Code Generation – ‘The EXE’

OK.  So last week I mentioned that I had been working on a code generator for myself.  For what it’s worth, I am actually posting the EXE here. 

Use this at your own risk!  Here is the ZIP download.

In the ZIP there are five files:

• The EXE
• A Help file (if you can call it that)
• A default settings file
• Two files used to infer the DB schema.  These came from CodeSmith.  If it is wrong for me to include these files, someone will tell me and I’ll have to remove them from the ZIP.  At that point, I’ll either add instructions to get them from CodeSmith, or write my own (UGH!).

Contact me if you have any questions.  I’m sure it’s still buggy.  It also has a number of limitations, such as:

• It only works with SQL Server.
• It expects only one Primary Key column.  In fact, I think it might be expecting a numeric auto number column.
• It only generates VB.NET code.
• There are likely a multitude of others limitations.

In short, this was for me.  It is written around my own “practices”.  It hasn’t been tested nearly enough to be considered solid, so don’t count on that.  I only use it as a starting point, and I can’t recommend that it be anything other than that for you.

That said, please try it if you want, and let me know what you think.  If anyone feels like writing some more thorough documentation, especially as it relates to the generated code, I’ll give you a copy of this app for free.  😉  Also, if you find that my generated code could use certain improvements, please send contact me to let me know.

For what it’s worth, it also runs from your USB drive, but then if you’re into .NET code, you probably expected that it would.

Update (2/28/2005): I have uploaded a new ZIP because I found a bug in the first version.