The context cannot be used while the model is being created

Question

In my application I receive the following error:

The context cannot be used while the model is being created.

I'm not sure what this means. I have done everything as normal and usually it works but for this one it isnt. Below is my code:

App.config:

 <connectionStrings>     <add name="DatabaseContext" connectionString="Data Source=./SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ProjectCode;Integrated Security=SSPI;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />  </connectionStrings> 

Products.cs:

class Products {     public int ProductID { get; set; }     public string ProductName { get; set; } } 

DatabaseContext.cs:

class DatabaseContext : DbContext {     public DbSet<Products> Products { get; set; } } 

Program.cs:

DatabaseContext context = new DatabaseContext();  try {    var products = context.Products.ToList();     foreach (var item in products)    {       Console.WriteLine(item.ProductID + " : " + item.ProductName);    }       Console.ReadLine(); } 

The line is fails on is var products = context.Products.ToList();

Any ideas what could be causing this? I have set up 2 products in my database so it should be outputting them.

EDIT

Here is my whole App.config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration>   <configSections>     <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->     <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=4.3.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />   </configSections>   <connectionStrings>     <add name="DatabaseContext" connectionString="Data Source=./SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ProjectCode;Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=true" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />   </connectionStrings>   <startup>     <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />   </startup>   <entityFramework>     <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">       <parameters>         <parameter value="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS; Integrated Security=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True" />       </parameters>     </defaultConnectionFactory>   </entityFramework> </configuration> 

Answer 1

In your App.Config file under connectionstrings you had a forward slash (./SQLEXPRESS). Change this to a backslash .\SQLEXPRESS like so:

<add name="DatabaseContext" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=ProjectCode;Integrated Security=SSPI;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />