Paging with Entity Framework 7 and SQL Server 2008

Question

I'm trying to use paging (that is .Skip(...).Take(...) in Entity Framework 7. It works OK with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and 2014, but fails with the following error on SQL Server 2008:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Incorrect syntax near 'OFFSET'. Invalid usage of the option NEXT in the FETCH statement.

I've figured out that it is a breaking change in EF version 6.1.2 (http://erikej.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-breaking-change-in-entity-framework.html). But the fix is to modify EDMX file setting ProviderManifestToken attribute to "2008".

The problem is that EF7 currently only supports code-first scenario, thus there is no any EDMX out there. The question is: how to configure ASP.NET 5 website with Entity Framework 7 to use fallback pagination approach for SQL Server older than 2012?

Brookhouse

Please see issue #1326 and add any comments you may have. – Milone

Answer 1

I encountered this problem myself using EF 7 and sql server 2008. Fortunately in the latest rc1 version of EF 7 you can solve this by using .UseRowNumberForPaging() as shown in this example:

services.AddEntityFramework()
  .AddSqlServer()
  .AddDbContext<YourDbContext>(options =>
     options.UseSqlServer(configuration["Data:DefaultConnection:ConnectionString"])
                    // this is needed unless you are on mssql 2012 or higher
                    .UseRowNumberForPaging()
                );

Collettecolletti

I did this, and I'm still encountering the said error. – Algonquian

Not working in RC 1. Linq "Skip" still tries to generate OFFSET/FETCH NEXT syntax. – Marseilles

Answer 2

If you use Edmx file, you must open the edmx file using XML Editor and change

ProviderManifestToken="2012" ==> ProviderManifestToken="2008"

in line 7.

Please take a look at this blog post for more information: http://erikej.blogspot.com.tr/2014/12/a-breaking-change-in-entity-framework.html

Kostman

Thanks. Same problem resolved for when my azure database taken at local database. – Octavalent

This saved me so much time and this deserves so much more attention. In my case, my development environment was SQL SERVER 2012 and my QA environment is 2008 R2. – Hl

If it's changed to 2008, will it still be working with SQL Server 2012? – Intitule

Confirmed. It works also for SQL Server 2012. Now, I believe this answer is from heaven ! – Intitule

It's 2019, and this fix still works perfectly. Now I wish someone would just update our DB from 2008... Come on DBAs, you can do it. :) – Kellsie

Answer 3

This feature was removed in EF Core 3.x, UseRowNumberForPaging is marked as obsolete. However, you can use EfCore3.SqlServer2008Query package instead. There are 2 packages available in Nuget, one for >= .NET 5.0, other one is for >= .NET 3.1

Usage:

 services.AddDbContext<MyDbContext>(o => 
       o.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("Default"))
        .ReplaceService<IQueryTranslationPostprocessorFactory, SqlServer2008QueryTranslationPostprocessorFactory>());

Lolalolande

Answer 4

It's broken in RC 1. Gotta wait to get RC 2.

https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework/issues/4616

Marseilles

Very useful link. It helped me to solve my problem using: options.UseSqlServer(connection, b => b.UseRowNumberForPaging()); – Criollo

Very helpful! useRowNumberForPaging() solved my issue! – Pastelist

Answer 5

MyDbConnectionString is Connection string from any source

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
    optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(_config["MyDbConnectionString"], 
                options=>
                {
                    options.UseRowNumberForPaging();
                });
}

UseRowNumberForPaging() solved issue in any case except for edmx file scenario.

Mystagogue

Because SQL Server 2008 does not support FETCH and FETCH OFFSET requires orderby() skip() and take() – Mystagogue

Answer 6

You need to use something like this :

var MinPageRank = (pageIndex - 1) * pageSize + 1;
var MaxPageRank = (pageIndex * pageSize);

var person = _context.Person.FromSql($"SELECT * FROM (SELECT [RANK] = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Surname),* FROM Person) A WHERE A.[RANK] BETWEEN {MinPageRank} AND {MaxPageRank}").ToList();

IQueryable<Person> PersonIQ = from s in person.AsQueryable() select s;
Person = await PaginatedList<Person>.CreateAsync(PersonIQ .AsNoTracking(), pageIndex ?? 1, pageSize, sourceFull);

Commutation

Why are you doing pageSize+ 1 ? – Grams

Answer 7

Here, just set UseRowNumberForPaging() in ConfigureServices

services.AddDbContext<CallcContext>(options => 
options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("Connectionstring"),opt=> { opt.UseRowNumberForPaging(); }));

Sambo