Smart Code Generator .NET : Code Generation experience with Visual Studio and ASP.NET – Usage Overview

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Introduction

SmartCodeGenerator is an ASP.NET 2.0 website or an ASP.NET 1.1 web application and is a full-fledged template-based code generator that allows you to generate code for any text language. Templates are written in Visual Studio as ASP.NET User Controls.

The current feature list of SmartCodeGenerator includes:

• All development done in VS2005 OR VS2003 Extensible Template Generation Engine
• Open source Database Schema discovery API for Microsoft SQL, Oracle and MySQL
• Uses existing ASP.NET 2.0 website application OR ASP.NET 1.1 web application concepts
• Generates text based output
• Generates output in batch mode
• Fully customizable template-based code generation
• Remembers custom property data entries
• Intellisense, compilation, debug, code snippet, source view, design view and all other countless features that are offered by Visual Studio

The entire development life cycle of creating custom templates using SmartCodeGenerator is done using Visual Studio by creating an ASP.NET application. And templates are ASP.NET UserControls, so during the generation of templates, intellisense, compilation, debug, source view, design view, code behind file and all other features of Visual Studio (2005 or 2003) are available to you.

For latest downloads please refer to Codeplex. This article is based on CTP 2.6 and is more of a usage guideline that tries to answer how to use SmartCodeGenerator for template based output. This demonstration will focus on using SCG with Visual Studio 2005, however, this framework can be used with any ASP.NET IDE that exists in the world today. You simply need to create an ASP.NET project, add a reference to the DLLs supplied with SCG. For an architectural overview of SCG framework please refer to this article at The Code Project, "SmartCodeGenerator - Code Generation experience with Visual Studio and ASP.NET- Architectural Overview".

Without any further delay let's explore SCG in more details.

Installing SmartCodeGenerator

Note: This article is based on CTP 2.6.0. For latest versions please refer to CodePlex.
Once you have downloaded the file (that comes as one zip file with this article) simply extract it to your favorite project directory. Here is a glimpse of what you will see when you extract the zip file.

Fig 1

CSharp Developers extract the SCG_CTP2.6_CSharp_VsTemplate.zip file and copy SmartCodeGenerator.zip to your My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates folder. In addition copy SmartCodeGeneratorTemplate.zip to your My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ItemTemplates folder. Here is a glimpse of the extracted SCG_CTP2.6_CSharp_VsTemplate.zip.

Fig 2

VB.NET Developers extract SCG_CTP2.6_Vb_VsTemplate.zip and copy SmartCodeGeneratorVb.zip to your My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates folder. In addition copy SmartCodeGeneratorTemplateVb.zip to your My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ItemTemplates folder.

Fig 3

This is what it takes to install SmartCodeGenerator within Visual Studio 2005 and we are ready to create a SmartCodeGenerator project.

Creating SmartCodeGenerator Project

Lets open Visual Studio 2005 and create our first SmartCodeGenerator project. Click File > New > Web Site…

Fig 4

You will notice SmartCodeGenerator Project Available. Select SmartCodeGenerator and click OK.

Fig 5

This will automatically generate SmartCodeGenerator Project for you with the necessary files and project structure. A glimpse of the solution explorer is as follows.

Fig 6

Please keep note of the TheProperties.cs, DefaultTemplate.ascxand Default.aspx files. These are the files which you have to modify to customize your template to meet your needs. You can run the project straight away and the output will look something like this.

Fig 7

Note here the Custom property "TestProperty" and the "Generate" Button. Custom properties will be used to collect data from the end user and generated output will change based on these inputs. Generate Button generates the output.

Adding New Templates to the Project

To add a new template, right click on the Template Folder and click Add New Item.

Fig 8

Choose SmartCodeGenerator Template and Click Add. This will add a new SCGTemplate in the Templates Folder.

Fig 9

Modifying a Template

Double click the DefaultTemplate.ascx file and go to source view mode in Visual Studio 2005. You will see something like this.

Fig 10

Note a template is nothing but a ASP.NET UserControl and you can start writing your template with static and dynamic bits and pieces, and codes in code behind file as if you would write in any ASP.NET application. And notice you have the intellisense, debug, code snippet and all other cool features of Visual Studio 2005 available to you while writing your templates.

Modifying TheProperties.cs

You should have already noticed the TestProperty with a textbox at runtime (Fig 7) and wondered where this is coming from. Please open up TheProperties.cs class.

"TheProperties" Class: is simply a .NET class and any properties that are defined in this class are automatically picked up by the SCG Framework and a relevant UI is generated to collect data from an end user. For example, I have defined a string property TestProperty.

Fig 11

public class TheProperties
{
  private string _testProperty;
  public string TestProperty
  {
    get
    {
      return _testProperty;
    }
    set
    {
      _testProperty = value;
    }
  }
}

The SCG Framework will automatically generate a UI for this property like this.

Fig 12: Custom Property UI

Lets add a new property named AddedProperty of type string in the "TheProperties.cs" and the new code should looks like this.

public class TheProperties
{
  private string _testProperty;
  public string TestProperty
  {
    get
    {
      return _testProperty;
    }
    set
    {
      _testProperty = value;
    }
  }
  private string _addedProperty;
  public string AddedProperty
  {
    get
    {
      return _addedProperty;
    }
    set
    {
      _addedProperty = value;
    }
  }
}

If you run this project now, you will see the following.

Fig 13

Note: A textbox is automatically created for the new property we defined. You can also try adding other properties of int, Boolean etc. Out of the box SCG ships with support for Boolean, Enum, Integer, ScMandatoryStringProperty, ScSQLTablesProperty, StringCollection and String Type. The framework is extensible and adding support to any types you desire is very easy. You will find details about it in Team Blog ( http://www.community.smartcodegenerator.com )

Modifying Default.aspx.cs

When you run the project and click the Generate Button you see this line.

GeneratedCode for Template:~/Templates/DefaultTemplate.ascx 
                Output filename:c:\temp\Example1.cs 

You might be also wondering where it is defined to read from (DefaultTemplate.ascx) and write to (Example1.cs) as output. Please Open the Default.aspx.cs file and you will find the region "ToDo : Write/Modify Code As Required" with the following piece of code.

Fig 14

SCG framework comes with the InputTemplateAndOutputPath Class where you can define an input location and an output location. So, your Templates folder may end up having 100s of templates but you can run your desired templates from this section. Simply add your required mappings to the list object (IOList) like I did in the above code. To add another input template named "Template2.ascx" and an output location of "c:\temp\Example2.cs" to the IOList you may do something like this

InputTemplateAndOutputPath path2 =
  new InputTemplateAndOutputPath("~/Templates/Template2.ascx",
      @"c:\temp\Example2.cs");
this.IOList.Add(path2);

The SCG Framework also ships with ScEventArgs and object has an Item Property, which is in fact a Hashtable. So, you have the flexibility to pass any object and this will flow through the Generate (Output) pipeline. In the above code I am adding "report" in the Dictionary. For understanding Pipeline in more details, please refer to this article at The Code Project, "SmartCodeGenerator - Code Generation experience with Visual Studio and ASP.NET- Architectural Overview"

Fig 15

The _Default_OnGenerate and _Default_OnGenerateComplete methods are worth having a look at.

void _Default_OnGenerate(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   GenerateFiles(IOList, e);
   SerializeThePropertiesToFile();
}
private void GenerateFiles(List<InputTemplateAndOutputPath> ioList,
  EventArgs e)
{
  //This is going to Loop through all the templates of

  //IOList for each TableSchemas

  foreach (InputTemplateAndOutputPath io in ioList)
  {
    //This part shows the use of ScEventArgs that is

    //passed in the pipeline

    string report = ((ScEventArgs)e).Item["report"].ToString();
    report = string.Format("{0} <BR>
      GeneratedCode for Template:{1} Output FileName:{2}",
         report, io.InputPathFilename, io.OutputPathFilename);
    ((ScEventArgs)e).Item["report"] = report;
    _Util.GenerateOutputAsFile(Page, io);
    //To Get GeneratedText use the following Method

    //string generatedText = _Util.GeneratedOutputAsText(Page, io);

  }
} 

The above code is self explanatory and I loop through the InputOutputTemplate list (IOList) and generate files by calling_Util.GenerateOutputAsFile method that comes with the SCG Framework. The "report" that we passed in the PreGenerate(....) function is extracted here and used to compile a report. The OnGenerateComple method extracts the "report" that is passed in the pipeline and shows it on the screen via lblReport.Text.

void void _Default_OnGenerateComplete(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   lblReport.Text = ((ScEventArgs)e).Item["report"].ToString();
}

In Short the pipeline has different events that you can hook codes into and they are executed in this sequence as shown in Fig 16.

Fig 16

In the Default.aspx.cs I hooked up the following methods with the pipeline.

void _Default_OnPreGenerate(object sender, EventArgs e)
void _Default_OnGenerate(object sender, EventArgs e)
void _Default_OnGenerateComplete(object sender, EventArgs e) 

What I did here within these methods are:

PreGenerate: I Prepared the List of InputOutputTemplate
OnGenerate: I Generated the File/Files
OnGenerateComplete: I Displayed the result on the screen...

The PipeLine is very powerful and you can pass any object via the Hashtable and use them at different stages of the execution. For more details please refer to this article at The Code Project, "SmartCodeGenerator - Code Generation experience with Visual Studio and ASP.NET- Architectural Overview".

From the above discussion we have learned how templates work in SmartCodeGenerator. Basically, we define properties in the TheProperties class section and that turns into UIProperty objects where we can enter desired values at runtime. We can enter as many properties as we wish. We can also map input template and output file using the InputTemplateAndOutputPath class and generate files in batch mode. We also learned that the default.aspx.cs acts as the host and hooks up different methods to the events in the pipeline.

Writing your First Template

Objective

We will write a template which will take two properties: classname and propertyname. Then, code will be generated like this based on the customized values entered for the properties.

public class TestClass
{
  public TestClass()
  {
    //Add constructor here

  }
  private string testproperty
  public string TestProperty
  {
    get
    {
        return testproperty;
    }
    set
    {
        testproperty = value;
    }
  }
} 

Step 1 - Create a new SmartCodeGenerator Project

In Visual Studio 2005, Select File>New>Website>SmartCodeGenerator. You will notice (SmartCodeGenerator) Project Template in your (MyTemplates) Section.

Step 2 - Declare Properties in the "TheProperties" class

As defined in the objective we want to have 2 string properties one for classname and one for propertyname. So, we will define 2 properties in the "TheProperties" class. It should look somewhat like the following.

public class TheProperties
{
    public TheProperties( )
    {
        //Please Assign Default Values here

        this.ClassName = "TestClass";
        this.PropertyName = "TestPropertyName";
    }
    private string className;
    public string ClassName
    {
        get { return className; }
        set { className = value; }
    }
    private string propertyName;

      public string PropertyName
      {
            get { return propertyName;}
            set { propertyName = value;}
      }
} 

We know the SCG framework will automatically read from the instance of TheProperties class, and will create required dynamic UIProperty on the webpage.

Step 3 - Add a new SCGTemplate

To add a new SCGTemplate right Click the Templates Folder of your Project and Click "Add New Item".

Select "SmartCodeGeneratorTemplate" and name this ascx File as "ExampleTemplate.ascx".

Step 4 – Modify SCGTemplate

Open the code behind file of ExampleTemlate.ascx and define a property TheClassName of type string:

private string theclassname;
public string TheClassName
{
  get { return theclassname; }
  set { theclassname = value; }
}

Inside the PreGenerateTemplate( ) assign theclassname property to Profile.ScProperties.ClassName.

public override void PreGenerateTemplateCode( )
{
   theclassname = TheProperties.ClassName;
} 

Go to the source view of your ExampleTemplate.ascx and modify as follows.

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"
  CodeFile="ExampleTemplate.ascx.cs" Inherits=" ExampleTemplate" %>
//This example Template shows creating a dynamic class from template

public class <%=this.TheClassName%>
{
  public <%=TheProperties.ClassName%>()
  {
     //Add constructor here
  }
  private string <%=TheProperties.PropertyName.ToLower()%>;
  public string <%=TheProperties.PropertyName %>
  {
      get
      {
        return <%=TheProperties.PropertyName.ToLower()%>;
      }
      set
      {
        <%=TheProperties.PropertyName.ToLower()%> = value;
      }
  }
}

Fig 17

While doing this, you should have already noticed Intellisense support. In this demo we used both of these.TheClassName (which we have defined in our codebehind) and TheProperties.ClassName, just to show different ways of accessing UIProperty values.

Step 5- Modify Default.aspx.cs

Open the default.aspx.cs file. Go to region Todo : Write/Modify Code As Required Map the Input Template should be ExampleTemplate.ascx and Output file should be c:\temp\Example1.cs. It should look somewhat like this.

void _Default_OnPreGenerate(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  //You can use the handy IOList to Map Input Template and OutputPath

  this.IOList.Add(
    new InputTemplateAndOutputPath
      ("~/Templates/ExampleTemplate.ascx",
        @"c:\temp\Example1.cs"));
  //Adding a report item in the args

  ((ScEventArgs)e).Item.Add("report", string.Empty);
  lblReport.Text = string.Empty;
} 

Step 6 – Run the SCGProject and Generate output

After you run the project you will see something like this.

Fig 18

Change the classname and propertyname as desired and click the generate button to generate the output. Other Example – Generating codes from Database Table Schema The CTP 2.6 also ships with full source code of database Schema Discovery API for Microsoft SQL, Oracle and MYSQL database. It also ships with an example "SCG_CTP2.6_DbSchema_Example_CSharp" which demonstrates how to generate templates depending on Database Table Schemas. Here is a glimpse of the template.

Fig 19

Conclusion

SmartCodeGenerator is a very powerful code generation framework. Here it couples Visual Studio and ASP.NET. However, this framework can be used with any ASP.NET IDE that exists in the world today. You simply need to create an ASP.NET project, add a reference to the DLLs supplied with SCG. SCG also ships with Database Schema Discovery API's for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL, and implementing new providers for different databases is very easy. An SCG Project is simply a ASP.NET project and not dependent on any third party tools, and SCGTemplates are ascx UserControls. For a ASP.NET developer there is nothing new to learn to start using SmartCodeGenerator. I strongly believe that you will agree with me in saying: "Code Generation has never been this easy". Thank you for being with me so far and please join the community and share your SCGTemplates.

Resources and Links related to SmartCodeGenerator

• Download source code and releases at Codeplex.
• Community: http://community.smartcodegenerator.com.
• Community Forums: http://community.smartcodegenerator.com/forums/default.aspx< /p>
• Tutorials: http://www.smartcodegenerator.com.
• Team Blog: http://community.smartcodegenerator.com/blogs/team_blog/default.aspx
• And My Blog: http://www.geekswithblogs.net/shahed.

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I can't download your code please check if the files is ok DirectXBegin 20:19 3 Apr '07   I can't download your code please check if the files is ok ,Thank you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: I can't download your code please check if the files is ok aron2 11:35 23 Apr '07   Dw Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: I can't download your code please check if the files is ok DirectXBegin 16:20 26 Apr '07   Thank you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink MyMeta? GLMnet 7:51 14 Mar '07   Hi, here is my question: MyGeneration uses a MyMeta API that gives the ability to associate a Dictionary to any database object. This is quite useful and I use it widely on a template I'd like to port it to SCg. Have you already considered this scenario? How could I proceed? Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: MyMeta? Shahed.Khan 18:33 14 Mar '07   No I am not aware of MyMeta API. Please send me links on usage and examples of MyMeta API. I ll look at the implementation details and confirm details. Thankyou for making me aware about this. Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Ok You did it. GLMnet 7:20 14 Mar '07   This is awesome, i was looking for something like this long time ago. Great idea / implementation Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Ok You did it. Shahed.Khan 19:06 14 Mar '07   Please Vote. Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Opps looks like i am getting votes before I even published the whole content Shahed.Khan 17:08 15 Feb '07   Upps looks like I have started getting lower ratings in vote before I even published the whole content... did not realized it has been published... I do not think there is a way in codeproject to hide it when I am working on it.... Upps my bad. Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Doesn't explain the important thing Simon W Gill 0:25 15 Feb '07   Why should we use this particular program to generate source code? What code does it generate and why? What problems does it solve? It certainly does sound interesting, but this looks more like an advert than an actual article. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing Shahed.Khan 13:39 15 Feb '07   Sorry ... I was playing with it... and did not realized its published already...I do not think there is a way in CodeProject to hide it. Please refer to this article for Architectural Overview of SmartCodeGenerator http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/smartcodegenerator.asp[^] I ll post you back again as soon as I put the rest of the contents of this article. Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing Shahed.Khan 17:13 16 Feb '07   Please check the article again. Now it has more contents. Let me try answer your questions: Why should we use this particular program to generate source code? This is very flexible, no need to learn any new technology or language if you know asp.net. The framework is extensible. You can choose your favorite Asp.Net IDE to generate template based output. Here I have demonstrated Visual Studio 2005. As a result while developing your templates you get Intellisense, Debugging, Code Snippet, Stack Tracing and all other cool features of Visual Studio. This is also open source and free. Further more it ships with Database Schema Discovery API for MS SQL, Oracle and My SQL. I agree I do not have templates to generate N tier code for you at this stage in my bag and that is not very far away. But from the flexibility, extensibility, template design time features and flexibility, reliability, learning curve, point of view if you know of any other code generator that can compete SmartCodeGenerator feel free to post and let everyone know. What code does it generate? This can generate any template based output.. Code Smith is a very popular codegenerator in the .Net Community if you know what Code Smith does I have answered your questions already. What problems does it solve? The whole community was waiting for a code generator which requires minimum learning time, comes with debugging, flexibility and extensibility in its bag. I chosend Asp.Net and Visual Studio worlds 2 most powerful technology and coupled them and there you go you get Smart Code Generator. It inherits automatically all the power of .Net, Asp.Net and Visual Studio. I think this is the tool you should start using for code generation, I do not mind to know is there anything else exists in the world (for codegeneration )which gives more flexibility to a template designer than SmartCodeGenerator. Please spend some time with this great tool if you like it please atleast donate 1 template for the SCG fans and moreover for the whole community. Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing Simon W Gill 4:16 19 Feb '07   Thanks for putting in the effort to go back through and answer my questions. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be honest, it looks and feels very clumsy. Thanks for letting me know about Code Smith though, that looks like a very useful tool indeed. There's NUnit and NAnt compatibility so that everything can be built, tested and created with one command. From the looks of things, it would fit very well in the toolchain I'm planning to put together. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing Shahed.Khan 19:11 22 Mar '07   For your information, I have recently written an Article demonstrating how NAnt and Cassini can be integrated with SCG Development cycle. So projects can be compiled, build and run with one command. SmartCodeGenerator: Codegeneration experience with ASP.NET, NAnt and Cassini. http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/smartcodegeneratorconsole.asp[^] Shahed Khan (MVP Visual C#) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing Raibeart 11:57 20 Feb '07   Why would I use an Alpha version of any program? I need things that are not going to break, Alpha does not do that for me. Been burned too many times by other vendors. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Doesn't explain the important thing FerretOfWrath 17:27 22 Feb '07   You guys are being a little hard on the author. This looks like a great start for a great tool. I have and probably will continue to use CodeSmith for the near future. It is refined and well tested. It has also gone from free to quite expensive. This tool is exactly what we need in this space - some free competition. Template-based code generation is the core of both of these tools, and that's what has made CodeSmith so popular. The rest is just refinement. CodeSmith has gotten way too expensive ~$400 per seat if you want all the features. I'm actively looking for something to replace the cost of CodeSmith in our development shop. This is a great place to start looking. Do you still think this tool is a bad idea? With a little work, it could knock CodeSmith down a notch, or at least lower their prices. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink

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