Does EF 6 support SQL Server 2014 Types?

Question

I have an asp.net mvc 5 web api application where I need to convert a SqlGeography instance into a DbGeography instance for querying with Entity Framework 6. I'm using the following code to do so:

SqlGeography geo = SqlGeography.STGeomFromText(chars, Constants.SRID);
DbGeography dbGeo = DbSpatialServices.Default.GeographyFromProviderValue(geo);

The call to GeographyFromProviderValue throws the following exception:

The specified provider value is not compatible with this spatial services implementation. A value is required of type 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeography, Microsoft.SqlServer.Types, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91'.
Parameter name: providerValue

Sure enough, my SqlGeography instance is coming from the SQL Server 2014 types assembly ( Microsoft.SqlServer.Types, Version 12.0.0.0 ).

Digging into the Entity Framework source code shows this method to be the culprit:

//EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll(6.0.0.0) System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlTypesAssemblyLoader
public SqlTypesAssemblyLoader(IEnumerable<string> assemblyNames = null)
{   
    this._preferredSqlTypesAssemblies = (assemblyNames ?? ((IEnumerable<string>)new string[]
    {
        "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91",
        "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91"
    }));
        this._latestVersion = new Lazy<SqlTypesAssembly>(new Func<SqlTypesAssembly>(this.BindToLatest), true);
    }
}

As you can see, the types assembly for SQL Server 2014 is not included. Does this mean that Entity Framework 6 does not support types from SQL Server 2014?

Obviously I could find the Types assembly for SQL Server 2012 and use that instead, but I'd rather not have to. Is there any other way around this issue?

Answer 1

You can set SQL Server types assembly via SqlProviderServices.SqlServerTypesAssemblyName static property. So, put in startup code the following:

SqlProviderServices.SqlServerTypesAssemblyName = "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91";