Question
The connection does not attempt to access the database when a new EntityCollection object is created; it waits until you attempt to perform some action on the collection. I need to know if an Entity collection has a valid connection or not, but I can't seem to find an effective way to achieve it.
I currently have the following in my code:
var db = new MyEntityCollection();
try
{
var checkworking = from c in db.Customers select c;
}
catch
{
ConnectToBackUp();
}
This, in addition to being terrible code, is also very sluggish since it takes a very long time to check if the connection is active before raising an error.
Although I am aware that I can use ConnectionTimeout to adjust how long it waits before giving up, it is simply another unsightly hack that exacerbates an already problematic scenario.
There must be a more effective method to go about this.
Accepted Answer
This was resolved by making a fresh connection string to test with ADO after moving around a few homes. Although it is much quicker, employing a try catch is still necessary:
private bool TestConnection()
{
EntityConnectionStringBuilder b = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();
ConnectionStringSettings entityConString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyEntityConnectionString"];
b.ConnectionString = entityConString.ConnectionString;
string providerConnectionString = b.ProviderConnectionString;
SqlConnectionStringBuilder conStringBuilder = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();
conStringBuilder.ConnectionString = providerConnectionString;
conStringBuilder.ConnectTimeout = 1;
string constr = conStringBuilder.ConnectionString;
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(constr))
{
try
{
conn.Open();
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}
}
Popular Answer
Simplest:
private bool TestConnection()
{
var db = new MyEntityCollection();
int oldTimeOut = db.CommandTimeout;
try
{
db.CommandTimeout = 1;
db.Connection.Open(); // check the database connection
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
finally
{
db.CommandTimeout = oldTimeOut;
}
}
Revisions for EF6:
using System.Data.Common;
...
public bool TestConnection() {
using (var db = new MyEntityCollection()) {
DbConnection conn = db.Database.Connection;
try {
conn.Open(); // check the database connection
return true;
}
catch {
return false;
}
}
}
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