title: Code First & Identity with Azure Table Storage
body: <p>I'm working on a small web app and I've just hit the point in development where I need to start making database decisions. My original plan was to go EF Code First with MSSQL on Azure because it just simplifies the process of working with a database. However, when investigating my database hosting capabilities on Azure, I discovered Azure Table Storage which opened up the world of NoSQL to me.</p>
  
  <p>While the Internet is ablaze with chatter about the features of NoSQL, one of the biggest reason I have managed to gather is that NoSQL stores entire objects as one in a database without breaking up the data into various tables which is good for performance. While this sounds appealing, EF Code First has effectively eliminated this problem by automatically pulling together objects and separating objects into a SQL database without a developer every having to worry about queries. </p>
  
  <p>My main problem, however, is that I can't find any documentation to use things like EF Code First and ASP.NET Identity with NoSQL databases. Since my app currently uses Identity, I'd like to avoid having to switch to something else.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Q: Is it possible to use Code First and/or Identity with Azure Tables?</strong></p>
  
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  <p><strong>Edit: A little bit about my app</strong> As an extreme simplification, my app allows my users create custom profiles by mixing and matching preconfigured types of data. For example, a user can add any number of Quote objects to their profile and then define the value of the quote (i.e. "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."). Or they can use a Movie object to define a collection of their favorite movies (i.e. "Title: Inception, Year: 2010"). On average, a user can easily have 50 or more such properties on their page; there is no limitation on the number of properties that they can have. </p>
  
  <p>Using this example, I can easily see how I would go about implementing it using Code First (Profile has a list of Quote objects and a list of Movie objects). I'm not yet sure how this would map to a NoSQL database such as Azure Tables. So, with my app's needs, I'm not sure if switching from Code First to NoSQL a reasonable decision with the features and functionality I would lose.</p>