Azure

Many of Code On Time tutorials are using Northwind sample database created by Microsoft to illustrate concepts of database design and implementation with Microsoft SQL Server.

The database is somewhat outdates and does not reflect the latest advancements in Microsoft SQL Server features and capabilities. Nevertheless it provides a perfect dataset to illustrate the concepts of code generation.

We have included the script creating the Northwind sample database with the code generator. The script can be used to create a sample dataset for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, 2008, and SQL Azure.

Please follow this instructions if you want to create your own Northwind database sample.

Getting SQL Server on Your Computer

Download and install Microsoft SQL Server Express edition if you have not done so already. You can download the server along with free development tools that will help you customizing generated web applications at http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx. The link provides access to Microsoft Web Platform Installer, which makes the download and installation process extremely simple and pain-free.

If you do have a retail or development version of Microsoft SQL Server then this step is not needed.

If you are developing with other types of databases, such Oracle, DB2, MySQL, Microsoft Access, then getting Microsoft SQL Server Express installed will still help to get started with Code On Time. Generated web applications use provider-independent model to access data. It means that there is no code specific to Microsoft SQL Server in the generated application framework. If your back-end database server is Oracle 11g then exactly the same code will be generated.

Creating a Database

Run Code On Time and start creating a new Web Site Factory project.

Enter project name and choose your programming language (C# or Visual Basic.NET):

Click Next button to advance to Database Connection page of the project wizard.

Click the button next to the Connection String field to open the connection configuration window.

If you just have installed Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition on your computer then enter the following text in the Server field :

.\SQLExpress

The dot in front of “\SQLExpress” indicates that you are connecting to your own computer.

If you already have a database server or working with SQL Azure then enter the actual server name or IP address.

Enter Northwind in the Database field and click Create button to create a blank database. You should see a message stating that the database has been created successfully.

Select Northwind in the drop down under Sample Tables and click Install button. You will notice the activity log displaying various SQL statements executed against the database. A message indicting completion of the process will be displayed.

Click Add button under Membership section to create optional support for ASP.NET Membership in your database. This option is not available in DotNetNuke Factory projects.

Azure Factory project offers additional section to configure session state support for multi-server deployment.

Wait for membership installation to complete and click OK button to save the settings.

Click Next button several times until you reach the summary of data controllers that will be implemented in your web application.

Click Generate to start the code generation.

A browser window will open up when code generation has been completed.

Start using and customizing your own Northwind sample.

You can reference the same database in other projects whenever you need.

Code On Time update 5.0.0.71 has introduced the following enhancements and bug fixes.

• Improved support for IE6 in the client library.
   
• Publishing of web applications created with Azure Factory is now using Windows Azure SDK 1.4. Previous release would fail to create a deployment package if Windows Azure SDK 1.3 was not installed.
   
• Time processing has been improved for all locals / cultures. If you have a date field then you can enable the time component on the such field if you change the Data Format String property of a data field in a view or the field a data controller to “g” or “G”.  
   
  User can now enter time 0518 or 5 18 (space between hours and minutes) and the time will be correctly formatted according to the current culture properties.
   
  Time selector rendered next to time component of a data field shows 48 intervals, 30 minutes each. The intervals start from the current hour. Intervals are correctly formatted according to the web application culture.
   
• File upload/download mechanism is now using data fields of editForm1 to update the utility fields. Previous version of the application framework would not have updated the utility field values if the data fields were not present in grid1.
   
• URL Hashing now works with View Details. Previous implementation was not encrypting links produced by “View Details” arrow that is typically present next to lookup fields.
   
• Incorrect processing of single word table and column names has been fixed. Last update has introduced a bug that has affected older project. 
    
  If you have a table named “customer” or “CUSTOMERS” and there is a column named “address” or “ADDRESS” then the code generator would incorrectly label the corresponding objects as “ CUSTOMERS” or “ customers and “ ADDRESS” or “ address”. Notice the leading space character in front of the label.
   
  We have resolved the issue to allow correct processing of old projects created prior to the update. There is a possibility that a new project that was started last week will get affected. If you observe that the order of data fields has changed then please re-order your fields once more.
   
• Presence of image fields in a data controller will not affect the height of data rows in automatic reports unless the data view explicitly includes a reference to an "image” field.
   
• Sample SQL Server database Contact Manager includes an improved data set. 
   
• Data access objects now support passing of FieldValue parameters when calling Select and SelectSingle methods.
   
• Text Mode property of data fields displays “Auto” instead of “Text” in designer.

We expect to release the next update by the end of the next week and are planning to roll out DotNetNuke Factory. SharePoint Factory will follow shortly thereafter.

New project releases were delayed to allow stabilization of the recent changes to the core application framework and client library.