DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by olegsych

T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit) Code Generation - Best Kept

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:16:17 GMT

Very handy stuff indeed

POCO and Unity Application Block Part II

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:12:37 GMT

In this post, Randy Patterson shows how to use property injection in Unity application block with plain CLR objects using programmatic and XML-based configuration.

Creating complex code generators

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:36:56 GMT

This article is a part of a series that introduces code generation using C# and Text Templates (also known as T4 Templates) in Visual Studio; explains how to create reusable templates and combine them in complex code generators.

POCO and Unity Application Block - Constructor Injection

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:13:08 GMT

This article will walk you through setting up the Unity Application Block for classes that you cannot or should not change. The Unity Application Block has a rich API and robust XML configuration that will allow you to setup your objects without "polluting" them with Unity specific Attributes. In this article we will explore setting up constructor Injection using the Unity API and Configuration files.

Creating reusable code generation templates

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:19:28 GMT

Debugging Code Generation Files

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:18:31 GMT

Troubleshooting Code Generation Errors

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:57:06 GMT

Creating your first code generator

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:56:16 GMT

This is the first post in a series that introduces code generation using C# and Text Templates (also known as T4 Templates) in Visual Studio; explains how to create reusable templates and combine them in complex code generators.

Extending T4: <#@ xsd #> directive

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:33:46 GMT

This article describes a custom T4 directive processor for converting XML schema definitions into .NET classes, which allows using strongly-typed code to extract information from various XML files. In particular, this simplifies creating custom T4 code generation templates for LINQ to SQL .dbml files and ADO.NET Entity Framework .edmx files. The article includes links to ready to use xsd directive processor and sample source code.

Simplifying WCF: Using Exceptions as Faults

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:35:22 GMT

This article describes an overview of error handling in WCF, discusses its advantages and drawbacks and shows how to extend WCF to marshal .NET exceptions as SOAP faults. Ready-to-use source code and examples are available for download.

T4 template for generating SQL view from C# enumeration

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:15:23 GMT

Database tables often contain columns that store "codes", or values with special meaning. In application code, these special values can be encapsulated as enumerations. This article demonstrates how to use T4 code generation templates and Visual Studio CodeModel API to generate SQL views that encapsulate the special values for use in SQL code.

Test runner for T4 unit tests

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:05:15 GMT

This post shows how to create unit tests that run during T4 template transformation. This approach allows creating automated tests for template code that relies on specific capabilities of a T4 host, such as access to Visual Studio extensibility APIs. The post includes a ready to use test runner for T4 unit tests.

T4 Architecture

Sun, 18 May 2008 19:56:21 GMT

This article provides an in-depth look at the architecture of T4 template transformation process, discusses some constraints that limit template design, describes techniques that can be used to work around these limitations and points out some (sometimes undocumented) mechanisms for making your T4 templates more powerful.

Eight Simple Tips To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Recently, a user group held a conference whose subject was Domain-Driven Design with nHibernate. Now, this is a really cool topic of discussion! So, I decided to attend the conference in order to improve my perspective and knowledge on the subject. Little did I know that the speaker was an introverted programmer who greatly lacked in public speaking skills. Many people, including myself, left early, as the presentation became unbearably tedious and awkward.

A Great Visual Studio Add-on You Must Have

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:01:03 GMT

Recently I found out this great add-on for Visual Studio 2008 called PowerCommands. PowerCommands Extends the functionality of Visual Studio 2008 by adding some features which we all want built into Visual Studio. PowerCommands provides the following...

T4 Template Design

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:31:49 GMT

This article discusses design challenges developers face as complexity of their T4 templates increases; defines qualities of a reusable T4 templates; discusses techniques that can be used to achieve these qualities and compares their pros and cons.

Entity Framework & ADO.NET Data Services in VS 2008 SP1 & .NET 3.5 SP1

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:56:23 GMT

No release date yet, but the Entity Framework will be a part of the Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 SP1 releases.

InternalsVisibleToAttribute and strong named assemblies

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:19:56 GMT

This one gets me every time, and Google's top hits are either wrong or incomplete. This is a step by step in order to make internal classes of strong named assembly A visible to assembly B. Makes testing a bit easier, and is useful for keeping prying eyes out of your DLL's APIs.

How to generate multiple outputs from single T4 template

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:32:09 GMT

For some code generation tasks, like generating SELECT stored procedures based on indexes of a given database table, number of output artifacts may not be known upfront. Because T4 was designed to generate a single output file from one template file, developers are forced to generate multiple code artifacts in the same source file. This conflicts with the widely used practice of using one source file per code artifact. This article demonstrates how to work around this limitation of T4, generate multiple files from a single template and automatically add them to a Visual Studio project.

Lazy Instantiation using the Unity Application Block

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:57:30 GMT

The Unity IoC container Application Block does not provide a way to configure your dependencies so that they are resolved only if and when needed. This article explains how to accomplish Just-In-Time instantiation using Unity.

How to use T4 to generate strongly-typed AzMan wrapper

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:33:58 GMT

Very good article on how to use T4 to generate strongly typed class for AzMan instead of accessing it using security application block

Links to How To of Text Template Transformation Engine

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:46:51 GMT

This post links to all "How to" articles of Text Template Transformation Toolkit, on MSDN.

T4 How-to video and Visual Studio project items

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:34:56 GMT

Hilton Giesenow posted a link to the new MSDN how-to video about creating T4 templates and several ready-to-use project item templates that make T4 items available in the Add New Item dialog box of Visual Studio.

Command Window

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:16:04 GMT

A brief introduction the the Command Window.

Find stored procedure parameters - SqlCommandBuilder.DeriveParameters

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:11:53 GMT

Next time you want to find the parameters used by a stored procedure, check out the use of SqlCommandBuilder.DeriveParameters.