Entity framework multiple contexts for logging

Question

I've seen a fair few articles/posts that recommend not having more than one context per request when using EF.

Is it valid to have a second context for logging purposes such as 'user x did y', 'failed login from z' etc.

The rationale behind this is that I'd like these errors to be logged even if there is an error while using the "main" context, ie. foreign key issues etc.

Is there another way to do this or if I head down this road is there any things to try and avoid?

Answer 1

You can always have more context instances if your application logic really needs them and ability to persist log to database even with invalid data in the main context can be considered as such situation. You just need to ensure that your updates do not run in the same transaction (they must use different DB connection as well) - that should be a default behavior unless you use TransactionScope.