July 2005 - Posts
If you live (or can travel to) the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, please join the North Dallas .NET User Group on August 3, for a CodeSmith 3.0 Tips & Tricks demo-filled session by my partner Rob Howard. As an added bonus all attendees will get a *FREE* license to CodeSmith 3.0 Professional -- a $399 value!!
Also, please help us make the Dallas .NET User Group VP, Shane Henderson, eat some crow. He absolutely thinks there is NO way we will have 200 attendees at the event and Scott Dockendorf doesn't agree. It's a $50 bet and Scott has promised to donate the money to a charitable cause when he wins (you can tell which side I'm on in this debate)!
More information here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottdockendorf/archive/2005/07/26/420584.aspx
Development Tool of the Year“How many times you you been coding a business or data layer object and thought... "This is sooo repetitve there must be a better way." Well there is!
CodeSmith is a template driven code generation tool. Now don't lose me... I know you heard code generation and are thinking this is some blue sky type of tool, but trust me this is the real deal.”
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Scott Hanselman points out that his TechEd 2005 code generation talk is available online now. Scott is a great presenter and does a great job on this talk. Scott’s company Corillian makes extensive use of code generation techniques and CodeSmith is their code generation tool of choice.
[ Scott Hanselman's Weblog - The Recorded Version of my TechEd 2005 Code Generation Talk is Available ]
Batch code generation with CodeSmith console … “I'm always keeping my eyes open for practical tools that save time and mental sanity. One of the most mentally-draining tasks is repetitious modifying of simple code. For example, many simple CRUD (Create-Read-Update-Delete) stored procedures, and their accompanying DAL and Business Objects are redundant. Ideally we could just auto-generate this given the inputs. Auto code generation is a great time saver, which frees us from boring tasks to focus on interesting ones.”
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I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, but it looks like it will be full of great information. Chapter 9 talks about using code generation techniques (CodeSmith in particular) to aid in the delivery process.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590594851/ref%3Dase%5Ftestdrivendev-20/103-8305158-7865422
CodeSmith is becoming really useful … “Once the first XML to database process was finished, I used each of the major artifacts as the basis for a
CodeSmith template. Using these templates, I was able to generate the next set in the time it took my colleague to work out why TeamTest was crashing when testing something using the Enterprise Library (i.e. a couple of hours).Once the first XML to database process was finished, I used each of the major artifacts as the basis for a
CodeSmith template. Using these templates, I was able to generate the next set in the time it took my colleague to work out why TeamTest was crashing when testing something using the Enterprise Library (i.e. a couple of hours).” …
It’s a very cool feeling to see job postings that are listing an application that you built as a job requirement. 
If you are a CodeSmith user and are looking for a job, you may want to do a search for CodeSmith on Monster.com. There are currently 8 job postings that are listing CodeSmith as a requirement or a desired skill.
http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?q=codesmith
DNN300: Developing Custom DotNetNuke Modules
This tutorial on creating custom DotNetNuke modules makes use of CodeSmith to generate a lot of the plumbing code for your custom DNN modules.
CodeSmith 3.0 Review by David Hayden“… This is probably the defacto standard Code Generation Tool when working with databases. I have lost count as to how many templates I have to create web pages, usercontrols, business classes, data access objects, stored procedures, mapping files for O/R Mappers, etc. This is a must have tool to get you out of creating a lot of the monotonous plumbing associated with building applications. …”
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