What is CodeFluent Entities?
CodeFluent Entities is a unique product integrated
into Visual
Studio 2008/2010/2012 which allows developers
to generate components such as scripts (e.g. T-SQL, PL/SQL, MySQL, Pg/SQL), code (e.g.
C#, VB), web
services (e.g. WCF,
JSON/REST) and UIs(e.g. ASP.NET, SharePoint, WPF).
The code generation process is model-first and
continuous: from your declarative model, a meta-model will be inferred
which code generators will then translate into code. Over 20 code
generators (a.k.a. "producers") are provided "out of the
box" and can be combined to create your own application
following your desired architecture, using your desired
technologies.
More on http://www.softfluent.com/products/codefluent-entities
Special offer for
CodeProject members!
As a token of appreciation to the CodeProject community,
Softfluent is giving away CodeFluent Entities Professional licenses worth
$399. This is a one-shot operation ending on April 30th. So
don’t miss it and click here!
Who is SoftFluent?
SoftFluent is an
innovative company industrializing the software development of data-oriented
applications on the .NET
platform.
SoftFluent is an
innovative software company founded in 2005 by Microsoft veterans, former
consultants of Microsoft Consulting Services. SoftFluent
is Visual Studio Industry Partner at Premier level & Microsoft Gold Partner
certified. It has leveraged its strong experience in building enterprise-class
applications to create a Model-First
Code Generator optimized for the Microsoft
platform.
More on http://www.softfluent.com/about-us
The CodeFluent Entities UI Producers
Over the past articles we showed you how to use the
following UI producers provided out of the box by CodeFluent Entities:
- Windows Store producer
- ASP.NET Web Forms
Producer / AJAX/JSON
- WPF Smart Client Producer
- SharePoint Web Part Producer
In this article I want to emphasize the fact that CodeFluent
Entities is totally UI-agnostic. Indeed from the same and unique model you can
generate screens that will be rendered in the targeted platforms of your
choice. Here is for instance the list of all UI producers available:
Let see all the user interfaces that CodeFluent Entities has
been able to generate from the exact same model, using those different
producers.
Note that the generated applications are not just a set of user interfaces;
they are actually complete interactive applications sharing the same business
object model, database and are 100% functional.
We used the "ContactManager Sample Model" supplied by
CodeFluent Entities:
Let’s take a look at the ContactManager model:
You can find a lot of resources
that show how to use the producers provided by CodeFluent Entities visiting the
CodeFluent Entities blog,
so I’m going to skip their configurations and directly present you the
generated UIs:
UI generated using the Windows 8 Store Producer
The homepage generated by default lists all namespaces and
their contained entities:
Clicking on an entity gets you to the entity page.
On this entity page you’ll find a screenshot of the entity from which this page
was generated.
Right Clicking on this page or typing Ctrl+Z will
bring up a menu at the bottom where you’ll find the list of actions available
for this entity. Those actions correspond in fact to business methods provided
by the entity. We can essentially find useful methods to load a set of entities
(LoadAll, LoadByXXX, Load).
Let’s click on the "LoadAll" command. We get a page
displaying in the left side all the contacts in our database. If we click/tap
on a contact instance its data is displayed in the right side of the page.
Bringing back the menu by hitting Ctrl+z or right clicking
will allow you to perform some actions related to a single contact like create
a new contact, edit or delete the selected contact:
For instance, pushing the Edit button will let you edit the
selected contact. This action will display a form instead of the view-only
section for the selected contact:
The form not only allows you edit single properties of your
entity but you can also edit the relations between your entity and other entities,
for example, you can attach a "User" instance to you contact.
UI generated using the ASP .NET MVC Producer
Let’s see now how a web site generated by the ASP .NET MVC
Producer looks like.
The homepage generated by default lists the entities grouped
by their namespace:
Clicking on an entity gets you to its associated page.
On this entity page you’ll find a screenshot of the entity from which this page
was generated.
On the left side of the page you’ll find a list
of actions available on this entity. Those actions correspond
to business methods provided by the entity:
Here is the screen displaying for the Contact entity when
clicking on the "LoadAll" button:
It lists all the contacts through an HTML table and enables sorting!
From it you can see the detail, edit or remove a contact.
Let’s say we want to see the properties and values of a
contact. Clicking on the "Details" hyperlink will bring up the following
screen:
If we go back to list, clicking on the "Edit" hyperlink will
enable you to edit the entry. We can now edit the properties of the selected
contact:
UI generated using the ASP .NET AJAX Producer
Using the ASP .NET AJAX Producer will generate a "sexier" UI
than the ASP .NET Producer as you will see. This producer uses jQuery and the
jQuery UI library.
The homepage generated by default lists all namespaces and
their contained entities:
Let’s click on an entity so we can see the associated page.
On this entity page you’ll find a screenshot of the entity from which this page
was generated.
On the left side of the page you’ll find a list
of actions available on this entity. Those actions correspond
to business methods provided by the entity:
Here is the screen displaying for the Contact entity when
clicking on the "LoadAll" button. It lists all the contacts through an Ajax
grid supporting sorting and paging. From it you can see the detail, edit or remove a contact.
And when clicking on the "Edit" button we can see an edition
form that is displayed without leaving the page.
UI generated using the ASP .NET WebForms Producer
Using the WebForms technology is also possible with
CodeFluent Entities.
The homepage generated by default lists all namespaces and
their contained entities:
Clicking on an entity gets you to the entity page. On this entity page you’ll find a screenshot of the entity from which this page
was generated.
On the left side of the page you’ll find a list
of actions available on this entity. Those actions correspond
to business methods provided by the entity:
Here is the screen displaying for the Contact entity when
clicking on the "LoadAll" button. It lists all the contacts through an HTML
table and enables sorting.
From it you can edit or remove a contact.
And when clicking on the "Edit" button, a popup window is
displayed providing a form to edit our entity.
UI generated using the Smart Client (WPF) Producer
We have seen how the Web and the Windows 8 UI look like.
CodeFluent Entities cans also provide UI producer for Desktop applications like
WPF.
The first screen generated by default lists all namespaces
and their contained entities:
Clicking on an entity will load all the data corresponding
to it:
From it you can create, edit or remove an entry.
Clicking on an entry will open a window to edit it. You can
edit the simple type properties of your entity and you can also attach related
entities to the entity you are modifying.
UI generated using the SharePoint WebParts Producer
And for those who work with SharePoint, an UI producer for
SharePoint is available.
The homepage generated by default lists all namespaces:
When clicking on a namespace we can access the list of
entities inside the namespace:
Clicking on an entity gets you to the entity page. It lists
all the data of that entity through a Web Part. From it you can create a new entry, see the detail, edit or delete an existing
one.
For instance, clicking on an entry brings up its details:
Finally clicking on the "Edit" button brings a form so we
can edit the related instance.
Conclusion
As you can see, from a same model we have generated several
UIs all consistent with each other.
Besides, thanks to the Platform Independent Form
Editor you can also define forms directly on their
entities which will then be translated into actual screens by user interface
producers. We talked about it in details in this article.
CodeFluent Entities applies the principle of "continuous
generation".
You may want to make your project
evolve, for instance:
-
Add a new entity to your model.
-
Specify a business validation rule on a specific entity property.
-
Build a condensed view for one or more entities.
-
Localize your application.
-
Provide a SOAP based web service API.
-
Create a windows phone application.
-
Make a Silverlight or WPF smart client.
-
Set up a MVC web site.
Any change made on your model
will be propagated through each layer of your application.
CodeFluent Entities provides, for each feature, a default configuration
that can be extended and customized to fit your needs.
Finally, in the case you did not find the desired producer,
I remind you that you can create your own template and use it with the Template Producer or
you can even create your own custom
producer. All you’ll need to do would be to implement the IProducer
interface.
To sum up, CodeFluent Entities is able to generate 100%
functional applications with the UI of your choice just by using the right
producer.
Resources
CodeFluent Entities is a mature product, you can find
several resources and find all you want to know about CodeFluent Entities:
Cheers,
Pablo Fernandez
