A bit off topic but ...I'm thinking that many people who are interesting in ADO.NET vNext/MS EDM will also have experience with some of the better ASP.NET code generators on the market.
Any recommendations? ...for a full multi-tier code generation solution?
Thank you,
Michael.
Anyone looked at Iron Speed Designer? http://www.ironspeed.com/products/
This is one product we're seriously evaluating (i.e. this isn't a plug in disguise).
Michael.
There are a number of Code Generators out there. I checked with a couple people and these were the products that people suggested you could check out;
1) Blinq - Generates ASP.NET websites based on DataBase schema. This is a prototype but is available as a CTP. Can be found at http://www.asp.net/sandbox/app_blinq.aspx?tabid=62.
2) CodeSmith - A template based code generator. Found at http://www.codesmithtools.com/
3) SubSonic - A CodePlex project. Found at http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=actionpack.
Hope this helps.
Carl Perry
Microsoft
ADO.NET Program Manager
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Thanks for the recommendations Carl,
1. Blinq is cool but requires LINQ (and the beta versions of the Orca CRL compilers) ...not a good fit for a production solution.
2. We're going to look at CodeSmith. Version 4.0 was announced/released last week.
3. SubSonic looks a little too "fresh" ...appears to be DAL only?
Michael.
UPDATE: CodeSmith doesn't appear to be in the same class as Iron Speed. CodeSmith is a goo product doesn't appear to generate full n-tier applications without first building a template for each tier.
Michael Herman - Parallelspace wrote:
Thanks for the recommendations Carl,
1. Blinq is cool but requires LINQ (and the beta versions of the Orca CRL compilers) ...not a good fit for a production solution.
2. We're going to look at CodeSmith. Version 4.0 was announced/released last week.
3. SubSonic looks a little too "fresh" ...appears to be DAL only?
Michael.
UPDATE: CodeSmith doesn't appear to be in the same class as Iron Speed. CodeSmith is a goo product doesn't appear to generate full n-tier applications without first building a template for each tier.
I.o.w.: a GOOD gui is the result of what functionality you want, combined with ergonomical guidelines. To create these kind of gui's you either revert to hand-coding or you need to use a code generator which consumes a lot of meta-data, which is might be time consuming as well.
Though it also depends on what you want of course. If you just want CRUD screens for tables in your db, you could get away with a code generator. If you want to deliver a professional application, be aware you've still a lot of work to do after you've generated code.
This is a slightly different point of view; everyone may not agree with it. If a full multi-tier code generation solution creates a very tight coupling among the presentation tier, the business logic tier, and the data access tier, it may not be desirable because that would lead to an inflexible and brittle application. Tens of thousands of lines of generated code may be hard to understand, comprehend, and maintain. Localized changes will be hard to make. Any minor change would typically require regeneration and re-building of the whole application. So, it might be better to pick best of breed solution (or framework) for each tier if business needs would be evolving over time.
Those are other two tools that could worth a try:
- Deklarit (http://www.deklarit.com/)
- CodeCharge (http://www.yessoftware.com/)
While Deklarit is way more sophisticated as a modeling tool for the DAL and the BLL (you use add-ins for generating the presentation layer), CodeCharge is a very straightforward tool for generating simple applications and targets other platforms besides ASP.NET.
I think of the two only Deklarit takes advantage of new .NET 2.0 features.
Each of the tools that have been mentioned has its value, but I must agree that there is no silver bullet. Simple code generation tools will only satisfy you if what you are trying to accomplish is very simple. More sophisticated tools will bring you closer, but you will need to accurately model the application (although not in the target language, so you will need to learn a different set of skills).
I hope this helps.
Some Articles and Tutorials....
Check it out: http://www.deklarit.com
-Trevor
