Code-first approach
A code-first approach defines a system, model, or contract in source code before deriving or finalizing its schema or specification.
Building Web APIs with ASP.NET Core
Code-first is a development approach that defines a data model in application code and derives or updates a database schema from it.
- How it is used
- Uses C# entities as the starting point for a board-game API’s database schema.
- How deep it goes
- Walks through entity configuration, initial migration creation, database update, and verification without detailing generated SQL.
- Examples
- Models board games, domains, mechanics, and relationship entities, then generates and applies an initial migration.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch using EF Core entities and migrations to create and update a database schema.
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.NET in Action, Second Edition
A code-first schema is a database schema generated from application entity definitions and ORM configuration.
- How it is used
- Uses application entities and EF Core configuration to generate a database schema instead of starting from an existing schema.
- How deep it goes
- Works through entities, a DbContext, saving, querying, and relationship conventions; does not work through migration commands.
- Examples
- Builds a book catalog with an in-memory database, then adds ratings and illustrates a many-to-many tag relationship.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch with EF Core entities, a DbContext, and an in-memory provider, then save and query records.
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Automating API Delivery
An API development practice that implements an API in code from business requirements and generates its API definition afterward.
- How it is used
- Generates an API definition and consumer artifacts after implementing API behavior in application code.
- How deep it goes
- Describes the workflow, generated-definition review, source-of-truth comparison, and exploratory prototyping, but gives no tool commands.
- Examples
- Uses generated OpenAPI definitions, schemas, examples, client SDKs, API references, and exploratory API prototypes.
- What you can do after
- Apply it by implementing API changes, generating an OpenAPI definition, checking its consumer-facing quality, and producing downstream artifacts.
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The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition
A code-first approach is an API development method in which implementation code is authored before the API specification is generated or finalized.
- How it is used
- Uses implementation code to generate OpenAPI while developing or retro-documenting REST APIs.
- How deep it goes
- Explains controllers, data models, annotations, monitoring, and trade-offs, but stops short of detailed generation configuration.
- Examples
- Uses controllers, data models, framework annotations, generated OpenAPI documents, and a /products resource path.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate when to generate OpenAPI from code, apply annotations or libraries, and recognize documentation and coupling risks.
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Related concepts
- design-first approachcontrasts with · A specification-first approach defines and validates an interface or behavioral contract before implementing the system that conforms to it.
- OpenAPI specificationproduces · The OpenAPI Specification is a standard, machine-readable format for describing HTTP APIs, including their operations, inputs, outputs, data structures, and security requirements.
- schemaproduces · A data schema is a formal specification of the structure, fields, types, relationships, and constraints of data.
- dotnet-efuses · dotnet-ef is the command-line tool for performing Entity Framework Core design-time tasks, including managing migrations and updating databases.
- database-first designalternative to · Database-first design is a development approach that uses a database schema as the basis for shaping an application's data model and code.
- implementationuses · An implementation is the concrete code, mechanisms, or artifacts that realize an abstract design, specification, algorithm, interface, or required behavior.
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