EntitySpaces 1.4 initially was targeted for May 31st, however, we had to make some adjustments. Hierarchical support is now the main focus of our next release (1.5). Also, the ASPX templates are still underway and will be released separately before the 1.5 release. We had also planned on doing some databinding work as well but that has been pushed to 1.5 as well. However, all that said this is a terrific release, we have some very good features, a few fixes, and even a new MySQL provider in 1.4. See the release notes below for the details.         

·          EntitySpaces 1.4

o         Added templates to provide full VB.NET support

§          Includes a full set of Custom, Generated, and MetadataMap templates.

§          It is no longer necessary to pre-compile the generated code under C#.

§          Note: If you are using VBExpress, we recommend opening your Project Properties, selecting the Application properties tab, and clearing the Root namespace that the IDE set by default. That way, when you add “Imports BusinessObjects” to your code, it will work as expected.

o         Added an EntitySpaces provider for MySQL.

§          Works with MySQL 4.x using DynamicSql mode.

§          Works with MySQL 5.x and supports both DynamicSql and StoredProcedure modes, as well as Views.

o         Added an EntitySpaces Template to produce MySQL 5.x stored procedures.

o         Fixed stored procedure parameter name prefix handling for SQL Server, Oracle and Access.

o         Fixed parameter name handling for column names with spaces.

o         Added output parameter support to esParameters.         

public string GetFullName(int employeeID)
{
   esParameters parms = new esParameters();

   parms.Add("EmployeeID", employeeID);
   parms.Add("FullName", esParameterDirection.Output, DbType.String, 40);

   this.ExecuteNonExec(esQueryType.StoredProcedure, "proc_GetEmployeeFullName", parms);

   return parms["FullName"].Value as string;
}

o         Fixed an obscure bug in Transaction Manager. (Special thanx to Graham Scragg and Thomas Coats for working with us on this.)

o         Improved Exception handling. We no longer wrap the exceptions which will make it much easier for you to see the real exception.

o         Updated and improved compiled help.

·          DotNetNuke

o         Includes an EntitySpaces ControlPanel module for DotNetNuke.

§          Displays EntitySpaces assembly information.

§          Allows you to upload/update EntitySpaces assemblies.

§          Allows you to encrypt/decrypt connection information in config files.

o         Added new template to create Sql scripts for DotNetNuke module development.

·          ASP.NET

o         Includes ASP.NET code for an EntitySpaces ControlPanel.

§          Displays EntitySpaces assembly information.

§          Allows you to update EntitySpaces assemblies.

§          Allows you to encrypt/decrypt connection information in config files.

·          EntitySpaces SqlDemo

o         Includes code demonstrating encrypting/decrypting app.config connection information.

o         Note: If SqlDemo is run from within Visual Studio, SqlDemo.vshost.exe.config gets encrypted. This file is only used by Visual Studio and should never be distributed with your application. To encrypt SqlDemo.exe.config, run SqlDemo.exe directly from the bin\Debug folder.

·          EntitySpaces Test Suite

o         Updated the test fixtures and added NUnit projects to test the EntitySpaces provider for MySQL.

o         Duplicated the C# tests in VB.

Note: Installation instructions at the bottom of the Release Notes for 1.4 contain special instructions for MySQL users. They explain how add the required Language Mapping to MyGeneration.

Wow, so many good things to talk about for the upcoming EntitySpaces 1.4 drop. Another addition, is a complete template to generate DotNetNuke ready install scripts for any of your EntitySpaces business objects. It works just like any of our other stored procedure templates, and will allow you to generate a DNN ready script for all of your tables/stored procedures in one fell swoop. We previously mentioned that we will also be releasing native vb.net templates for ES with 1.4, so what are you waiting for DotNetNuke module developers? Quit wasting your time writing buggy, un-tested object persistence code and do it the easy way. ES 1.4 is scheduled to hit on Monday 05/15, get ready.

This module/page will show you what EntitySpaces assemblies you have available and the versions of those assemblies. It will also allow you to upload assemblies when you are ready to update EntitySpaces. Lastly, and perhaps the coolest feature, is that this module will actually encrypt/decrypt the EntitySpaces connection info section of your web.config for you. We are just putting the finishing touches on the 1.4 drop and starting to package everything up for distribution, so you can expect to see this soon. We will have a DotNetNuke installable version, as well as an aspx page you can use in your ASP.NET projects. Winformers? Don't think we forgot to spread the love around, in the SqlDemo we have also added the encryption routines so that you can add this to your winform applications if you should so desire.

Our EntitySpaces 1.3 release currently requires VB.NET folks to generate both C# and VB.NET classes. The 1.3 release works like this:

VB,NET Inheritance Tree
VB.NET Custom ==> C# Generated -> EntitySpaces.Core.dll

As of our 1.4 release VB.NET users will no longer have to generate and compile a C# class library.

New VB.NET Inheritance Tree
VB.NET Custom ==> VB.NET Generated -> EntitySpaces.Core.dll

We now have mirror image templates for C# and VB.NET. If you are a VB.NET programmer using EntitySpaces your life just got so much easier. We're still unit testing but everything looks great so far. This will also help DNN users as well.

The target date for EntitySpaces release 1.4 is scheduled for May 31st, 2006. We cannot guarantee the May 31st date but we've been pretty good at hitting our goals. The list below is what we are planning for the 1.4 release.

• MySQL - A MySql EntitySpaces provider for 4.x and 5.x will be available. The provider will support MySQL stored procedures and views for MySQL 5.x.
• Hierarchical support will be added. This will be done via lazy load and support many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships.
• DotNetNuke
  • DNN stored procedure and table creation templates will be complete
  • A full DotNetNuke module using EntitySpaces will be provided along with all of the source code.
• DataBinding support will be improved
• A template will be provided that will generate ASPX pages using the GridView control

Of course, many other user suggested enhancements and bug fixes will make it into the 1.4 release. We have also purchased Demo Builder which is a great tool for making presentations. Scott will be making a series of presentations in fact on DotNetNuke and how to build modules using EntitySpaces that will come out before the 1.4 release.

Don't let that stop you from buying 1.3 today, with the price of oil going up like it is it may cost us more to ship it to you .... So buy in now while it's cheap (that's supposed to be humor)

We just released EntitySpaces 1.3, with lots of new features, and fixes here are the complete release notes:

The EntitySpaces esPlugIn for MyGeneration not only allows for end-user customization it also allows us (and eventually you) to more easily author templates for EntitySpaces. Take a look at this very simple code snippet.

 public partial class <%=esPlugIn.Entity(source)%> : <%=esPlugIn.esEntity(source)%>
 {

 }

The output from the template is as follows 

Oracle uses Sequences for auto-incrementing, however, unlike SQL Server you cannot assign them as a column property or a default value. Therefore the MyGeneration code generator has no idea that you want to use an Oracle Sequence as an identity column value. Take a look at the "SeqTest" table below, the ID column is defined as the primary key. We want to use the ID column as an Identity or AutoIncrement column and we also want to use our timestamp column for concurrency checking. Can EntitySpaces handle this? You bet.

Take a look at our "SeqTest" Oracle table below.

CREATE TABLE "TEST"."SeqTest"
( 
    "ID" NUMBER, 
    "TimeStamp" NUMBER, 
    "Data" VARCHAR2(100),  

    CONSTRAINT "PK" PRIMARY KEY ("ID") VALIDATE ,

    CHECK ("ID" IS NOT NULL) VALIDATE ,

    CHECK ("TimeStamp" IS NOT NULL) VALIDATE ,

    CHECK ("Data" IS NOT NULL) VALIDATE

)

Our Oracle Sequence.

CREATE SEQUENCE "TEST"."SEQ_ID" NOCYCLE NOORDER CACHE 20 NOMAXVALUE MINVALUE 1 INCREMENT BY 1 START WITH 1

 Below is an image of the MyMeta Browser open in MyGeneration with our SeqTest Selected. 

Because Oracle has no real metadata itself to indicate the AutoIncrement column or Concurrency column information we need to store some user metadata in MyGeneration so that the EntitySpaces templates will know what to do. To do this we put a few name/value pairs in the MyGeneration User Metadata indicating that we want to use the "SEQ_ID" Oracle Sequence as our Identity or AutoIncrement Column value and to indicate that we want to use the TimeStamp column as our concurrency column. These entries are placed at the table level, in the user metadata simply by clicking on the table with the User Meta Data window and entering values similiar to those shown below.

Let's examine these two name/value pairs:

AUTOKEY:ID / SEQ_ID      = Treat the ID column as an AutoIncrement Column and use the SEQ_ID sequence to get the value.
CONCURR:TimeStamp / 1  = Treat the TimeStamp column as a concurrency column and bump it's value by 1 upon each update.

Now let's take a look at what effect these two name/value pairs have on our insert and update statements.

The INSERT statement.
Notice that the SEQ_ID sequence is used to populate the pID parameter's value and that the pID parameter is also declared as an OUT parameter so that it can be brought back after the insert statement completes. The pTimeStamp parameter is also assigned to 1 and declared as an OUT parameter for the same reason.

CREATE PROCEDURE "TEST"."proc_SeqTestInsert"
(
    pID OUT "SeqTest"."ID"%type,
    pTimeStamp OUT "SeqTest"."TimeStamp"%type,
    pData IN "SeqTest"."Data"%type
)
IS
    BEGIN

      SELECT SEQ_ID.NextVal INTO pID FROM DUAL;
      pTimeStamp := 1;

      INSERT INTO "SeqTest"
      (
        "ID",
        "TimeStamp",
        "Data"
      )
      VALUES
      (
        pID,
        pTimeStamp,
        pData
      );
   END;

The UPDATE statement.
This bumps the TimeStamp column by 1 but not before it compares the current TimeStamp value to make sure it hasn't changed since we last read the data (in the Where statement). The pTimeStamp parameter is also declared as an OUT parameter to ensure that the new value is brought back after the update is complete.

CREATE PROCEDURE "TEST"."proc_SeqTestUpdate"
(
    pID IN "SeqTest"."ID"%type,
    pTimeStamp IN OUT "SeqTest"."TimeStamp"%type,
    pData IN "SeqTest"."Data"%type
)
IS
    pConncurrency "SeqTest"."TimeStamp"%type := pTimeStamp;

    BEGIN
      UPDATE "SeqTest"
      SET
        "TimeStamp" = "TimeStamp" + 1,
        "Data" = pData
      WHERE "ID" = pID
        AND "TimeStamp" = pConncurrency;

      IF SQL%ROWCOUNT = 1 THEN
         pTimeStamp := (pConncurrency + 1);
      ELSE
         Raise_application_error(-20101, 'NO RECORDS WERE UPDATED');
      END IF;
    END;

These are the stored procedures generated by the EntitySpaces Oracle stored procedure template, however the same holds true for the EntitySpaces dynamic sql generation, it works the same way.