Cannot find my Entity Framework database

Question

I am a little confused on the code first entity framework database.

I created a new DbContext and class that I will be storing in that context, like this:

namespace MyProject.Subproject.Something
{
    public class MyItem
    {
        public string One { get; set; }
        public string Two { get; set; }
        [Key]
        public string Three { get; set; }
        public string Four { get; set; }
    }

    public class MyAppData : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<MyItem> MyItems { get; set; }
    }
}

I know that it's working since I can do this without failure:

var db = new MyAppData();
MyItem i = new MyItem();
// ... fill in item
db.MyItems.Add(i);
db.SaveChanges();

Additionally, if I restart the application I find db.MyItems.Count() to reflect that items are in fact persistently stored somewhere.

I'm assuming this is stored in localdb since I set up no SQL Server database. All I want to be able to do is see the table in localdb somewhere, however I can't seem to find it.

If I go to Data Sources -> Add New Data Source -> Database -> Data Set -> New Connection -> Microsoft SQL Server and then put in (localdb)v11.0 for the Server Name and dropdown the list of databases, I do not see MyAppData or MyItems listed.

Edit: What I see in my App.config is <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.LocalDbConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">

---

Edit 2: Full App.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=xxxxxxx" requirePermission="false" />
  </configSections>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />
  </startup>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.LocalDbConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">
      <parameters>
        <parameter value="mssqllocaldb" />
      </parameters>
    </defaultConnectionFactory>
    <providers>
      <provider invariantName="System.Data.SqlClient" type="System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer" />
    </providers>
  </entityFramework>
</configuration>

Answer 1

You need to set your database server as (LocalDB)\MSSQLLocalDB. This is a change made to EF 6.1.1 onwards. The MSSQLLocalDB is mentioned in your parameter. More details on the change can be found here https://entityframework.codeplex.com/workitem/2246

MSSQLLocalDB is the default instance name on SQL Server 2014 whereas v11.0 is the default Instance name on SQL Server 2012

Answer 2

using (var db = new BloggingContext()) 
{ 
  var connectionString = db.Database.Connection.ConnectionString;
  Console.WriteLine(connectionString); 
}

The above code uses the Microsoft example; for BloggingContext substitute your DbContext class. It will give you the connection string that the entity framework is using, which includes the instance name.