How to create a custom tool to generate code in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

I simply want to generate a class with attributes that comes from a Database table.

If I have a Database table like the following:

+-------------------+
| Id | Name         |
+----+--------------+
| 1  + foo          |
| 2  + hello.world  |
| 3  + null         |
+-------------------+

I would like to auto-generate a class that will looks like the following:

class MyTable {
  public static int Foo = 1;
  public static int HelloWorld = 1;
  // null was omitted for Id = 3
}

Answer 1

You could use a T4 transformation to do the work. Use "Add new item" and "Text template".

The T4 language is a way to use C# code to genarate C# code. Most text is parsed directly to the output file, and new code can be written inside <# and #> tags. The file starts with wrapped imports and using statements, so a very simple template could be something like:

   <#@ template debug="false" hostspecific="false" language="C#" #>
   <#@ import namespace="System.Data" #>
   <#@ import namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" #>
   <#@ assembly name="System.Data" #>

   namespace Some.Namespace
   {
       public class TestClass 
       {
    <# 

    using(var cnn = new SqlConnection(@"server=.\sqlexpress;Integrated Security=SSPI;Database=ApplicationManagement"))
    {
        cnn.Open();
        var cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT TextKey, TextValue FROM TblBrandingKeyValues WHERE BrandingIdentifier = 'Default'", cnn);

        var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

        while (reader.Read())
        {
            var defaultText = reader.GetString(1);
            var name = reader.GetString(0);


    #>
    public string <#= name #> 
    {
        get { return "<#= defaultText #>"; } 
    }

    <#
        }
    }

     #>

    }
}

} <#@ output extension=".cs" #>

This template would create a class TestClass with a set of read only properties retrieved from database table TblBrandingKeyValues.

I would recommend these T4 tutorials.