Code On Time: Code Generator

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Friday, October 2, 2009Print Subscribe

Eliminate the Grisly Problems of Project Estimation

See how a code generator can help reduce the headaches of Project Estimation and Planning.

The Project Manager’s job is to produce a project estimate, the most complicated step of any project. Project estimation forces project managers to deal with the unknown, making estimation difficult. Merely guessing off intuition is not the best solution. Many managers purchase costly project estimation software. Alternatively, managers can use a horde of programmers to create a prototype application to gauge the difficulty of the project. None of these choices are cost or time effective.

However, there is a much more elegant solution to this problem. Code generators can quickly and easily create an application prototype. Have your software architect construct a database according to the project requirements. Point the code generator to your database, and in minutes you will have a complete prototype of your application. It is much easier to estimate a project using a physical, usable example.

Suppose you were put in charge of a project to create a help desk web application. Your company’s business has grown too large, and your fellow co-workers are drowning in technical issues. As the project manager, you have to create an estimation of how long the project will take. You would need to create a system that manages information such as: problem history, priority levels, equipment, support staff, and problem resolutions. This would be a large and difficult undertaking, and you need a way to gauge the level of work necessary to complete it. Using a code generator, you can merely point it to the database created by your software architect based on current version of project requirements, and in minutes, you have a working prototype. You can now figure out exactly how much time and resources you will need to build your help desk.

This allows you to provide near instantaneous feedback to project stakeholders. The stakeholders can view the prototype to validate requirements, and to create new ones. New requirements will call for a revision of your estimate, and you can use the code generator again and again until the definitive requirements have taken shape.

Your development team may decide to completely scrap the generated code and built an application from scratch. It still had helped you in project estimation and saved time and money. Through the use of a code generator, project estimation became a much more efficient and cheaper process.

As an added bonus, some of the code may end up being useful and serve as a foundation, or become a part of the final product.

Labels: Code Generator

Sunday, September 20, 2009Print Subscribe

Generate ASP.NET/AJAX Web Applications With Code OnTime Generator And Data Aquarium Framework

This brief tutorial demonstrates Code OnTime Generator and Data Aquarium Framework. We start with a simple database schema and proceed with generating an ASP.NET/AJAX web application that features code-free adaptive filtering, image file uploading, embedded data reporting and analysis.

Labels: AJAX, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET Code Generator, Code Generator, Data Aquarium Framework, Video Tutorial

Friday, April 17, 2009Print Subscribe

Creating Projects Outside “My Documents”

Code OnTime Generator will automatically generate projects to My Documents folder. You will find your projects code broken down by project type name under root [My Documents]\Code OnTime.

This might introduce a problem with running your code under ASP.NET Development Server if your network policy has mapped this folder to a network drive.

Code OnTime Generator is built as an open code generation platform and allows free alterations to the code generation script.

For example, you can redirect the project output folder for Data Aquarium projects to you local folder C:\Data\MyProjects by modifying [My Documents]\Code OnTime\Projects\Data Aquarium\CodeOnTime.Projects.xml code generation script.

You can download the code generator script for Data Aquarium premium project at http://dev.codeontime.com/CodeOnTime.Project.zip. This script is current as of the date of publication of this article.

Open [My Documents]\Code OnTime\Projects\Data Aquarium\CodeOnTime.Projects.xml in your favorite XML editor and scroll all the way to the bottom.

        ........
        <load path="DataAquarium.Project.xml">
            <if test="a:project/a:webServer/@run='true'">
                <execute fileName="$CommonProgramFiles\microsoft shared\DevServer\9.0\WebDev.WebServer.EXE" arguments="/port:{a:project/a:webServer/@port} /path:&quot;$ProjectPath&quot; /vpath:&quot;/$ProjectName&quot;" mode="nowait"/>
                <execute fileName="http://localhost:{a:project/a:webServer/@port}/$ProjectName/default.aspx" arguments="-new" mode="nowait"/>
            </if>
        </load>
    </build>
    <actions>
        <action name="browse" toolTip="View &quot;{0}&quot; in a web browser.">
            <load path="DataAquarium.Project.xml">
                <execute fileName="$CommonProgramFiles\microsoft shared\DevServer\9.0\WebDev.WebServer.EXE" arguments="/port:{a:project/a:webServer/@port} /path:&quot;$ProjectPath&quot; /vpath:&quot;/$ProjectName&quot;" mode="nowait"/>
                <execute fileName="http://localhost:{a:project/a:webServer/@port}/$ProjectName/default.aspx" arguments="-new" mode="nowait"/>
            </load>
        </action>
    </actions>
</project>

Replace this code with the following:

    <load path="$ProjectPath">
        <variable name="MyProjectPath" select="'C:\data\MyProjects'"/>
        <forEach select="//file">
            <copy input="$ProjectPath\{@path}" output="$MyProjectPath\{@path}"/>
        </forEach>
    </load>
    <load path="DataAquarium.Project.xml">
        <if test="a:project/a:webServer/@run='true'">
            <execute fileName="$CommonProgramFiles\microsoft shared\DevServer\9.0\WebDev.WebServer.EXE" arguments="/port:{a:project/a:webServer/@port} /path:&quot;$MyProjectPath&quot; /vpath:&quot;/$ProjectName&quot;" mode="nowait"/>
            <execute fileName="http://localhost:{a:project/a:webServer/@port}/$ProjectName/default.aspx" arguments="-new" mode="nowait"/>
        </if>
    </load>
</build>
<actions>
    <action name="browse" toolTip="View &quot;{0}&quot; in a web browser.">
        <load path="DataAquarium.Project.xml">
            <variable name="MyProjectPath" select="'C:\data\MyProjects'"/>
            <execute fileName="$CommonProgramFiles\microsoft shared\DevServer\9.0\WebDev.WebServer.EXE" arguments="/port:{a:project/a:webServer/@port} /path:&quot;$MyProjectPath&quot; /vpath:&quot;/$ProjectName&quot;" mode="nowait"/>
            <execute fileName="http://localhost:{a:project/a:webServer/@port}/$ProjectName/default.aspx" arguments="-new" mode="nowait"/>
        </load>
    </action>
</actions>

The script in introducing a new variable $MyProjectPath, which is set to c:\data\MyProjects.

The variable is used to copy the generated code from [My Documents] location to the one specified by the variable and then ASP.NET Development Server is directed to use this location when executing the project.

Labels: ASP.NET Code Generator, Code Generator