How do you configure the DbContext when creating Migrations in Entity Framework Core?

As @bricelam commented this functionality does not yet exist in Entity Framework 7. This missing functionality is tracked by GitHub issue aspnet/EntityFramework#639

In the mean time, the easier workaround I found was to utilize a global state rather than hassle with subclassing. Not usually my first design choice but it works well for now.

In MyDbContext:

public static bool isMigration = true;

protected override void OnConfiguring( DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder )
{
    // TODO: This is messy, but needed for migrations.
    // See https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework/issues/639
    if ( isMigration )
    {
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer( "<Your Connection String Here>" );
    }
}

In Startup.ConfigureServices().

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices( IServiceCollection services )
{
    MyContext.isMigration = false;

    var configuration = new Configuration().AddJsonFile( "config.json" );
    services.AddEntityFramework( configuration )
        .AddSqlServer()
        .AddDbContext<MyDbContext>( config => config.UseSqlServer() );
    // ...
}

(The configuration code actually lives in an Autofac Module in my case.)

If you are looking for a solution to configure cotext for imgrations, you can use this in you DBContext class:

    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    {
        if (!optionsBuilder.IsConfigured)
        {
            IConfigurationRoot configuration = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
                .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
                .Build();
            var connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("DbCoreConnectionString");
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(connectionString);
        }
    }

Remember to install those two packages to have SetBasePath and AddJsonFile methods: Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.FileExtensions

Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json

Use IDesignTimeDbContextFactory

If a class implementing this interface is found in either the same project as the derived DbContext or in the application's startup project, the tools bypass the other ways of creating the DbContext and use the design-time factory instead.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure;

namespace MyProject
{
    public class BloggingContextFactory : IDesignTimeDbContextFactory<BloggingContext>
    {
        public BloggingContext CreateDbContext(string[] args)
        {
            var optionsBuilder = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<BloggingContext>();
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlite("Data Source=blog.db");

            return new BloggingContext(optionsBuilder.Options);
        }
    }
}

applied in Entity Framework 2.0, 2.1

---

Using IDbContextFactory<TContext> is now obsolete.

Implement this interface to enable design-time services for context types that do not have a public default constructor. Design-time services will automatically discover implementations of this interface that are in the same assembly as the derived context.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure;

namespace MyProject
{
    public class BloggingContextFactory : IDbContextFactory<BloggingContext>
    {
        public BloggingContext Create()
        {
            var optionsBuilder = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<BloggingContext>();
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer("connection_string");

            return new BloggingContext(optionsBuilder.Options);
        }
    }
}

more info : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/miscellaneous/configuring-dbcontext

If you're not happy with the hard-coded connection-string, take a look at this article.