Moving Projects from EF 4.1,2,3–> EF5Beta: Don't do what I did

What did I do? I wasted hours and hours so that I can share this lesson with you. The bottom line is that I’m kindofa dope sometimes.

I had an EF 4.3 project that I moved onto a new machine with VS11 Beta.

I wanted to see the new enum support in action.

So, I installed the new EF 5 by opening up the Package Manager Console and typing in

install-package entityframework –pre

(The pre ensures that you get the latest pre-release version rather than the latest RTM…very clever )

I added in my enums and fixed up my classes and then since I was on a new machine, I ran enough code to initialize the database.

I had done this before on another machine and already seen this work, so I wasn't quite as excited this time when I opened up the database to see what Code First had given me. But the properties that were based on my new enums were NOT THERE.

Fast forward to about 2 hours later, then sleep, then another hour this morning.

In all of that time one thing I had noticed but NOT realized was my biggest clue was that the version of EntityFramework.dll in my projects as 4.4. I thought that maybe the team had decided not to number it 5 until it was released. (No only someone as dumb as me would think of that excuse, I guess )

Finally this morning after my 2nd cup of coffee I figured it out.

Installing EF5 (beta) installs TWO packages. One that can be used with .NET 4 and one that can be used with .NET 4.5. Note that it is .NET 4.5 that brings the goods for the enum support.

So then the question was, “why did I get the .NET 4 version of EF5?” and I know the answer.

I installed the package BEFORE I updated my projects from targeting .NET 4 to targeting .NET 4.5.

So, to update an EF 4.x project to EF5 + .NET 4.5 goodies the steps are:

Update the projects to target .NET 4.5 *first*
Install the EF5 package into each of the relevant projects.

Hoping this saves someone the grief and waste of time that it cost me. You know…it’s just how I roll!