Entity Framework Development Workflows

Entity Framework supports four basic development workflows. You can choose which one is appropriate for you based on following questions.

1. Do you have Existing Database? or
2. Are you going to create New Database?

New Database:

There are two approaches for New Database:

1. Model First

• Create model in designer
• Database created from model
• Classes auto-generated from model

2. Code First

• Define classes & mapping in code
• Database created from defined classes
• Use Migrations to evolve database

Existing Database:

There are two approaches for Existing Database:

1. Database First

• Reverse engineer model in designer
• Classes auto-generated from model

2. Code First

• Define classes & mapping in code
• Reverse engineer tools available