From Rockford Lhotka's Expert C# 2008 and VB 2008 Business Objects books
Try Code Complete .NET at www.eurowisesoft.com. It is dedicated to CSLA.NET and uses XSLT templates.
Regards
Philip
Check out CodeBreeze from SteelBlue Solutions - www.steelbluesolutions.com
It ships with CSLA code templates that are much easier to use than the competitor's.
It's nice to see mention of new tools providing assistance to CSLA developers. But I'd bet there are still larger numbers of users with CodeSmith (via CSLAGen) and MyGeneration. So they certainly deserve mention on this thread, too.
You got to take a look at this one: CSLA Factory http://www.cslafactory.net/, most developer friendly, and full of potential. But if you are staying a brand new project, Code Complete.net is the only one support Linq so far.
cheers
Hi,
I have a problem with most code generators and I've tested almost all of them. In most you have to select templates per object and no drag & drop from database to object designer is possble. CSLAFactory looks promising indeed, together with the possible new version of COMExpress from ShoutSoft called DbCodeXpress2008 which I'm testing in alpha/beta right now.
Some others use their own framework instead of CSLA.Net (XPO/XAF from DevExpress, MM.Net from Mere Mortals, DevForce from IdeaBlade, ...). Mostly, they lack complete support for 3rd party components like DevExpress (except XAF of coarse), Janus Systems, Infragistics, ComponentOne, ... They often offer their own compilation of subclassed versions of some 3rd party components.
For me a framework generator should generate the framework as easy as possible, where combining 1 or more tables into 1 object is a breeze, with the needed parameterizable joins between those tables. I know, views do this too, but they don't have parameterizable joins and mostly can't be updated. Another big problem is synchronization of databases. This is not the functionality of a framework, but some offer objects -> database direction with no support for Synched databases.
Greetings,Sigurd
A few day ago I found a nice tool in the java world. It is called "openArchitectureWare" and you can generate nearly everthing with it. The tool is based on Eclipse and you can download a running Eclipse+OAW bundle from http://www.openarchitectureware.org/ or http://oaw.itemis.com/ .
This tool is different to other generation tools I have seen before. First you have to define your own "meta model" for code generation, e.g. "Datatype", "Entity", "Property". Then you can develop your own templates based on that meta model. It comes with a template engine language and you have syntax highlighting based on the meta model. At last you have to fill your meta model with real data (Customer, Person, ...). The model data is XML-based and there is a specific editor included. I wrote a small tool which exports our database model to the correct XML format.
I have started my development with the included example and it is the best code/model generator I have every seen, and it's free. If someone is interested, I can send some CSLA templates and samples.
Greetings
Holger
Just for your info, a new release of Code Complete (beta 3.5) is out, with full support for CSLA.NET 3.6, WPF and Janus controls. Sample applications for the PTracker and Northwind databases are also available for download.
Hi Holger,
Correct me if I'm wrong. Does OAW only work for Java? In fact, there is a similar tool in .Net world as well, and its name is DSL. DSL helps you model your programing ideas into another set of templates or helping tools, if you will. (You can use DSL to model almost every aspect of your programing needs.) Then you could use these modeled templates to develop your application.
Have a look at this link http://anegm-technical.blogspot.com/, this one is the best example I can find, and it also works for CSLA.net ver3.50 as well with it's upcoming release - version beta 2.
I'm a long time developer but very new to CSLA and code generation. I'm very impressed with what I see so far and hope I can make a new home here.
But I'm also concerned about the lack of current template support with the various code generator offerings too. It would be nice to see more buzz about good/current templates or at least ones that are a decent base for enhancement and contribution back to the community. Most of what's out there is pretty old, and in the case of MyGeneration as an example, it doesn't look like CSLA is in favor anymore.
So is anyone using a current and stable code generation product with CSLA?
The Beta 2 version of Code Complete is out with support for thrid party controls (DevExpress, Janus and Infragisitics) and Ajax for generating the UIs.
Visit the Code Complete site at http://www.eurowisesoft.com
I am pleased to announce that Code Complete 3.5 has been released and is available for download. It ships with the latest RTM of CSLA.NET 3.6 released this week by Rocky. You can also download fully functional code examples that use both the PTRacker the Northwind databases.
Viewpoints is a new Visual Studio integrated visual model-driven development platform that can generate CSLA code (along with any other type of code). The new release contains CSLA v3.5 code generation templates, including templates for generating SQL and LINQ to SQL models. You can check it out on the Gnomz Software website.
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