What is the correct format for Running Entity Framework migrate.exe tool without a Web/App.config?

Question

We recently switched to Entity Framework data migrations and I am working on some build automation scripts for our MVC app. I can successfully run the migrations from our build server using the migrate.exe tool in 4.3 if I have a Web.config to point it at. The command looks something like:

ProjectName\packages\EntityFramework.4.3.1\tools\migrate.exe MyAssembly
    /startupdirectory:ProjectName\bin\Debug 
    /startupconfigurationfile:ProjectName\Web.config 
    /verbose

However, for various reasons I would like to avoid using the Web.config and just pass in the correct connection string at the time of the migration:

ProjectName\packages\EntityFramework.4.3.1\tools\migrate.exe MyAssembly
    /startupdirectory:ProjectName\bin\Debug 
    /connectionString:"Data Source=awesomeserver;Initial Catalog=awesomedatabase;User Id=funkyuser;Password=crazypassword" 
    /verbose

This does not work. Worse, it crashes migrate.exe with a NullReferenceException. The connection string is identical to the one we use in our Web.config.

Anyone encountered this before? Is my connection string format wrong? Bug?

Answer 1

Ok, we figured it out. When running without the Web.config, the connectionProviderName parameter must also be passed in:

ProjectName\packages\EntityFramework.4.3.1\tools\migrate.exe MyAssembly
    /startupdirectory:ProjectName\bin\Debug 
    /connectionProviderName:"System.Data.SqlClient"
    /connectionString:"Data Source=awesomeserver;Initial Catalog=awesomedatabase;User Id=funkyuser;Password=crazypassword" 
    /verbose

I have confirmed that this works.