Ensure Your Code First DB is Always Initialized

Introduction

With EF Code First, the built in DB Initializers, DropCreateDatabaseAlways, CreateDatabaseIfNotExists, and DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges, and any classes you derive straight from these, only invoke their Seed method when your DbContext based class needs to access the database. This can be frustrating, especially when you are debugging Seed methods and start an application merely to check DB initialization. This tip describes a very simple way to ensure your DB is always initialized before your client app even starts up, without having to write unwanted code in the client app.

How Do I Do This?

Simply invoke a data access method inside a static constructor for your DbContext derivative:

public class TheContext: DbContext
{
    static TheContext()
    {
        Database.SetInitializer(new DbInitAlways());
        var ctx = new TheContext();
        var r = ctx.Roles.First();
    }
    public DbSet<Role> Roles { get; set; }
}  

Points of Interest

• The first line above, setting the initializer, should always be changed to set a suitable initializer. Using a DropCreateDatabaseAlways or derivative, like I have, will always drop the database. IT WILL ALWAYS DESTROY ANY TEST DATA YOU HAVE CAPTURED.
• I just used Roles because it was a convenient and common DbSet on my DbContext. Use any available to you.
• It is necessary to call First on Roles, and not just Roles, as the latter returns an IQueryable, which only accesses the DB when needed, that is, when iterated, or queried for a specific object.