Dynamically changing schema in Entity Framework Core

Question

UPD here is the way I solved the problem. Although it's likely to be not the best one, it worked for me.

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I have an issue with working with EF Core. I want to separate data for different companies in my project's database via schema-mechanism. My question is how I can change the schema name in runtime? I've found similar question about this issue but it's still unanswered and I have some different conditions. So I have the Resolve method that grants the db-context when necessary

public static void Resolve(IServiceCollection services) {
    services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, IdentityRole>()
        .AddEntityFrameworkStores<DomainDbContext>()
        .AddDefaultTokenProviders();
    services.AddTransient<IOrderProvider, OrderProvider>();
    ...
}

I can set the schema-name in OnModelCreating, but, as was found before, this method is called just once, so I can set schema name globaly like that

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder) {
    modelBuilder.HasDefaultSchema("public");
    base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
}

or right in the model via an attribute

[Table("order", Schema = "public")]
public class Order{...}

But how can I change the schema name on runtime? I create the context per each request, but first I fugure out the schema-name of the user via a request to a schema-shared table in the database. So what is the right way to organize that mechanism:

1. Figure out the schema name by the user credentials;
2. Get user-specific data from database from specific schema.

Thank you.

P.S. I use PostgreSql and this is the reason for lowecased table names.

Answer 1

Did you already use EntityTypeConfiguration in EF6?

I think the solution would be use mapping for entities on OnModelCreating method in DbContext class, something like this:

using System;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata.Conventions.Internal;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;

namespace AdventureWorksAPI.Models
{
    public class AdventureWorksDbContext : Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.DbContext
    {
        public AdventureWorksDbContext(IOptions<AppSettings> appSettings)
        {
            ConnectionString = appSettings.Value.ConnectionString;
        }

        public String ConnectionString { get; }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
        {
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(ConnectionString);

            // this block forces map method invoke for each instance
            var builder = new ModelBuilder(new CoreConventionSetBuilder().CreateConventionSet());

            OnModelCreating(builder);

            optionsBuilder.UseModel(builder.Model);
        }

        protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
        {
            modelBuilder.MapProduct();

            base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
        }
    }
}

The code on OnConfiguring method forces the execution of MapProduct on each instance creation for DbContext class.

Definition of MapProduct method:

using System;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace AdventureWorksAPI.Models
{
    public static class ProductMap
    {
        public static ModelBuilder MapProduct(this ModelBuilder modelBuilder, String schema)
        {
            var entity = modelBuilder.Entity<Product>();

            entity.ToTable("Product", schema);

            entity.HasKey(p => new { p.ProductID });

            entity.Property(p => p.ProductID).UseSqlServerIdentityColumn();

            return modelBuilder;
        }
    }
}

As you can see above, there is a line to set schema and name for table, you can send schema name for one constructor in DbContext or something like that.

Please don't use magic strings, you can create a class with all available schemas, for example:

using System;

public class Schemas
{
    public const String HumanResources = "HumanResources";
    public const String Production = "Production";
    public const String Sales = "Sales";
}

For create your DbContext with specific schema you can write this:

var humanResourcesDbContext = new AdventureWorksDbContext(Schemas.HumanResources);

var productionDbContext = new AdventureWorksDbContext(Schemas.Production);

Obviously you should to set schema name according schema's name parameter's value:

entity.ToTable("Product", schemaName);