I have been learning about T4 templates recently by looking at
the awesome ADO.NET POCO entity generator. By using
the POCO entity generator template as a base, I created a T4 template which generates metadata classes for a given Entity Data Model. This speeds coding by reducing
the amount of typing required when creating view specific model and its metadata. To use this template, Download
the template provided at
the bottom. Set two values
in the template file.
The first one should point to
the EDM you wish to generate metadata for.
The second is used to suffix
the namespace and classes that get generated. string inputFile = @"Northwind.edmx";
string suffix = "AutoMetadata";
Add
the template to your MVC 2 Visual Studio 2010 project.
Once you add it, a number of classes will get added to your project based on
the number of entities you have.
One of these classes is shown below. Note that
the DisplayName, Required and StringLength attributes have been added by
the t4 template.
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
// This code was generated from a template.
//
// Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be
lost if
//
the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
namespace NorthwindSales.ModelsAutoMetadata
{
public partial class CustomerAutoMetadata
{
[DisplayName("Customer ID")]
[Required]
[StringLength(5)]
public string CustomerID { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Company Name")]
[Required]
[StringLength(40)]
public string CompanyName { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Contact Name")]
[StringLength(30)]
public string ContactName { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Contact Title")]
[StringLength(30)]
public string ContactTitle { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Address")]
[StringLength(60)]
public string Address { get; set; }
[DisplayName("City")]
[StringLength(15)]
public string City { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Region")]
[StringLength(15)]
public string Region { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Postal Code")]
[StringLength(10)]
public string PostalCode { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Country")]
[StringLength(15)]
public string Country { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Phone")]
[StringLength(24)]
public string Phone { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Fax")]
[StringLength(24)]
public string Fax { get; set; }
}
}
The gen’d class can be used from your project by creating a partial class with
the entity name and setting
the MetadataType attribute.namespace MyProject.Models{ [MetadataType(typeof(CustomerAutoMetadata))] public partial class Customer { }}
You can also copy
the code
in the metadata class generated and create your own ViewModel class.
Note that
the template is super basic and does not take into account complex properties. I have tested it with
the Northwind database. This is a work
in progress. Feel free to modify
the template to suite your requirements.
Standard disclaimer follows:
Use At Your Own Risk, Works on my machine running VS 2010 RTM/ASP.NET MVC 2
AutoMetaData.zip
Mr. Incredible: Of course I have a secret identity. I don't know a single superhero who doesn't. Who wants
the pressure of being super all
the time?
