Creating a project

dotnet new console --name test

Adding the NuGet packages

# For migration development
dotnet add package FluentMigrator

# For migration execution
dotnet add package FluentMigrator.Runner

# For database support
dotnet add package FluentMigrator.Runner.SQLite

# ADO.NET support for the database
dotnet add package Microsoft.Data.Sqlite

Note

In versions older than 4.0, the FluentMigrator.Runner package references all database-specific packages due to backwards compatibility reasons.

Creating your first migration

Create a file called 20180430_AddLogTable.cs with the following contents:

using FluentMigrator;

namespace test
{
    [Migration(20180430121800)]
    public class AddLogTable : Migration
    {
        public override void Up()
        {
            Create.Table("Log")
                .WithColumn("Id").AsInt64().PrimaryKey().Identity()
                .WithColumn("Text").AsString();
        }

        public override void Down()
        {
            Delete.Table("Log");
        }
    }
}

This will create a table named Log with the columns Id, and Text.

Running your first migration

You have two options to execute your migration:

• Using an in-process runner (preferred)
• Using an out-of-process runner (for some corporate requirements)

• In-Process (preferred)
• Out-of-process (for some corporate requirements)

Note

If you are potentially running migrations from multiple application servers, such as a load balanced set of web servers, you will need to acquire a distributed and exclusive lock, either by database-dependent means or through the use of an external distributed lock coordinator. See the FAQ for more information.

Change your Program.cs to the following code:

using System;
using System.Linq;

using FluentMigrator.Runner;
using FluentMigrator.Runner.Initialization;

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

namespace test
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (var serviceProvider = CreateServices())
            using (var scope = serviceProvider.CreateScope())
            {
                // Put the database update into a scope to ensure
                // that all resources will be disposed.
                UpdateDatabase(scope.ServiceProvider);
            }
         }

        /// <summary>
        /// Configure the dependency injection services
        /// </summary>
        private static ServiceProvider CreateServices()
        {
            return new ServiceCollection()
                // Add common FluentMigrator services
                .AddFluentMigratorCore()
                .ConfigureRunner(rb => rb
                    // Add SQLite support to FluentMigrator
                    .AddSQLite()
                    // Set the connection string
                    .WithGlobalConnectionString("Data Source=test.db")
                    // Define the assembly containing the migrations
                    .ScanIn(typeof(AddLogTable).Assembly).For.Migrations())
                // Enable logging to console in the FluentMigrator way
                .AddLogging(lb => lb.AddFluentMigratorConsole())
                // Build the service provider
                .BuildServiceProvider(false);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Update the database
        /// </summary>
        private static void UpdateDatabase(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            // Instantiate the runner
            var runner = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IMigrationRunner>();

            // Execute the migrations
            runner.MigrateUp();
        }
    }
}

As you can see, instantiating the migration runner (in UpdateDatabase) becomes very simple and updating the database is straight-forward.