在哪里可以找到我的应用程序的.EDMX文件？

Question

I compiled a WPF application on Visual Studio 2015 and built a Release. The customer has been using this Release for maybe two months by now with no whatsoever issues.

Today they called saying that the application can not be started and that it is showing this error:

The provider did not return a ProvideManifest instance.

I have never seen this error before. I am researching and gathering information before I visit the customer on site, and almost all these questions:

• EntityFramework error: The provider did not return a ProviderManifest instance
• Entity Framework: The provider did not return a providermanifest instance
• The provider did not return a ProviderManifest instance

Are saying that I need to " open the EDMX file with notepad and change ProviderManifestToken="2012" to ProviderManifestToken="2008" ".

However, I am not being able to find that file. Neither in the Release folder that the customer currently have, nor in the Project Solution that I have.

Along with the other solutions that I found when researching, I must try the above one. But where can I find the .EDMX file?

Edit: It would be awesome if I can fix their existing Release without having to build and install a new one.

Answer 1

Normally – ie. unless it has been customised in the project – the EDMX will be a resource in the assembly built by the project including the model.

It can be a separate file, but you'll need to change the connection string from its default which uses a specific notation to say "look in assemblies":

metadata=res://*/ProjectName.csdl|res://*/ProjectName.ssdl|res://*/ProjectName.msl

to point to EDMX as a separate file.