Code – MonkeyBlog

Working on a new project I had a need to integrate Entity Framework 6 migrations as part of the installation package. My goal is simple, a single installer that migrates and rolls back the database as part of it’s installation procedure. The key to making this work is a utility that is part of the EF6 Nuget package – Migrate.exe.

path to migrate

To find this tool, simply navigate to your solution folder, then packages, then EntityFramework.<version>, then tools. Here you will find several files, one of which is the migrate.exe tool being referenced here.

MSDN provides a healthy dose of information on the specifics of how to use migrate.exe, but for my purposes, I am going to collect the connection string from the user. The software in my case supports only SQL Server, so I can default the provider as such. So, this makes the “provide connection string” approach — the last one in the linked article — the perfect option for my needs.

provide connection string example

Armed with this tool I went to work creating my UI dialog for WiX. This dialog will allow me to capture the connection string information. I had previously used an article from code project to learn about the WiX dialogs. I used that same code here in order to create my connection string dialog.

<Fragment>
 <UI>
 <Dialog Id="ConnectionStringDlg" Width="370"
 Height="270" Title="Database Settings - [ProductName]" NoMinimize="yes">
 
 <!-- Connection String -->
 <Control Id="ConnectionStringLabel" Type="Text" X="45" Y="73"
 Width="100" Height="15" TabSkip="no" Text="SQL Server &amp;Connection String:" />
 <Control Id="ConnectionStringEdit" Type="Edit" X="45" Y="95"
 Width="220" Height="18" Property="CONNECTION_STRING" Text="{200}" />
 
 <!-- Back button -->
 <Control Id="Back" Type="PushButton" X="180" Y="243"
 Width="56" Height="17" Text="&amp;Back">
 <Publish Event="NewDialog" Value="WelcomeDlg">1</Publish>
 </Control>
 
 <!-- Next Button -->
 <Control Id="Next" Type="PushButton" X="236" Y="243"
 Width="56" Height="17" Default="yes" Text="&amp;Next">
 <Publish Event="NewDialog" Value="SetupTypeDlg">
 <!--if settings are correct, allow next dialog-->
 <![CDATA[CONNECTION_STRING <> ""]]>
 </Publish>
 </Control>
 
 <!-- Cancel Button -->
 <Control Id="Cancel" Type="PushButton" X="304" Y="243"
 Width="56" Height="17" Cancel="yes" Text="Cancel">
 <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="CancelDlg">1</Publish>
 </Control>
 
 <Control Id="BannerBitmap" Type="Bitmap" X="0" Y="0"
 Width="370" Height="44" TabSkip="no" Text="WixUI_Bmp_Banner" />
 
 <Control Id="Description" Type="Text" X="25" Y="23"
   Width="280" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes">
 <Text>Please enter database configuration</Text>
 </Control>
 
 <Control Id="BottomLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="234" Width="370"  
  Height="0" />
 
 <Control Id="Title" Type="Text" X="15" Y="6"
 Width="200" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes">
 <Text>{WixUI_Font_Title}Database Settings</Text>
 </Control>
 
 <Control Id="BannerLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="44" 
    Width="370" Height="0" />
 </Dialog>
 </UI>
</Fragment>

<UI>

<Dialog Id="ConnectionStringDlg" Width="370"

Height="270" Title="Database Settings - [ProductName]" NoMinimize="yes">

<Control Id="ConnectionStringLabel" Type="Text" X="45" Y="73"

Width="100" Height="15" TabSkip="no" Text="SQL Server &Connection String:" />

<Control Id="ConnectionStringEdit" Type="Edit" X="45" Y="95"

Width="220" Height="18" Property="CONNECTION_STRING" Text="{200}" />

<Control Id="Back" Type="PushButton" X="180" Y="243"

Width="56" Height="17" Text="&Back">

</Control>

<Control Id="Next" Type="PushButton" X="236" Y="243"

Width="56" Height="17" Default="yes" Text="&Next">

<![CDATA[CONNECTION_STRING <> ""]]>

</Publish>

</Control>

<Control Id="Cancel" Type="PushButton" X="304" Y="243"

Width="56" Height="17" Cancel="yes" Text="Cancel">

</Control>

<Control Id="BannerBitmap" Type="Bitmap" X="0" Y="0"

Width="370" Height="44" TabSkip="no" Text="WixUI_Bmp_Banner" />

<Control Id="Description" Type="Text" X="25" Y="23"

Width="280" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes">

<Text>Please enter database configuration</Text>

</Control>

<Control Id="BottomLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="234" Width="370"

Height="0" />

<Control Id="Title" Type="Text" X="15" Y="6"

Width="200" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes">

<Text>{WixUI_Font_Title}Database Settings</Text>

</Control>

<Control Id="BannerLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="44"

Width="370" Height="0" />

</Dialog>

</UI>

</Fragment>

With the dialog fragment in place. It was a fairly simple matter to integrate it into the WiX workflow. Note: I am using WixUI_Mondo as my UI.

<UI Id='Mondo'>
 <UIRef Id="WixUI_Mondo" />
 <UIRef Id="WixUI_ErrorProgressText" />
 <Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" 
     Value="ConnectionStringDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>
 <Publish Dialog="ConnectionStringDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" 
     Value="SetupTypeDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>
 <Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" 
     Value="ConnectionStringDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>
 </UI>

<Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog"

Value="ConnectionStringDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>

<Publish Dialog="ConnectionStringDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog"

Value="SetupTypeDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>

<Publish Dialog="SetupTypeDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog"

Value="ConnectionStringDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>

</UI>

This created the desired result.

Now it was a matter of using Migrate.exe to push the entity information out. In order to do this I needed a custom action. So I added a new CA project to my solution, and referenced it in my installer. For brevity of this post, I’ve removed all of the logging from this object.

[CustomAction]
public static ActionResult MigrateEntityData(Session session)
{
    string assemblyPath = session.CustomActionData["ExecutablePath"];
    
    // Basically because connection strings use the ';' as the sentinel and 
    // so does the installer, we have to assume everything that is not an 
    // otherwise known value is part of the connection string.
    string connectionString = session.CustomActionData["ConnectionString"];

    List<string> knownKeys = new List<string>(
        new string[] { "ConnectionString", "ExecutablePath" });

    foreach (var k in session.CustomActionData.Keys)
    {
       if (!knownKeys.Contains(k))
       {
           // Put the ; in front as the string should have been initialized 
           // to contain "data source=<value>".
           if (!connectionString.EndsWith(";")) { connectionString += ";"; }

           // Now, don't add it to the end because we don't want one at the end 
           // of the connection string.
           connectionString += k + "=" + session.CustomActionData[k];
        }
     }

     // Just to make sure we are good, make sure the path is there before trying
     if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(assemblyPath))
     {
          throw new InvalidOperationException(
            "Error setting up database, the provided assembly path is invalid. '" 
            + assemblyPath + "'");
     }

     // Execute the migration
     string commandText = assemblyPath.EndsWith(@"") ? 
                assemblyPath: assemblyPath + @"";
     commandText += "Migrate.exe";

     System.Diagnostics.Process migrate = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
     migrate.StartInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo()
     {
        WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
        FileName = commandText,
        Arguments = string.Format(
           "{0} /connectionString="{1}"" + 
           " /connectionProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient"", 
           "NameOfCustomActionAssembly.dll", connectionString),
        RedirectStandardError = true,
        RedirectStandardInput = true,
        RedirectStandardOutput = true,
        UseShellExecute = false
      };
     
      migrate.Start();
      migrate.WaitForExit();

      // TODO: Do any cleanup (e.g. delete the temp directory)
      return ActionResult.Success;
}

[CustomAction]

public static ActionResult MigrateEntityData(Session session)

{

string assemblyPath = session.CustomActionData["ExecutablePath"];

// Basically because connection strings use the ';' as the sentinel and

// so does the installer, we have to assume everything that is not an

// otherwise known value is part of the connection string.

string connectionString = session.CustomActionData["ConnectionString"];

List<string> knownKeys = new List<string>(

new string[] { "ConnectionString", "ExecutablePath" });

foreach (var k in session.CustomActionData.Keys)

{

if (!knownKeys.Contains(k))

{

// Put the ; in front as the string should have been initialized

// to contain "data source=<value>".

if (!connectionString.EndsWith(";")) { connectionString += ";"; }

// Now, don't add it to the end because we don't want one at the end

// of the connection string.

connectionString += k + "=" + session.CustomActionData[k];

}

// Just to make sure we are good, make sure the path is there before trying

if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(assemblyPath))

{

throw new InvalidOperationException(

"Error setting up database, the provided assembly path is invalid. '"

+ assemblyPath + "'");

}

// Execute the migration

string commandText = assemblyPath.EndsWith(@"") ?

assemblyPath: assemblyPath + @"";

commandText += "Migrate.exe";

System.Diagnostics.Process migrate = new System.Diagnostics.Process();

migrate.StartInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo()

{

WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,

FileName = commandText,

Arguments = string.Format(

"{0} /connectionString="{1}"" +

" /connectionProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient"",

"NameOfCustomActionAssembly.dll", connectionString),

RedirectStandardError = true,

RedirectStandardInput = true,

RedirectStandardOutput = true,

UseShellExecute = false

};

migrate.Start();

migrate.WaitForExit();

// TODO: Do any cleanup (e.g. delete the temp directory)

return ActionResult.Success;

}

A few key points about this method:

It requires some property values to be passed into the custom action as part of the WiX markup, particularly the connection string – which comes from our custom dialog, and the executable path – which comes from the directory structure definition.

<SetProperty Id="ExecuteEfMigration"
  Value="ExecutablePath=[INSTALLFOLDER];ConnectionString=[CONNECTION_STRING]"
  Sequence="execute"
  Before="ExecuteEfMigration"/>
 
<CustomAction Id="ExecuteEfMigration"
  BinaryKey="PrimaryCaBin"
  Execute="deferred"
  DllEntry="MigrateEntityData"
  HideTarget="yes"/>

<SetProperty Id="ExecuteEfMigration"

Value="ExecutablePath=[INSTALLFOLDER];ConnectionString=[CONNECTION_STRING]"

Sequence="execute"

Before="ExecuteEfMigration"/>

<CustomAction Id="ExecuteEfMigration"

BinaryKey="PrimaryCaBin"

Execute="deferred"

DllEntry="MigrateEntityData"

HideTarget="yes"/>

Because I’m working with a connection string, I have to do some trickery as the ‘;’ plays havoc on the property values being passed in because the CA uses this same sentinel as a delimiter for the values. This basically means if I have a connection string “data source=localhost;initial catalog=database_name;integrated security=true” it will come through as multiple values into the custom action, splitting on the ‘;’.
It will execute a shell (i.e. a command prompt window will popup during installation). For me this was ok, and beats the alternative – which is: You can opt to not use shell execute. However, this means you also cannot redirect output, which means you cannot log output in a verbose debugger session (msiexec /l switch).

When I get the chance, I’ll try to post a sample on my github page, and update this post with the link.

Category: Code

Entity Framework Power Tools for Visual Studio 2015

WiX Custom Actions and Entity Framework Migrations