Entity Framework Code-First Tutorial: C# .NET MVC 5

Historical Post: This article was originally written in 2015. The technology discussed may be outdated or deprecated. Keeping it here for historical reference and to show I’ve been blogging since 2015!

Overview

This tutorial introduces developers to Entity Framework’s Code-First approach, a convention-based methodology where you write C# models to represent database entities, allowing Entity Framework to generate the database structure automatically.

Creating the Contact Model

Start by creating a Contact.cs class in your Models folder with the following properties:

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public class Contact
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{
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    public int Id { get; set; }
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    public string FirstName { get; set; }
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    public string LastName { get; set; }
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    public string PhoneNumber { get; set; }
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    public string Email { get; set; }
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}

Setting Up the Database Context

Create a DAL (Data Access Layer) folder and add ContactsContext.cs:

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public class ContactsContext : DbContext
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{
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    public virtual DbSet<Contact> Contacts { get; set; }
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}

The DbContext inheritance signals to Entity Framework which entities should be created as database tables.

Scaffolding the Web API Controller

Use the scaffolding feature to generate controller code:

1. Right-click Controllers folder -> Add Controller
2. Select “Web API 2 Controller with actions, using Entity Framework”
3. Specify Contact as the model and ContactsContext as the data context

This generates full CRUD endpoints (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE) automatically.

Database Seeding

Enable migrations via Package Manager Console:

Enable-Migrations
Add-Migration init

Modify the Seed method in Configuration.cs:

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protected override void Seed(EfTutorial.DAL.ContactsContext context)
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{
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    context.Contacts.AddOrUpdate(
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        new Contact {
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            FirstName = "Brandon",
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            LastName = "Tillman",
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            PhoneNumber = "(123) 456-789",
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            Email = "[email protected]"
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        }
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    );
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}

Apply changes:

Update-Database

Verification

Access your API endpoint to confirm success and view seeded data in XML format.