The EntitySpaces Team Blog - EntitySpaces to Support CodeSmith

Monday, June 04, 2007

CodeSmith and EntitySpaces 2008

EntitySpaces 2008 will greatly expand the reach of the EntitySpaces Architecture for the Microsoft .NET Framework by supporting both MyGeneration and CodeSmith. Our decision to support CodeSmith by no means indicates we are abandoning MyGeneration. MyGeneration will continue to be supported by EntitySpaces. We understand code generator loyalty, and we love MyGeneration. But, CodeSmith has its fervent followers, too. EntitySpaces 2008 will open up a new market for EntitySpaces and will give current EntitySpaces users a choice of generator.

As of EntitySpaces 2008, the EntitySpaces Architecture will be a very viable choice for the CodeSmith Community. Supporting CodeSmith will have the added advantage of allowing users to generate their EntitySpaces architecture(s) from within Visual Studio 2005 via CodeSmith’s Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 integration.

Supporting both MyGeneration and CodeSmith, as this post will outline, can be accomplished quite elegantly, and even allow for greater customization by the EntitySpaces Team.

One Architecture - Two Code Generators

The approach is straightforward. A master template will be created for each code generator. The master template will use the native user interface techniques of the given code generator to gather the user input. Next, the master template will launch the metadata sub-template which will extract the metadata using the MyGeneration MyMeta API or the CodeSmith SchemaExplorer API and create the EntitySpacesMetadata.xml file. The master template will then create an instance of the EntitySpacesPlugIn and populate it with the user’s selections and also provide it with a path to the EntitySpacesMetadata.xml file. Finally, the master template will launch a series of sub-templates just as EntitySpaces 2007 does now. The sub-templates will use only the EntitySpacesPlugIn which will run in both code generators. The only data the sub-templates will access will be the user input (which will be stored in our plug-in) and the intermediate metadata XML file. The sub-templates have no user interface nor will they call into the native code generator API. This approach will ensure that 90% or more of the code generation process will be the same regardless of what code generator is being used.

A few diagrams might help visualize how this will be accomplished.

The Metadata Sub-template creates the EntitySpacesMetadata.xml file which is then used, in conjunction with the EntitySpacesPlugin, by the common sub-templates.

Summary

Our decision to support both MyGeneration and CodeSmith is not something that we have taken lightly. It has been seriously discussed for some time now. However, we did not want to cloud the EntitySpaces 2007 release with this announcement. Now, the time has come to let the cat out of the bag. However, EntitySpaces 2007 is by no means going to sit idle. We will be publishing a roadmap that will take ES2007 through the remainder of this year in just a few weeks. We can say now that hierarchical data binding and other very important features will make it into a follow on ES2007 release.

Move over .netTiers and make room for your new neighbor, EntitySpaces 2008.

From mobile devices to large scale enterprise solutions in need of serious transaction support, EntitySpaces can meet your needs. Whether you’re writing an ASP.NET application with medium trust requirements, or a Windows.Forms application, the EntitySpaces architecture is there for you. EntitySpaces is provider independent, which means that you can run the same binary code against any of the supported databases.EntitySpaces is available in both C# and VB.NET. EntitySpaces uses no reflection, no XML files, and sports a tiny foot print of less than 200k. Pound for pound, EntitySpaces is one tough, dependable .NET architecture.