7.2 Entity Framework Core Support

7.2.1 Creating a Database with Code First in EF Core

7.2.2 Scaffolding an Existing Database in EF Core

7.2.3 Configuring Character Sets and Collations in EF Core

MySQL Connector/NET integrates support for Entity Framework Core (EF Core). The requirements and configuration of EF Core depend on the version of Connector/NET installed and the features that you require. Use the table that follows to evaluate the minimum requirements.

Table 7.2 Connector/NET Versions and Entity Framework Core Support

Connector/NET	EF Core 7.0	EF Core 6.0	EF Core 5.0	EF Core 3.1
8.0.32	.NET 7	.NET 6	.NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5.0 (feature set is equivalent to EF Core 3.1.1)	.NET Standard 2.0
8.0.28	Not supported	.NET 6	.NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5.0 (feature set is equivalent to EF Core 3.1.1)	.NET Standard 2.0
8.0.23 to 8.0.27	Not supported	EF Core 6.0 preview support with .NET 5	.NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5.0 (feature set is equivalent to EF Core 3.1.1)	.NET Standard 2.0
8.0.20 to 8.0.22	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported	.NET Standard 2.0

To continue using EF Core 2.1, select Connector/NET versions 8.0.13 to 8.0.19 only. The requirements are .NET Standard 2.0 or .NET Framework 4.6.1 and later.

In this section:

• General Requirements for EF Core Support

• Configuration with MySQL

• Limitations

• Maximum String Length

General Requirements for EF Core Support

• Connector/NET 8.0

• Server version: MySQL 8.0 or MySQL 5.7

• Entity Framework Core packages (replace n with a valid number to complete the full version of the package):

  • MySql.EntityFrameworkCore 7.0.n+MySQL8.0.3n (Connector/NET 8.0.32 and later)

  • MySql.EntityFrameworkCore 6.0.n+MySQL8.0.2n or 6.0.n+MySQL8.0.3n (Connector/NET 8.0.28 and later)

  • MySql.EntityFrameworkCore 5.0.n+MySQL8.0.2n and 3.1.1n+MySQL8.0.2n (Connector/NET 8.0.23 and later)

  • MySql.Data.EntityFrameworkCore 8.0.2n (Connector/NET 8.0.22 and earlier)

• An implementation of .NET Standard or .NET Framework that is supported by Connector/NET (see Table 7.2, “Connector/NET Versions and Entity Framework Core Support”)

• .NET | .NET Core SDK

  • .NET 7.0 for all supported platforms:  https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/7.0

  • .NET 6.0 for all supported platforms:  https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/6.0

  • .NET 5.0 for all supported platforms:  https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/5.0

  • .NET Core for Microsoft Windows:  https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#windowscmd

  • .NET Core for Linux:  https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#linuxredhat

  • .NET Core for macOS:  https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#macos

  • Docker:  https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#dockercmd

• Optional: Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, 2019, 2022, or Code

  Note

  For the minimum version of Visual Studio to use with Connector/NET, see Table 2.1, “Connector/NET Requirements for Related Products”.

Configuration with MySQL

To use Entity Framework Core with a MySQL database, do the following:

1. Install the NuGet package.

   When you install either the MySql.EntityFrameworkCore or MySql.Data.EntityFrameworkCore package, all of the related packages required to run your application are installed for you. For instructions on adding a NuGet package, see the relevant Microsoft documentation.

2. In the class that derives from the DbContext class, override the OnConfiguring method to set the MySQL data provider with UseMySQL. The following example shows how to set the provider using a generic connection string in C#.

   protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
   {
        #warning To protect potentially sensitive information in your connection string, 
        you should move it out of source code. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=723263 
        for guidance on storing connection strings.
        
      optionsBuilder.UseMySQL("server=localhost;database=library;user=user;password=password");
   }

Limitations

The Connector/NET implementation of EF Core has the following limitations:

• Memory-Optimized Tables is not supported.

Maximum String Length

The following table shows the maximum length of string types supported by the Connector/NET implementation of EF Core. Length values are in bytes for nonbinary and binary string types, depending on the character set used.

Table 7.3 Maximum Length of strings used with Entity Framework Core

Data Type	Maximum Length	.NET Type
CHAR	255	string
BINARY	255	byte[]
VARCHAR, VARBINARY	65,535	string, byte[]
TINYBLOB, TINYTEXT	255	byte[]
BLOB, TEXT	65,535	byte[]
MEDIUMBLOB, MEDIUMTEXT	16,777,215	byte[]
LONGBLOB, LONGTEXT	4,294,967,295	byte[]
ENUM	65,535	string
SET	65,535	string

For additional information about the storage requirements of the string types, see String Type Storage Requirements.