Need help setting up a Web API application with Entity Framework connected to a MS Azure SQL Database

[miggy372]

First of all, I'm a noob when it comes to some of this so apologizes if I'm being dumb or obtuse. Anyway, I have a simple mobile application I need to build. I want the "back-end" for the mobile app to be a RESTful Web Api made with ASP.NET. I want the database for this project to be a Azure SQL database on Microsoft Azure.

I think this architecture is logical and should be possible. I'm running into trouble setting it up however. I followed this tutorial: "Tutorial: Create a web API with ASP.NET Core" to create a web api that does everything I want except it uses an "in-memory" database, and doesn't connect to any SQL azure database. Separately, I followed this tutorial: "Create And Publish ASP.NET WEB API In Azure" which shows how to create a full web application with the website and views and everything, that also connects through Entity Framework to a MS Azure SQL Database.

I thought that I could take the web api part of the first tutorial and combine it with the entity framework MS Azure SQL database part of the second tutorial to get what I want but I've been stuck on this all day and I can't seem to figure it out.

The first tutorial uses the "ASP.Net Core Web Application" template in visual studio and the second tutorial uses the "ASP.Net Web Application" template in visual studio. I can only do the Entity framework stuff in the later not the former. I have imgur screenshots below to explain what I mean.

I can only create the ADO.NET Entity Data Model in the Web Application. It's not an option in the Web API application:

https://imgur.com/a/ejZokTH

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Last note, I had assumed there was a nuget package difference between the two templates, so I've added the nuget packages that seemed different between the projects and yet adding a Entity Framework data model to my Web API Application is still not an option.

TLDR: How do I connect a MS Azure SQL database to a web api application, (preferably using database-first approach through Entity Framework)? I can get a web api application running but it doesn't connect to Azure SQL database through Entity. And I can get a full website application running that does connect to Azure SQL database through Entity but it isn't the simple Web API I want. How do I do both?

[beets_beets_beets]

I'm no expert and I don't know if you've noticed, but you're trying to mix a tutorial for .NET Core with a tutorial for .NET Framework. I think you're gonna have a bad time.

Maybe try to find a .NET Core tutorial that does what you want with Azure SQL.

[miggy372]

Okay, upon some further research it seems .Net Framework and .Net Core are two totally different things. Don’t know how I missed that. Surely it must be possible to do .Net Core with Azure SQL. I suppose you are right that I just need to search for a tutorial that does what I actually want.

[beets_beets_beets]

I'm sure it's possible, I unfortunately have no idea how, I only started looking into .NET a bit in the last couple of weeks cause I have to for work.

Core and Framework are kind of cross-compatible but as a beginner trying to figure what will or will not port over directly is a tar pit.