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
I know that this particular thread is a few years old now, but I am posting this question here based on references which were made in this discussion. A few years ago, I used the ComExpress software from ShoutSoft to build an application which we then sold to and deployed to production for a customer. I had modified its templates to specifically support Oracle and its sql syntax as well as add additional functions, pages, etc... which could then be embedded automatically in the generated application.
The ShoutSoft package was able to generate a Complete application including : login/security, primary page with navigation links, parent-child pages with full CRUD functionality, etc...
I had wanted to use any current version of the product to produce some other applications, but ShoutSoft seems to have completely and suddenly disappeared.
So, my questions are:
(1) Does anyone know what happened to ShoutSoft and if its software is available somewhere (including DbCodeXpress2008 or newer as discussed in this thread).
and/or
(2) Are there any other generator products available for CSLA which don't only build isolated table based objects, but also allow for the automation of complete application generation as the ShoutSoft product did?
Thanks!
Hello,
I've never heard of that company before 
.. We just released a new version of the CSLA templates, but it is still dependent on the database out of the box. However, it is now provider based and we do have some other providers (NHibernate xml, EDMX) you can generate from... You would just need to hook them up to generate off of the other providers and handle the DAL. Please let me know if you need more info.
There are a few generators out there that will generate the full application.. But why would you want it to generate a complete UI? It's not going to be to your specifications / exact requirements. It's best to just create a set of templates to meet your UI standards.
I second Blake.
Hi Tiago,
Thanks and you will see my reply to Blake which I just made as well. I agree that Blake's comments make perfect sense too. In terms of that other company and product (ShoutSoft), I was also simply curious about what exactly happened to that firm since it seemed to abruptly disappear after some number of years in business and product development.
All the best,
Chris
Hi Blake,
That company, ShoutSoft, was discussed briefly earlier in this thread, but they did suddenly seem to disappear. Your point and question on the generation of the entire application is certainly valid. We had utilized the templates in that product, in fact, to specifically override certain functions and pages anyway.
My real issue or concern is the fact that we did produce an entire application on the platform and spent a lot of time updating the templates to support Oracle as well as other functionality which we wanted to have, so one main problem is losing all of that investment in time and template code to start back at square one.
On another note, I have actually licensed your product as well and have started exploring it, so hopefully we can end up standardizing on that as our development platform/approach going forward.
Thanks,
Chris
Hello,
I'd recommend starting out with the latest released version (4.0) of the templates. If you do make any modifications please post them on our forums / issue tracker as we would love your feedback and support other database providers..
From a business stand point, your previous work is a sunk cost and you shouldn't look at that going forward.
Please let me know, what is the best tool to generate DAL layer in nHibernate while BO in CSLA?
So that server side DataPortal would use nHibernate for CRUD
Also please let me know why CSLA often stands in generators as a replacement or alternative for nHibernate or other ORMs while being a universal business layer rather than a DAL oriented thing?
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.
Philip
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?
![Big Smile [:D]](/emoticons/emotion-2.gif)
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
Philip
Hi,
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.
Philip
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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