Tier Generator 1.0

• Download setup - 398 KB
• Download source code - 71.1 KB

Introduction

Tier Generator is a powerful tool for generating business and data layers in C#. It is a code generation tool that helps users to rapidly generate and deploy business and data layers for their applications. The idea behind this is to provide a utility (tool) to the developer that has the capabilities of quickly generating consistent and tested source code that will help to get projects started sooner and finished faster.

Tier Generator connects to a Microsoft SQL Server database server and generates business and data layers in C#. It also generates Stored Procedures for DML operations.

Business layer

Tier Generator generates code in two layers (business and data). It generates some classes for the each table in the database in the business layer. E.g., our database contains the table Employee. Tier Generator will generate the following files:

• Employee
• EmployeeKeys
• EmployeeFactory

The Employee (business object) class contains the declaration of all instance fields along with properties. It also overrides the AddValidationRules method to associate the validation rules to the properties of the business object. It also contains an enum of all the fields.

public class Employee: BusinessObjectBase
{
   #region InnerClass

   public enum EmployeeFields
   {
     EmployeeID, Name, Password, Email, TeamID,DepartmentID, IsAdmin    
   }
    
   #endregion

   #region Data Members

   int _employeeID;
   string _name;
   string _password;
   string _email;
   int _teamID;
   int _departmentID;
   bool _isAdmin;

   #endregion

   #region Properties

   public int  EmployeeID
   {
     get { return _employeeID; }
     set
     {
        if (_employeeID != value)
        {
           _employeeID = value;
           PropertyHasChanged("EmployeeID");
        }
     }
   }

   public string  Name
   {
     get { return _name; }
     set
     {
       if (_name != value)
       {
         _name = value;
         PropertyHasChanged("Name");
       }
     }
   }
    .
    .
    .
    
   #endregion

   #region Validation

   internal override void AddValidationRules()
   {
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleNotNull("EmployeeID", 
                                                                 "EmployeeID"));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleNotNull("Name", 
                                                                 "Name"));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleStringMaxLength("Name", 
                                                                    "Name",50));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleStringMaxLength("Password", 
                                                                         "Password",50));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleStringMaxLength("Email", 
                                                                         "Email",100));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleNotNull("TeamID", 
                                                                 "TeamID"));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleNotNull("DepartmentID", 
                                                                 "DepartmentID"));
     ValidationRules.AddRules(new Validation.ValidateRuleNotNull("IsAdmin", 
                                                                 "IsAdmin"));
   }

   #endregion
}

The EmpolyeesKeys (business object keys) class contains the list of primary keys of the table.

public class EmployeeKeys
{
    #region Data Members

    int _employeeID;

    #endregion

    #region Constructor

    public EmployeeKeys(int employeeID)
    {
      _employeeID = employeeID; 
    }

    #endregion

    #region Properties

    public int  EmployeeID
    {
      get { return _employeeID; }
    }

    #endregion

}

The EmployeeFactory (business factory) class contains the methods for the Insert, Delete, Update, and Select operations. It provides the following methods for the DML operations:

• public bool Insert(Employee businessObject)
• public bool Update(Employee businessObject)
• public Employee GetByPrimaryKey(EmployeeKeys keys)
• public List<Employee> GetAll()
• public List<Employee> GetAllBy(Employee.EmployeeFields fieldName, object value)
• public bool Delete(EmployeeKeys keys)
• public bool Delete(Employee.EmployeeFields fieldName, object value)

The factory class performs the DML operations with the help of the data layer.

public class EmployeeFactory
{
    #region data Members

    EmployeeSql _dataObject = null;

    #endregion

    #region Constructor

    public EmployeeFactory()
    {
      _dataObject = new EmployeeSql();
    }

    #endregion

    #region Public Methods

    public bool Insert(Employee businessObject)
    {
       if (!businessObject.IsValid)
       {
          throw new InvalidBusinessObjectException(
                           businessObject.BrokenRulesList.ToString());
       }

        return _dataObject.Insert(businessObject);

    }

    
    public bool Update(Employee businessObject)
    {
      if (!businessObject.IsValid)
      {
        throw new InvalidBusinessObjectException(
                         businessObject.BrokenRulesList.ToString());
      }
      
      return _dataObject.Update(businessObject);
    }

    public Employee GetByPrimaryKey(EmployeeKeys keys)
    {
       return _dataObject.SelectByPrimaryKey(keys); 
    }

     
    public List<Employee> GetAll()
    {
       return _dataObject.SelectAll(); 
    }

    public List<Employee> GetAllBy(Employee.EmployeeFields fieldName, 
                                         object value)
    {
      return _dataObject.SelectByField(fieldName.ToString(), value);  
    }

    public bool Delete(EmployeeKeys keys)
    {
       return _dataObject.Delete(keys); 
    }

    public bool Delete(Employee.EmployeeFields fieldName, object value)
    {
       return _dataObject.DeleteByField(fieldName.ToString(), value); 
    }

    #endregion

}

Data Layer

The data access file generated by the Tier Generator contains the methods for DML operations. It uses Stored Procedures for DML operations. The factory class methods call the data layer methods for insertion and deletion.

class EmployeeSql : DataLayerBase 
{
  
   #region Public Methods

   /// <summary>
   /// insert new row in the table
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="businessObject">business object</param>
   /// <returns>true of successfully insert</returns>
   public bool Insert(Employee businessObject)
   {
     SqlCommand    sqlCommand = new SqlCommand();
       sqlCommand.CommandText = "dbo.[sp_Employee_Insert]";
       sqlCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

     // Use base class' connection object
     sqlCommand.Connection = MainConnection;

     try
     {                
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@EmployeeID", SqlDbType.Int, 4, 
                                                  ParameterDirection.Output, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.EmployeeID));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@Name", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 
                                                  50, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.Name));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@password", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 
                                                  50, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.Password));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@Email", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 
                                                  100, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.Email));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@TeamID", SqlDbType.Int, 
                                                  4, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.TeamID));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@DepartmentID", SqlDbType.Int, 
                                                  4, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.DepartmentID));
       sqlCommand.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@IsAdmin", SqlDbType.Bit, 
                                                  1, ParameterDirection.Input, 
                                                  false, 0, 0, "", 
                                                  DataRowVersion.Proposed, 
                                                  businessObject.IsAdmin));
       MainConnection.Open();
       
       sqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
       businessObject.EmployeeID = 
         (int)sqlCommand.Parameters["@EmployeeID"].Value;

       return true;
     }
     catch(Exception ex)
     {
       throw new Exception("Employee::Insert::Error occured.", ex);
     }
     finally
     {
       MainConnection.Close();
       sqlCommand.Dispose();
     }
  }

  #endregion
}

How to use

The code generated by the Tier Generator is easy to use. Open the generated project in Visual Studio 2005 and compile it. Run the Stored Procedures script in the the database which is generated by the Tier Generator. You can find the SQL script file in the generated folder.

Add a new Windows/web project in the existing project and add the DLL of the generated code to it. Add app.config for Windows applications and web.config for web applications. Get the connection string from the generated app.config file. You will get this file in the generated folder.

  <appSettings>
     <add key="Main.ConnectionString" 
             value="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=School;
                    User Id=sa;Password=sa" />
  </appSettings>

Here is the code sample for inserting a new record:

public void AddNewRecord()
{
    Employee emp = new Employee();
    emp.EmployeeID = 1;
    emp.FirstName = "Shakeel";
    emp.LastName = "Iqbal";
    .
    .
    .
    .
    
    EmployeeFactory empFact = new EmployeeFactory();
    empFact.Insert(emp);
}

The code sample for selecting all the records:

public void SelectAll()
{
     EmployeeFactory empFact = new EmployeeFactory();
     List<Employee> list = empFact.GetAll();   
    
    dataGrid1.DataSource = list;
}

Future enhancements

I have some future enhancements planned for the Tier Generator, and I have plans to launch the next version of the Tier generator. In this version, I will improve my business and data layers, and I will also provide the following features:

• Generate Windows application.
• Generate Web application.
• Generate Web Services.

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)