I am new to the code generation tools and I would like to know how does a tool like LLBGen Pro compares with the Entity Framework?
On top of that my boos is really looking into a tool called CodeOnTime http://codeontime.com/default.aspx because he likes their good UI support.
I am asking here because I really want an unbiased opinion.
I am not sure if LLBGen can also generate the UI. So far all the development in the house we do it the classic way coding each layer manually. However we are in need of a fast prototyping tool.
Any advice to help me choose wisely will be much appreciated
thanks in advance.
Have you taken a look at CodeSmith Generator? It's a template based generation tool with Visual Studio integration, so by definition all templates are open source, and it has advanced features such as generate on build that keep your project up to date with your data source at all times.
Also, the CodeSmith team is about to start working on an official set of EF templates, but for now they offer several different ORM options including LINQ to SQL, NHibernate, .netTiers, CLSA, etc.
The thing is that there are code generators and object relational mappers (ORM) and code generators that do object relational mapping.
Something like NHibernate is a pure (ORM) and doesn't generate any code, it just provides you with an object persistence layer.
Llblgen is a code generator that generates code that performs the functions of an ORM but you can actually see the code and can override it with custom behaviour. Llblgen won't generate your UI for you and it isn't designed to. It's heavily focused around data access.
Then you have tools like CodeSmith or the built in T4 generator that comes with visual studio which you can use to create templates and then they will generate anything you want, provided you write your own templates. I've worked for companies that have invested thousands into writing their own templates.
Finally there are complete tools like CodeOnTime or IronSpeed which generate entire applications for you. This sounds good in theory, and is great for small CRUD type applications, but you lose a lot of flexibility with tools like these as they often have conventions which you are required to work around and once you start getting into heavy customization, tend to get in your way.
You should ask yourself:
Do I just need something for accessing my data? if so, you could use an ORM
Do I need to generate a highly customized UI? if so, you'd probably be best avoiding the tool like CodeOnTime and IronSpeed
I've used both LLBLGen and Entity Framework. In my experience, they are roughly equal in capability, especially now that Entity Framework 4 has been released. NHibernate is also in this realm and should be considered if you're looking to compare the top ORM tools for .NET.
I would recommend downloading the LLBLGenPro demo to evaluate it. According to Frans Bouma's blog, LLBLGenPro offers enhanced features not present in the out-of-the-box Entity Framework tooling built into VS.NET 2010.
ORM tools like EF and LLBLGen do not generate UI. For that you will need something like IronSpeed (not recommended, I don't like the code generated) or the IdeaBlade DevForce products, which I have not used.
Related
I need to draw a more elaborate Mindmap to present my test strategy to my client. I have no experience of creating mind map with any tool.
Can someone suggest any good mindmap making tool?
For "pure" mind mapping I would suggest Freeplane (free and open source). I know people using Freeplane for professional test case generation. Very helpful in this respect are
extensive scripting support that can be used to support testcase entry and for customized exports
multiple fields per node that can be used for different purposes: attributes (tabular data), notes, detail
If your primary focus is the generation of presentations then you should probably use a different tool.
For more elaborate mindmap I would suggest XMind.
With XMind you can even create testcases inside your mindmap using its matrix features. There are lots more features like:
Timeline
Gantt view
Filters
Drilldown
Try https://github.com/mindolph/Mindolph , this desktop application provides features that you can create and manage mind map easily.
You may try online service MindMup or desktop ConceptDraw MINDMAP. Though the first one is not that professional and intuitive as ConceptDraw tool, it is free. The second product has a 21-day trial period, brainstorm mode, multiple hyperlinks, export to MS PowerPoint or Web pages and so on.
I need to create an application to auto generate C code. ie. User can design the logic from the G-UI using basic blocks from C. This is similar to Matlab Code Generation. I need to do this using .net framework. When I search for the samples, I've seen about rehosting workflow foundation. I don't have any idea about WF4. Can you please anybody tell me is it possible to do the designer(Design is like flowchart) using WF4? And also I have seen some samples using MFC? I'm not sure which one can be applicable for my situation..
I think you are confusing the Flowchart and Rehosted Workflow designer in WF as some kind of UI to draw the flowcharts.
Workflows are meant for executing business process and the different blocks like If-Else
While etc help to implement a business logic.
Workflow Designer just provides a visual way of representing those if else / whiles etc so that developers and possible super users of the application can modify the business logic in a more visual manner instead of writing them using code.
I'm Looking for some samples (will be better if they are open source) that enabling Programmer to Generate UI from Database.
I want to review them for the framework that i want to develop for myself.
Already i reviewed ASP.NET Dynamic Data and Nettiers.
Also i welcome your suggestions , tips , comments.
Have a look at a project I'm about to release, CodeGenerator. There is a sample project which illustrates how you can use CodeGenerator to quickly generate an entire administrative site. Have a look and let me know your thoughts.
BTW, this is just a small example of what CodeGenerator can do.
While perhaps not directly what you may want, have a look at Entity Framework Code First to let the code drive the DB model and it works well with existing databases.
Then with MVC you could use MVCScaffolding to generate your views but in this case it uses the Models not the DB directly.
It's a slightly different way than you might be looking for but it is still worth a look to help you as you look at this.
I'm conducting a project in which a website should have multi-language support.
Now, this website is supposed to serve about 500K+ visitors a day, so it must be super-efficient.
I've created a table of parameters {[ID],[Name]} AND a linkage-table {[objectID],[parameterID],[languageID],[value]}. I think it's the best way to deploy multi-language support while having the privilege to translate different parameters for each language.
As far as I know, server's memory is much faster than a physical HDD. Therefore, I'm planning to store ASP.NET Application State objects for my translation architecture.
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178594.aspx)
How does my plan sound so far? any suggestions?
If you are planning on making an app that support multiple languages, your instant reflex should be let .net do the work for you. What i'm reading in your question is that you are setting up something to support that. You should know that localization is the way to go when you want to develop a multi-language environment.
Take a look at this msdn article, it should give you a general idea on the topic.
So, localizing an application can be divided into two parts:
Localizing business logic entities.
Localizing everything else.
In the question I see words which are related to business entity localization. For that purpose I agree with the concept to have separation between entities and their localizations.
Part 1 - Localizing entities:
Personally I do this way in database:
table Entity {EntityID, Name} -this is the entity-related table.
table EntityByLang {EntityID, LanguageID, Name} -this is the localized version of the table for each supported language.
This way allows me to have default values for each localizable property like Name and its localization, if such is available in the localized table. What's left here up to you is - you need to implement the data-access-layer which takes the Name localized for the current user language, or the default value (if language or the translation is not available for the given language).
Part 2 - Localizing everything else:
Here, with no alternatives in terms of the performance, I would recommend using some kind of static resources. Personally I live with static resources available for standard asp.net applications.
From the architectural point of view, don't directly refer to localization code from your UI code, like this (which I don't like):
var translation = HttpContext.Current.GetGlobalResourceObject("hello");
//excuse me, if I don't exactly remember the GetGlobalResourceObject() method name...
Instead, I would recommend using this kind of approach:
var translation = AppContext.GetLocalizationService().Translate("hello");
Where: AppContext - some kind of facade/factory (in fact, implementation of abstract facade/factory). GetLocalizationService - initially returns some kind of ILocalizationService, when implemented it returns StaticResLocalizationService (which implements ILocalizationService). This way allowing switching from one kind of localization to another. And particularly StaticResLocalizationService works with asp.net static resources
Sorry for messy sample codes, but I hope you understand my approach.
I hope this helps!
I would suggest to create custom resource provider, you can read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905797.aspx
with this model you can leverage existing asp .net localization functionality
I just started working on an asp.net / C#.net application that is going to call a number of different procedures. The -only- thing these procedures do is create database table views, and the only thing I want to do is to store the information in variables. Then pick out which columns I want to convert to JSON, and then make a JSON string. I've actually written code for that in C#.net already, which is smaller, but since I switched to asp.net mvc I'm a little unsure if I should keep it or go with the whole Linq thing.
I checked out the Linq --> SQL drag & drop functionality, and that instantly created about 200 lines of code with set & get methods and everything.
So my question is, is it still worth using Linq even for just extracting data? Eventually this data will be fed to a javascript timeline, which is where I was told MVC would be highly useful with regards to Ajax functionality.
Since you are only using LINQ-to-SQL for data retrieval, I can't think of a single reason NOT to fully utilize it. I've been working on an MVC 1.0 project since last April. During that time, I've had to quickly become familiar with a number of technologies, LINQ-to-SQL being one of them. Get comfortable with it, and also look at the repository pattern...you will be very content and things will go relatively smoothly.
Now, when you get to INSERTs and UPDATEs, things are going to get a little more sticky. LINQ-to-SQL is still up to the job, but you'll need to understand how things work internally a little better. I highly recommend "Pro LINQ (Language Integrated Query) in C# 2008" by Joseph C. Rattz, Jr. The sections covering LINQ-to-SQL easily take up over a third of the book with detailed examples.
As far as the JSON objects go, LINQ-to-SQL's biggest contribution is that it allowed me not to have to worry about creating specialized views or stored procedures just to handle those one-off-types of data retrievals. My current project has a database of 65 tables...NO stored procedures. I can do filters, unions, multi-level joins...and it's all maintained in the application. Sweet...
Yes, it's totally worth it!
LINQ2SQL provides you a great subsurface to retrieve and save data to.
However, you'll need to implement your own Repository Pattern as you dig deeper into ASP.NET MVC.
And during the implementation of the Repository and the required (and even custom / webapp-state based) Queries, you'll be very glad to have all the power available at your fingertips that LINQ provides.
LINQ only adds to the available toolkit you can lean on when creating code. Even if you are using LINQ in a trivial way now, implement it, get familiar with it, and take advantage of the power it gives you both on this project and future projects.
Linq2Sql is quiet good for creating select queries. As it is appearing that you need to create JSON objects from database views it will be quiet useful