title: How to configure ProviderManifestToken for EF Code First
body: <p>I have a asp.net MVC3 project using EF code-first. For my unit testing I have been using SQL Server CE 4.0 and SQL Server 2008 Express. Both have worked perfectly with EF generating my database as expected.</p>
  
  <p>However, when I run my application outside of a unit test and point it at my connection strings I get the error </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ProviderIncompatibleException: The provider did not return a ProviderManifestToken string</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I have read the MS documentation on this and it appears this is a <code>SqlVersion</code> token that the EF model generates. The problem is that I am using the code first approach so I have no <code>.edmx</code> file nor do I know where to point my metadata info to because the db hasn't been generated yet.</p>
  
  <p>I know my connection strings as far as db name, username, and pass are correct because changing them to wrong values throws the expected error.  Not sure where to begin.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>
  
  <p>Here is my connection string:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;connectionStrings&gt;
    &lt;add
      name="SqlConnection"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"
      connectionString="Data Source=WORKSTATION\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=CodeFirst;Integrated Security=False;
      Persist Security Info=False;User ID=CodeFirst_user;Password=password1;Connect Timeout=120;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;"/&gt;
  &lt;/connectionStrings&gt;
  </code></pre>