Enhancing Database Development with EF Core Power Tools

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This episode of The Modern .NET Show is supported, in part, by Metalama, reduce your boilerplate code by up to 15% with Metalama's C#-to-C# template engine and reduce your code complexity today!

Show Notes

Hi everyone,

Just a quick thing before we start: this episode was recorded in the middle of summer, which meant that Erik needed to have his office window open. It's possible to hear the outside traffic throughout, but rest assured that our editing team have done what they can to reduce it's presence.

It's not that noticable and shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the show, but I wanted to give you a heads-up. Also, do remember that there's a full transcription available at the show's website; so check that out, too.

Anyway, let's get to it.

"So, I think my mantra for creating things like these tools is, "should be easy to get started and there should be a like an easy happy path but then if you want to deep dive and do a lot of options or even a t4 templates you can also do that," but there should be a simple happy path with good error reporting if something fails."— Erik Jensen

Welcome friends to The Modern .NET Show; the premier .NET podcast, focussing entirely on the knowledge, tools, and frameworks that all .NET developers should have in their toolbox. We are the go-to podcast for .NET developers worldwide, and I am your host: Jamie "GaProgMan" Taylor.

In this episode, Erik Jensen joined us to talk about EF Core Power Tools, and how you can use his project to increase your productivity with EF Core-based databases, regardless of the database technology used; if it's supported by EF Core, then the Power Tools extension supports it to.

"The one that's definitely used the most is what in a tool is referred to as reverse engineering. Where you point to an existing database, which can be some of the database types I mentioned previously. Like SQL Server, as a SQL database, Postgres, Oracle, MySQL, and Firebird. And then the tool asks you for a number of options, like you can specify what namespaces you're using, and where the files are laid in your project, and many, many other options. And then when you press OK at that point, as you said, Jamie, the tool generates a DB context and some classes that represent your tables with navigations between the tables based on discovery of foreign key relationships."— Erik Jensen

We also briefly touched on the MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj project and its goal of giving cross-platform .NET developers a way to both describe and build their ideal database schema in code. We also covered Erik's personal process for dealing with feature requests, and how developers can ensure that that are providing valueable feedback to open-source projects; a subject that will come up again soon with future guest Scott Harden.

Anyway, without further ado, let's sit back, open up a terminal, type in `dotnet new podcast` and we'll dive into the core of Modern .NET.

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Full Show Notes

The full show notes, including links to some of the things we discussed and a full transcription of this episode, can be found at: https://dotnetcore.show/season-7/powering-up-with-erik-jensen-an-introduction-to-ef-core-power-tools/

EF Core Power Tools Contributors

The following list is correct as of Oct 4th, 2024, and aims to show that it takes a village to create a tool as ubiquitous as EF Core Power Tools. It contains the top 10 (arranged by number of contributions) devs who have worked on EF Core Power Tools.

• Erik Ejlskov Jensen
• Stephan Over
• Varorbc
• Will 保哥
• Pedro Rocha
• P. León
• Pratik Pote
• Emanuele Curati
• Jonathon Wyza

Useful Links

• EF Core Power Tools wiki
• EF Core Power Tools on GitHub
• Install EF Core Power Tools as a .NET global tool
• XKCD: Dependency
• DacFx
• MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj
• Episode 19 - The .NET Foundation with Jon Galloway
• Connect with Erik on GitHub
• Connect with Erik on X
• Erik's blog
• Music created by Mono Memory Music, licensed to RJJ Software for use in The Modern .NET Show

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• Leave a rating or review
• Buy the show a coffee
• Become a patron

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• Via the contact page
• Joining the Discord

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