Extract connection string from an Entity Connection String

Question

When creating and ADO.NET Entity Connection String you get something like

<add name="MREntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.csdl|res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.ssdl|res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;server=192.168.0.26;User Id=digitaliv;password=*******;Persist Security Info=True;database=digitaliv&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

My question is how do you grab the true inner connection string from that to call make a manual sql connection to call stored procedures, custom sql statements etc.? Specifically I need this part extracted from it

server=192.168.0.26;User Id=digitaliv;password=*******;Persist Security Info=True;database=digitaliv

J. Tihon · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-28 00:19:38Z

29

Assuming you have an instance of the ObjectContext (if you are using the built-in designer, your context derives from the EF ObjectContext class). You can cast the value of the ObjectContext.Connection property (which is a DbConnection) to an EntityConnection.

The EntityConnection class has a property StoreConnection which is the actual DbConnection used to connect to the database. This one actually has the ConnectionString property set to the one you are looking for.

Edit: Some sample code (Assign context to your ObjectContext):

ObjectContext context = entities;
EntityConnection entityConnection = context.Connection as EntityConnection;
if (null != entityConnection)
{
    Console.WriteLine(entityConnection.StoreConnection.ConnectionString);
}

answered Feb 28, 2011 at 0:19

J. Tihon

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4 Comments

J. Tihon Over a year ago

@dko There might be situations in which the ObjectContext.Connection property isn't an EntityConnection (although I couldn't enforce this behavior in my tests). Use the debugger to inspect the ObjectContext if this is the case for you.

dko Over a year ago

I was just doing that as your wrote it. It works btw. Thank you

mhenry1384 Over a year ago

To do it in one line: ((System.Data.EntityClient.EntityConnection)context.Connection).StoreConnection.ConnectionString

user959729 Over a year ago

If your the password in the connection string doesn't get carried over, be sure to set the "Persist Security Info" value to true. Something I stumbled with when using the StoredConnectionString.

tne · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-11 13:59:41Z

26

While Jan Remunda rightly points out that you don't need to create a context, and while his solution is useful if you want to create a connection explicitly right after reading the EntityClient connection string, it's still a little convoluted if all you want is to retrieve the inner-provider connection string (which is what OP asks).

It's true that you don't have to open the connection, you can just retrieve the ConnectionString of the inner StoreConnection then discard it right after, but why?

Use the appropriate connection string builder instead:

new EntityConnectionStringBuilder(outerConnectionString).ProviderConnectionString

See EntityConnectionStringBuilder.

answered Mar 11, 2015 at 13:59

tne

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2 Comments

Konamiman Over a year ago

That's exactly what the OP was asking for and should be the accepted answer.

Oncel Umut TURER Over a year ago

Thanks. If someone needs getting connection string from web.config here is the example: EntityConnectionStringBuilder(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyDbContextConnectionName"].ConnectionString).ProviderConnectionString

Jan Remunda · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 07:09:48Z

10

You don't need to create instance of ObjectContext. Because in that case you must reference assemblies where metadata are stored and for performance is not also very good.

There is simpler way to get provider connection string in StoreConnection property.

 using (var ec = new EntityConnection(connstr.ConnectionString))
 {
   var sqlConn = ec.StoreConnection as SqlConnection;
   sqlConn.Open();
 }

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 7:09

Jan Remunda

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Comments

user3838082 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-05 12:31:34Z

2

We can use the following code to extract connection string only from entity framework connection string without metadata information.

string connectionString = new MREntities().Database.Connection.ConnectionString

edited Feb 5, 2019 at 12:31

answered Aug 1, 2017 at 6:57

user3838082

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Comments

JAiro · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-28 00:08:43Z

-5

try this :

conn = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MREntities"].ConnectionString;

answered Feb 28, 2011 at 0:08

JAiro

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1 Comment

dko Over a year ago

Yes that gives the whole etadata=res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.csdl|res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.ssdl|res://*/App_Code.MembershipAndRoll.MembershipAndRollEntities.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string="server=192.168.0.26;User Id=digitaliv;password=*******;Persist Security Info=True;database=digitaliv" part i just need the server=192.168.0.26;User Id=digitaliv;password=*******;Persist Security Info=True;database=digitaliv part

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