Install Entity Framework Core in Visual Studio 2022. C#, ASP.NET CORE. HOW TO INSTALL EF CORE

Install Entity Framework Core in Visual Studio 2022.C#, ASP.NET CORE.

To install Entity Framework Core and to be able to use SQL server as the database for your application, you need to install the following nuget packages.

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer - This nuget package contains SQL Server specific functionality
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational - This nuget package contains functionality that is common to all relational databases
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore - This nuget package contains common entity frameowrk core functionality

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer has a dependency on Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational package.
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational package has a dependency on Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore package.
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore package has a dependency on several other packages.

When we install Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer package, it also installs all the other dependant nuget packages automatically.

In a class library project, to install a nuget package

Right click on the "Dependencies" node in "Solution Explorer" and Select "Manage NuGet Packages" from the context menu.

On the screen that pops up, search for the package that you want to install and follow the onscreen instructions.

We want to use SQL Server as the database for our application, so we used the nuget package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer. This package is usually called Database provider package.

If you want to use a different database with your application, then you will have to install that database provider specific nuget package instead of Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer database provider package.

For example, if you want to use mysql as your database, then install Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql database provider package. Along the same lines, if you want to use PostgreSQL as your database, use Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL database provider package.

You can find all the provider specific NuGet packages on the following MSDN page