Can the provider connection string of Entity Framework be substituted with a DB connection string already defined in web.config?

Question

I have a db connection string 'ApplicationServices' defined in the connectionString section of web.config and 3 Entity Framework connection strings which have the provider connection string attribute with the same connection string as the one in 'ApplicationServices'.

Is there a way to reference connectionString in 'ApplicationServices' for the provider connection string attribute of the EF connection string in the web.config, rather than providing the connection string all over again? This will reduce errors and help deploy the application more easily.

Answer 1

The generated object context has many different ways to provide it with a connection string. Also because the generated class is a partial you can define your own constructor which sets the connection string.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb156503.aspx

Reply to comment:

So read from the config:

public class MyContext : ObjectContext 
{
     public MyContext()
         : base(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"])
     { }
}