Publishing Azure web app puts a connection string inside a connection string - azure

Question

I have an Azure Web App (https://www.triviaweb.net/) and a connection string in the web.config that looks like this.
<connectionStrings>
<add name="Entities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/TriviaWebModel.csdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.ssdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="data source=tcp:dolaris.database.windows.net;initial catalog={cata};persist security info=True;user id={usr};password={psw};multipleactiveresultsets=True;application name=EntityFramework"" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
</connectionStrings>
When I publish the web app using Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.2 to Azure the web.config is transformed to this.
<connectionStrings>
<add name="Entities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/TriviaWebModel.csdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.ssdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string='metadata=res://*/TriviaWebModel.csdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.ssdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="data source=tcp:dolaris.database.windows.net;initial catalog={cata};persist security info=True;user id={usr};password={psw};MultipleActiveResultSets=True;App=EntityFramework"'" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
</connectionStrings>
It looks like the transformation kind of put a connection string inside the connection string. I can fix this manually on the server to make my app work but would much prefer that the publishing works correctly.
I’ve never seen anything like this.

Answer 1

Provider Connection String contains valid keyword/value pairs for the data provider. An invalid Provider Connection String will cause a run-time error when it is evaluated by the data source.
Make sure to escape the value according to the general syntax of ADO.NET connection strings. Consider for example the following connection string: Server=serverName; User ID = userID. It must be escaped because it contains a semicolon. Since it does not contain double quotation marks, they may be used for escaping:
Provider Connection String ="Server=serverName; User ID = userID";
Try changing your connection string from :
<add
name="Entities"
connectionString="metadata=res://*/TriviaWebModel.csdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.ssdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.msl;
provider=System.Data.SqlClient;
provider connection string="
data source=tcp:dolaris.database.windows.net;
initial catalog={cata};
persist security info=True;
user id={usr};
password={psw};
multipleactiveresultsets=True;
application name=EntityFramework""
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
to:
<add
name="Entities"
connectionString="metadata=res://*/TriviaWebModel.csdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.ssdl|res://*/TriviaWebModel.msl;"
provider= "System.Data.SqlClient"
providerConnectionString="data source=tcp:dolaris.database.windows.net;
initial catalog={cata};
persist security info=True;
user id={usr};
password={psw};
multipleactiveresultsets=True;
application name=EntityFramework;"
providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
For more information, you can visit Connection Strings in the ADO.NET Entity Framework.