How to get templated starter database driven forms generated in C# winforms SQL Server using some RAD tool or Visual Studio 2010

Question

I hope I got all that in this question title. Let me explain. We are starting on small desktop app that will snowball into a big app with many forms. The database is SQL Server. It will have classic stored procs/functions performing classic CRUD functions. Given a table or stored proc in SQL Server what is the quickest way to create a form with all the hooks to maintain a table.

For eg lets assume I have table like this (most code below is pseudo code)

Table Employee 
{
      Name varchar(30)
      DOB Datetime
      Address varchar(100)
}

From this as source I want to create my Target which is form with 3 labels and 3 textboxes with add delete modify buttons (or OK button to add if not exists or modify if exists)

 Name: TextBox
 DOB:  TextBox or Datetime picker 
 Address: Textbox

  OK   DELETE   CLOSE

The code generation tool or technique that will be used should generate the correct db hooks (create SQL parameters, SqlCommand , execute sql.. basic try catch etc. Is there any open source tool to do this? Some trick or templated approach via VS 2010? Worst case any third party tool? thank you

Answer 1

Did you have a look at http://nettiers.com ?

It is basically a set of templates (not T4 ) that lets you generate most of the layers you want of an application.

I like it because it is very easy to extend what is generated and to build incremental apps with it, based on the database: first iteration: choose your first X tables, generate any layer you like (winform or asp.net, DAL, stored procedures for CRUD, entities, ...), then extend what is generated using the partial classes provided or the base classes second iteration: add X tables to your selection, regenerate, take advantage of all your customization.

The only down side of nettiers is that you need to have a licence of codesmith to execute the templates, and it cost 100$.

Answer 2

There is DBEXform designer tool to create database forms reports and applications for Windows.

Applications are execute on.Net 3.5 environment.

Latist version of DBEXform could be downloaded from http://www.willmansoft.com

:JW

Answer 3

Try www.metadrone.com

It's a new tool, not many templates created for it yet. But it's easy to use to create your own templates to make generated stored procedures and forms to suit your own style of coding.