I created an SQL Express database and built an Entity Data Model off of it using the wizard, then used the Repository Pattern to generate a helper class that does my querying for me.
Unfortunately what I didn't realize is that Code First creates a localdb copy and basically ALL my add/removes now go to this ethereal location that I can't find so I can't run queries off the data in SQL Express. Now I know the data is being saved because I'm able to check the underlying model through breakpoints and queries during page load with using(Context = new Context()) { /query stuff/ }, but I don't know how to switch from the underlying model back to my SqlExpress instance.
Any thoughts?
LocalDb is just another sql server database, which is started by Visual Studio. It's data most of the time are in %USER% directory and you can open it with Sql Server Management Studio. To switch your project to your sql express instance, you need to change the connection string, that's all.