Tutorials ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial
Installing SQL Server & SSMS — Complete Guide
Installing SQL Server & SSMS — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.
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ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial · Lesson 11 of 200
Installing SQL Server & SSMS
Getting Started ✓ → Core MVC → Data & Security → Production → Career
Beginner · 2 — Project Structure · ~6 min · Section 1: Introduction & Environment Setup
What is this?
EF Core setup means adding NuGet packages, defining a DbContext class, putting a connection string in appsettings.json, and registering the context in Program.cs.
Why should you care?
ShopNest needs SQL Server to save products and orders. EF Core is how C# objects become database tables.
See it live — copy this example
Create an MVC project (dotnet new mvc), add the code, and run dotnet run.
// appsettings.json
"ConnectionStrings": {
"DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)mssqllocaldb;Database=ShopNest;Trusted_Connection=True;"
}
// Program.cs
builder.Services.AddDbContext<ShopNestDbContext>(options =>
options.UseSqlServer(builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));
Run Example »
Edit the code and click Run — like W3Schools Try it Yourself.
What happened?
- DbContext is the gateway to the database.
- AddDbContext registers it per HTTP request (scoped).
- Connection string points at SQL Server or LocalDB.
Try it yourself
- dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
- Create ShopNestDbContext : DbContext with DbSet
. - Add connection string and register in Program.cs.
- Change text or labels in the example and run again — watch the browser update.
- Break the code on purpose (remove a semicolon), read the error message, then fix it.
Remember
EF Core + SQL Server + DbContext + connection string. Register in Program.cs. Migrations create tables.