How to write your first template?

Our template engine is the .NET compiler itself, this way the generator gives you the ultimate power to write any code as a template and generate complex code patterns based on provided templates or based on your coding skills on writing new templates using your favorite language C# or VB.

Writing your first template is an exciting and nerve racking time. You may know a lot about computers, coding, or maybe the benefits of using O2 Broadband, or a fast speed internet connection with another company. However when it comes to templates you might feel a little lost. With this step by step guide, you will hopefully be well on your way in no time at all to having a perfectly coded template.

Simply normal c# or VB code syntax will be used in your template, check below sample.

<% string myTitle = "Hello world!"; %>

<html>
<head>
      <title><% Response.Write(myTitle); %></title>
</head>
<body>
            <%=myTitle%>
</body>
</html>

The output is

<html>
<head>
      <title>Hello world!</title>
</head>
<body>
            Hello world!
</body>
</html>

All template code will be written inside <% %> the same you do with ASP.NET inline code, and you can write commands like Response.Write() and it will work.

But you will start writing the first template you will need to access the database objects. This is why we introduced this new namespace "GeneratorContext" which contains all the commands we implemented to help you and to facilitate writing your code templates and to let you access the database structure and elements.

Lets assume that you have database table (employees) and you need to generate stored procedure to insert data, below example will show how to generate generate some SQL code, first of all make sure that your connection string is valid and the connection is active.

<%
foreach(Table table in GeneratorContext.Tables)
{
%>
CREATE PROCEDURE <%=table.Name%>_Insert
(
<%
      Response.Write(GeneratorContext.WriteFields(table.Fields,"\n\t@{fn} {st}({ss})",","));
%>
)
AS
BEGIN
      -- Generated at <%=DateTime.Now.ToString()%>
      -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
      -- interfering with SELECT statements.
      SET NOCOUNT ON;
      INSERT INTO <%=table.Name%>
            (<%=GeneratorContext.WriteCommaSeperated(table.Fields)%>)
      VALUES
            (<%=GeneratorContext.WriteCommaSeperated(table.Fields,"@")%>)
End
GO
<%
      }
%>

The output is

CREATE PROCEDURE Employee_Insert
(
      @EmployeeID int(4),
      @EmployeeName nvarchar(50)
)
AS
BEGIN
      -- Generated at 9/24/2009 2:17:07
      -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
      -- interfering with SELECT statements.
      SET NOCOUNT ON;
      INSERT INTO Employee
            (EmployeeID,EmployeeName)
      VALUES
            (@EmployeeID,@EmployeeName)
End
GO