effectively, along with practical examples to illustrate the concepts.

  1. Enable Automatic Migrations with Caution: EF provides automatic migration, which allows the framework to automatically generate and apply database schema changes based on the changes in the data model classes. While this can be convenient during development, it is recommended to use automatic migrations with caution in production environments, as it can result in unexpected or unintended changes to the database schema. Instead, it’s best to use explicit migrations, which provide more control over the migration process.
  2. Use Code-First Migrations for Database Changes: EF supports two approaches for managing database changes: code-first migrations and database-first migrations. Code-first migrations are considered best practice as they allow you to define the database schema using code-first principles, and manage the changes using migrations. This provides a single source of truth for both the data model and the database schema, making it easier to track and manage changes.
  3. Keep Migrations Small

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Ibrahim Jaber
Ibrahim Jaber

Written by Ibrahim Jaber

Software developer | Programming and Blockchain enthusiast

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