LocalDb for unit testing with Entity Framework 5.0 deployed to AppHarbor

Question

Is it possible to run unit tests in Visual Studio 2012 against localDb created using Entity Framework 5.0 Code-First? Our development is currently against the SQL Express Server instance, but this will not work with AppHarbor deployments, because Db is not available.

Answer 1

I am not sure that using LocalDB will solve your problem. To use LocalDB, LocalDB still needs to be installed on the machine your unit tests are running on, and this may not be the case in AppHarbor.

Consider these resources for alternatives:

• Integration of the Testing Entity Framework first with the in-memory database (use SQL Server CE using the file in the unit test directory)
• Effort (let you create a circuit and run unit tests in memory without touching the file system - probably preferable)