Asp.net Mvc Database Connection with Portable Class Library (Db First Approach)

• To connect an ASP.NET MVC application to a database using a Portable Class Library (PCL) and the Database-First approach, you can follow these steps:
  
  
  1. Create a Portable Class Library (PCL) project:
     - In Visual Studio, create a new PCL project targeting the desired platforms (e.g., .NET Standard).
  
  
  2. Add Entity Framework to the PCL project:
     - Right-click on the PCL project, select "Manage NuGet Packages," and install the Entity Framework package (`EntityFramework`).
  
  
  3. Add a database connection:
     - In the PCL project, add a new ADO.NET Entity Data Model by right-clicking on the project and selecting "Add" -> "New Item" -> "Data" -> "ADO.NET Entity Data Model."
     - Choose the "Generate from database" option and configure the database connection by specifying the server, authentication, and database.
     - Select the tables and views you want to include in the model.
  
  
  4. Generate the entity classes:
     - The Entity Data Model will generate entity classes based on the selected tables and views from the database.
     - These classes represent the entities in your application and will be used to interact with the database.
  
  
  5. Reference the PCL project in the ASP.NET MVC project:
     - Right-click on the ASP.NET MVC project and select "Add" -> "Reference."
     - Choose the PCL project from the list and click "OK."
  
  
  6. Use the generated entity classes in the ASP.NET MVC project:
     - In the ASP.NET MVC project, you can now use the entity classes to interact with the database.
     - You can perform CRUD operations by creating an instance of the generated `DbContext` class and accessing the entity sets.
     - For example, to retrieve data from the database:
  
  
       ```csharp
       using (var dbContext = new YourDbContext())
       {
           var data = dbContext.YourEntitySet.ToList();
           // Use the retrieved data
       }
       ```
  
  
       Where `YourDbContext` is the generated DbContext class, and `YourEntitySet` is the entity set representing a table in the database.
  
  
     - You can perform additional LINQ queries and use other Entity Framework features to work with the data.
  
  
  Note: Ensure that the PCL project and the ASP.NET MVC project share the same version of Entity Framework to avoid compatibility issues. Additionally, make sure that the necessary database drivers and connection strings are configured correctly in the ASP.NET MVC project's configuration files.
  
  
  By following these steps, you can connect your ASP.NET MVC application to a database using a Portable Class Library (PCL) and the Database-First approach, allowing you to interact with the database using the generated entity classes.