Well, I just finished the first release of BizBlox. Download this free version and have a play…
BizBlox is an Object Persistance library for .NET : The objective is to create a complete database using the SQL Enterprise Manager and once you’re happy you just run the BizBlox Builder (SQL Import tool) and the app will create a complete boilerplate class structure and collection structure for you. It saves VAST amounts of time.
The nice thing with this release is that you can re-export a SQL script over the top of a previous export and the app will not touch any of your code – simply update/add to the properties in the objects.
Note that due to the way the system works there are a couple of limitations since the BizBlox system is designed to integrate with SQL Server 2000 database replication requirements.
1/ You can not have properties in a persistance object. All properties map to a database table.
2/ All primary keys should be GUIDs and all PKs must be a ROWGUID (ROWGUIDCOL must exist)
Also, the way that DOCollections work is straight forward enough – but to use the full power of the SQLBuilder class is a tough job. I know I have no docs in there so I will dig some up from existing enterprise apps I have done using this software.
3/ SQL Data types supported by the BizBlox are:
guid
int
float
datetime
varchar, nvarchar, text, ntext
bit
4/ I have also made an abstract datatype which is VERY useful – if you name a varchar column to begin with ‘dt_’ it will get typecast as a DateTime when it goes to .NET – why? DateTime in SQL just sucks, however this data type abstraction puts date time in UTC format in a varchar which allows for date range comparisons and more complex comparisons (wildcards) without having to deal with the stupidity of SQL datetime queries.
Have fun…
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