CodeSmith Community

CodeSmith Generator 6.5 Release Candidate

ejsmith — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:41:00 GMT

Work on CodeSmith Generator 6.5 is almost complete. Today, we are releasing the CodeSmith Generator 6.5 RC . This release has MANY improvements and bug fixes from the beta version and we are hoping to get your feedback before final release. For a list of all the changes in this version, check out the release notes . Download CodeSmith Generator 6.5 RC...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.5 Release Candidate

Blake Niemyjski — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

New Features

Added support for Visual Studio 11.
Improved Intellisense support for VB and lambda expressions.
Updated all Schema Explorer and Generator icons.
Added support for showing trace messages to the output window when generating.
Added support for in memory editor documents.
Added SaveAs support to rename template editor documents.
Added JumpList support to the Template Editor.
Added a splash screen to the stand alone template editor.
Added Intellisense support for CSharp and Visual Basic code behind files.
Added Cut, Copy and Paste context menu items across the board.
Updated the CSLA, PLINQO for NHibernate and PLINQO for Entity Framework to the latest nightly builds.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where text inside of the Visual Studio Template Editor may be displayed incorrectly.
Fixed a bug where the CodeSmith Generator assemblies were not showing up in the Visual Studio Add New References dialog.
Fixed a bug where the CodeSmith Generator XSD schema's were not being registered properly with Visual Studio.
Fixed a bug where a UnauthorizedAccessException could occur while trying to open or save a file inside of the Template Editor.
Fixed a bug where the template editor was not checking to see if a file had permissions to edit a file.
Fixed a bug where an exception could occur while trying to see if the extracted samples were up to date.
Fixed a bug where template comments were generating a new line.
Fixed a bug where a FormatException could occur while updating the Output Window.
Fixed a threading bug where an exception could be thrown while retrieving cached property values.
Fixed a bug where ValidationErrors were being reported as a warning in the Error Window.
Fixed a bug where project references and generated items wouldn't be added to a solution if there was an error during generation.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException would be thrown while pressing generate on a non generated code document.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException would occur when text was selected during a go to definition operation.
Fixed a bug that could crash the application when closing a CodeSmith Generator Project Progress dialog while generating.
Fixed a bug where the Template Explorer create new text file menu item didn't work.
Fixed a bug where right click execute on a template in the template explorer would edit the template in the Template Editor.
Fixed a bug where a InvalidOperationException could be thrown in some cases when closing the Generator Project File Generation Progress Dialog before generation has completed.
Fixed a bug where an Exception may be thrown while trying to access the Registry for settings without ensuring the registry keys exist.
Fixed a bug with the About window displaying very large text.
Renamed RegisterInMemoryContent to RegisterContent and GetFileContent to GetContent (BREAKING CHANGE).

Performance Enhancements

Fixed a large number of performance related bugs dealing with initializing Template Editor documents.
Fixed a bug where a deadlock could occur while resetting or refreshing the Property Grid.

Usability Enhancements

Fixed a bug where property values may not be applied to the Property Grid.
Updated the stand alone template editor to ensure that only one instance of the editor is open at all times.
Updated the Schema Explorer tool window to show folders for Tables, Commands and Views. It also will display an icon for the following scenarios: Composite Keys, Clustered Indexes and Parameter direction.
Improved the status updates when opening and saving a templates.
Renamed Template Editor stand alone application to CodeSmith Generator Studio.
Added the ability to clear and copy the output window contents.
Updated the experience when opening a template document inside of the editor.
Changed the default editor application to be the stand alone template editor.
Fixed a bug where the Template Explorer Top Most Window mode could be enabled from within Visual Studio and the Template Editor.
Changed the save and close behavior of generated documents inside of the template editor.
Updated the Go To Line dialog to have a default enter experience.
Large amount of updates to the Error Window for an better editing experience.
Fixed a bug where ManageOutputs could be hidden behind the Template Editor when double clicking on a file in Template Explorer.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException would occur when trying to remove a template shortcut in Template Explorer.
Fixed a bug where web documents would be loaded into the template editor instead of launching in a browser.
Fixed a bug where the Find tool window wasn't working in some scenarios.
Fixed a bug where the stand alone editor user interface may not be displayed correctly after initial launch.

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CodeSmith Generator 6.0.4

Blake Niemyjski — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:13:02 GMT

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that could cause a XamlParseException during start up.

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Announcing Visual Studio 11 Integration

Blake Niemyjski — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:26:00 GMT

We are excited to announce support for the Visual Studio 11 (VS11) Beta today. This will be available in the next beta of CodeSmith Generator 6.5 , which is coming soon. We have done a lot of work in structuring CodeSmith Generator 6.x to allow us to enable features at a faster pace, while ensuring the features we do add are available across the board. Please note that we will not be theming our controls for VS11 until a VS11 release candidate is available....(read more)

CodeSmith Generator Setup Documentation

Cody Smith — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:00:00 GMT

We want setting up CodeSmith Generator to be as easy as 1-2-3! So, we have been working on some new documentation covering how to setup CodeSmith Generator for over a week now, and we are finally ready to announce it! Some things we will go over in the new documentation will be how to install, change, and uninstall CodeSmith Generator . You can download the documentation in a .PDF format here , there is a link on the right hand column to download the latest version. Don't forget to check out...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.5 Beta 1

Blake Niemyjski — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:04:00 GMT

New Features

Added a standalone Template Editor application.
Added theme support to the standalone editor.
Added ability to import editor styles from VS in the standalone editor.
Added smart indent feature to the template editor.
Added initial LINQ completion support.
Added current line highlighting feature.
Added Print support.
Added colored tabs to identify generated content. (Not implemented in VS yet)
Added ability to close all generated documents. (Not implemented in VS yet)
Added ability to re-generate while viewing the previously generated document. (Not implemented in VS yet)
Added ability to change properties and re-generate without switching back to the template. (Not implemented in VS yet)

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where assemblies were not being resolved correctly when Visual Studio 11 was installed.
Fixed a bug where Visual Studio 2010 integration would become corrupt when Visual Studio 11 or .NET 4.5 was installed.
Fixed a bug where an exception may be thrown while retrieving Visual Studio configuration settings.
Fixed a bug where show license dialog was shown when you tried to uninstall.
Fixed a bug in the SqlSchemaProvider where CS_Description ExtendedProperty values would be truncated. The MS_Description ExtendedProperty value now takes precedence.

Performance Enhancements

Many more minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

Usability Enhancements

Improved GoTo Definition.
Fixed a bug where a line break would be rendered after a script block.

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Announcing CodeSmith Generator 6.5 Beta

ejsmith — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:29:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the CodeSmith Generator 6.5 Beta today. We continue to listen to the feedback from our users and have implemented several of the top requested features in this release. The primary feature for this release is the new standalone template editor. We did a lot of refactoring to make sure that our Visual Studio and our standalone editors provide an identical experience and the end result is that we are sharing over 95% of the code between the two. This means that, going forward...(read more)

How-to: Generating CSLA Business Objects from Views and Stored Procedures

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:05:00 GMT

We have been working on a major update to the Generator CSLA Templates to support Views and Stored Procedures as well as CSLA 4.3. The following document will show you how you can take advantage of generating against stored procedures and views by updating your existing templates. Please note that the latest CSLA templates require Generator 6.0.3!

Updating the Entities template output

The quickest way to add support for generating against a view or stored procedure is to update the entities template output by using Manage Outputs. Once the Entities template output is open, check the IncludeFunctions and IncludeViews properties.

We decided against breaking backwards compatibility with the Entities output, this saves you from having to reconfigure all of your outputs in the new release. To select what Business Object Type a specific view or stored procedure should be generated as, you will need to add an Extended Property to the view or stored procedure.

Here is a list of the valid Extended Property names that can be added to a view or stored procedure.

Extended Property Name	Extended Property Value	Business Object Type
DynamicRoot		Dynamic Root
EditableChild		Editable Child
EditableRoot		Editable Root
ReadOnlyChild		Read Only Child
ReadOnlyRoot		Read Only Root
SwitchableObject		Switchable Object
DynamicRootList		Dynamic Root List
EditableRootList		Editable Root List
DynamicListBase		Dynamic List Base
EditableChildList		Editable Child List
ReadOnlyList		Read Only List
ReadOnlyChildList		Read Only Child List
NameValueList		Name Value List

After you have configured this extended property, all you need to do is regenerate!

Adding a custom output

One can also generate against a view or stored procedure by adding a new template output to a CodeSmith Generator Project File. Once you select "Add Output" browse for one of the 14 business object master templates located inside of the CSharp\ BusinessLayer \ or VisualBasic\BusinessLayer\ folders. Next, populate one of the SourceCommand, SourceTable or SourceView properties to generate a business object against this datasource.

Finally, click save and regenerate!

CodeSmith Generator 6.0.3

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:21:00 GMT

New Features

Added PropertiesLoaded and PropertiesSaved events to CodeTemplate. This allows for the ability to be notified when all template properties have been saved or loaded.
Added the ability to exclude specific properties from being copied to a sub template.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where the Environment.CurrentDirectory wasn't being set to the current template directory during Generation which broke backwards compatibility in some templates.
Fixed a bug where the JsonPropertySerializer wasn't loading Interfaced property values.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException could occur while retrieving Visual Studio settings.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException could occur when accessing a class that deriving from ColumnSchema via interfaces.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException would occur while rendering a template if you called the CopyPropertiesTo(true) overload.
Fixed a bug where the MSBuild integration could throw a NullReferenceException.

Usability Enhancements

Added CopyTo Overload for backwards compatibility.
Solved an error that could occur while configuring Generate On Build when using TFS Source Control.
Updated the Template Editor look and feel to feel more like the Visual Studio Editor.
Added an detailed error message when the InsertClassMergeStrategy is unable to insert content.
The Privacy Policy link no longer throws an exception during the registration process.

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CodeSmith Generator Studio in CodeSmith Generator 6.0

ejsmith — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:03:00 GMT

Update: CodeSmith Generator 6.5 features a standalone editor. You can access it through the start menu shortcut. We have heard a lot of feedback that you guys love the new integrated editor inside of Visual Studio, but we have also heard from a lot of people that they want the stand alone editor as well. So we just wanted to let you guys know that we have begun working on the new stand alone template editor. Luckily with the way that we have designed the integrated editor, it shouldn’t be a...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.0-Intellisense Improvements

Blake Niemyjski — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:56:52 GMT

We recently released CodeSmith Generator 6.0.2 , which featured many usability and performance improvements to the Property Window and Editor Intellisense . We focused on bug reports as well as usability issues that we came across in the Template Editor since the Generator 6.0 release. As stated in a previous blog post it was pretty difficult for us to improve the Template Editor Intellisense in previous versions of Generator. As such, we took great steps to ensure that updates in the current version...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.0-Intellisense Improvements

Blake Niemyjski — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:27:00 GMT

We recently released CodeSmith Generator 6.0.2, which featured many usability and performance improvements to the Property Window and Editor Intellisense. We focused on bug reports as well as usability issues that we came across in the Template Editor since the Generator 6.0 release. As stated in a previous blog post it was pretty difficult for us to improve the Template Editor Intellisense in previous versions of Generator. As such, we took great steps to ensure that updates in the current version wouldn't be such a burden.

Since releasing Generator 6, we've added the following new features: Intellisense support for Anonymous Types and improved parameter information. Also we have taken huge strides in reducing the memory usage that our Intellisense Engine uses while reducing assembly locking issues.

Please note that you can always see an up-to-date version of the text below here.

Anonymous Types

In previous versions of CodeSmith Generator there was no support for anonymous types or extension methods. The sample below will show off an example of Anonymous Type support.

In this screenshot, we have implicitly declared a variable anonymousType as an anonymous type. The anonymous type's properties are initialized using a variable (numbers) as well as a string constant ("Blake"). Hovering over the anonymousType variable will display quick info, which reveals anonymousType as an anonymous type.

We can bring up the statement completion list by typing period after our variable. This will display a list that contains all of the members of the variable anonymousType. The two properties we declared (Numbers and Name) in the anonymous types creation expression appear in the list. You can see it has correctly assigned property names and their types.

Parameter Info

Automated parameter info tips show whenever typing an invocation (E.G., a method call). The tips show detailed information about the invoked member along with details about the current argument being typed. In the case where the invoked member has multiple overloads, arrows show on the popup and allow toggling between all the available overloads.

As with quick info, parameter info can handle rich-formatted content display using HTML-like markup tags. Colors and font weights or styles can be used to bring attention to portions of the info tip. The screenshot above shows the font weights bringing attention out to the current parameter seed.

Multiple signature options can be displayed in a single parameter info tip. In those scenarios, arrows automatically appear that can be clicked. Alternatively the end user can use the up/down arrow keys to switch between options.

CodeSmith Generator 6.0.2

Blake Niemyjski — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

New Features

Added Intellisense Support for Anonymous Types.
Added additional information to the Intellisense Parameter Information.
Added a Help menu to the Generator Menu inside of Visual Studio.
Updated all of the Generator Template Frameworks to the latest version.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where a StackOverflowException would occur with any template that was recursively called.
All newly created Generator Files (E.G., Templates, Generator Project Files...) and Generated documents are saved as UTF unless specified in the CodeTemplate Directives Encoding attribute.
Fixed a bug where a StackOverflowException could occur when retrieving Intellisense for complex types.
Fixed a bug where a NullReferenceException could occur if a sub template had more than 25 errors.
Fixed a bug where CodeTemplate.GetProperties(bool) could return invalid results.
Fixed a bug where the TableSchema's DataObjects property wasn't being set correctly.
Fixed a bug where the CommandResultSchema.DataObjects property wasn't being populated.
Fixed a bug where ActiveSnippets could be saved in an invalid state.
Fixed a bug where ActiveSnippets were not being upgraded properly.
Fixed a bug where the Data Source Manager could throw an exception when a provider couldn't be resolved.
Fixed a bug where a FileNotFound exception could occur if a previously open template document no longer existed when launching Visual Studio.
Fixed a bug where the CodeTemplate.RenderToFile(OutputFile, bool) overload was not calling OnPostRender.
Fixed a bug where SDK Licenses would not be picked up in certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug where Configuration may not be initialized properly when using SDK Integration.
Fixed a bug where the TemplateContext might not be available when loading properties from a CSP.
Fixed a bug where Validation Errors could be removed prematurely from the Error Window.
Fixed a bug that caused SchemaExplorer Collections to be incorrectly serialized.
Fixed a bug where an Exception could be thrown after closing an editor document.
Fixed a bug where template samples might not be extracted in some scenarios.
Breaking Change: The Merge Strategies API Merge() method signature has been updated to include a MergeContext which provides additional contextual information.

Performance Enhancements

Many performance and memory improvements pertaining to the Template Editor.
Fixed a performance bug in the SqlSchemaProvider where parsing Extended Property values could take an excessive amount of time due to regex backtracking.
Fixed a bug that could cause the editor to not use valid cached compile results.

Usability Enhancements

Added a user friendly message when generating against template resources that are marked as blocked. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179545 for more information.
Fixed a bug where the editor didn't respect your tab preferences.
Restored the non-generic DataObjectBaseCollection for backwards compatibility.
Fixed a bug that could prevent samples from being extracted to the location you choose while installing Generator.
Fixed a bug where an Exception could be thrown while trying to parse a template that uses an include file multiple times.
Fixed a few PropertyGrid issues dealing with focusing and custom UITypeEditors.
Fixed a bug where one could not uncomment template comments when the selection had any trailing or leading spaces.
Fixed a bug where sub template errors could be show error squiggles in the master template.
Fixed a bug where a Data Source might throw an exception while loading and not be shown in the Data Source Manager.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when saving a template while it is being parsed.
Updated all of the Visual Studio Item templates descriptions and names.
Fixed a bug where the Intellisence Auto Completion windows would not show up in some scenarios.

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New and Improved Generator Overview Video

Autumn Wilkins — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:43:00 GMT

Since launching Generator 6, we have been working on improving our documentation and videos. And, we recently just finished updating our 'Overview Video'. In the video you will see the power of our PLINQO framework which extends Microsoft's Linq to SQL. We also highlight a template that uses a table from the database so you can see how Generator is built right into Visual Studio 2010 . This provides you with the editing features you know and love, like IntelliSense and Quick Info. You...(read more)

Version Control Improvements in CodeSmith Generator 6.0

ejsmith — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:43:22 GMT

In CodeSmith Generator 6.0 , we made some changes that will help users who are using exclusive checkout version control systems like TFS, Vault and SourceSafe. In the past, if you generated a bunch of files using CodeSmith Generator, it would overwrite the file contents and change the modified date on files even if the generated content was exactly the same as the existing content. This would cause the version control system to checkout every single file and treat them as if they were...(read more)

Happy Holidays from CodeSmith Tools!

Autumn Wilkins — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:20:00 GMT

The Holidays are such a festive time and CodeSmith wants to share the cheer with everyone! What better way to do this than to treat yourself to CodeSmith Generator 6.0!

December 15th through January 1st you can receive 25% off your whole order over $100. All you have to do is enter in the discount code CHEER before checking out at our online store and the discount will be applied to your whole order. Now that is what the Holidays are all about!

Plus, this coupon can also be used to upgrade your previous licenses to CodeSmith Genertor 6.

Happy Holidays,

The CodeSmith Team

CodeSmith Generator 6.0.1

Blake Niemyjski — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:43:10 GMT

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where an exception could occur while loading saved CodeSmith Generator Project File Settings.
Fixed a bug where the Editors' font colors were unreadable.
Fixed a bug where an exception could be thrown when trying to update the editors FontFamily.
Fixed a bug where an exception could be thrown while writing to the Visual Studio Activity Log.
Fixed a threading bug where an InvalidOperationException could occur when using multiple document windows.
Fixed a bug where an COMException could occur when switching document windows.

Performance Enhancements

Fixed a locking issue that could occur if you closed an editor document while it was being parsed.

Usability Enhancements

Improved the error message that is shown when templates are using assemblies that are compiled against old versions of CodeSmith Generator.
Fixed a bug where the ColumnSchemaCollection UI Picker didn't allow a user to select multiple items.
Fixed a bug where Template Explorer runtime exception messages would not be displayed.
Fixed a bug where an unhandled exception would occur when loading a CodeSmith Generator Project File that was saved in unicode format.
Updated the CodeSmith Generator Documentation start menu link location.

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CodeSmith Generator 6.0 Released!

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:18:00 GMT

We are very excited to announce the release of CodeSmith Generator 6.0 ! This release will be especially interesting to anyone who is actively editing their templates or creating new templates because the editing experience has been greatly improved . Here is a list of the major new features in this release: Brand new template editor integrated right into Visual Studio 2010! Vastly improved IntelliSense with support for directives, extension methods, lambdas, generics, and more! Improved Syntax Highlighting...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.0

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:57:00 GMT

New Features

Brand new template editor integrated right into Visual Studio 2010!
Vastly improved IntelliSense with even more improvements to come before the final release. Support for directives, extension methods, lambdas, generics, and more!
Brand new parsing engine that should provide much better template errors as well as a great foundation to build on for the future.
.NET 4.0 support in templates.
SchemaExplorer collections have been updated to use generic collections that give a bunch of new features like LINQ support. *Breaking change that requires only a recompile of existing templates.
PropertyGrid has been updated to allow property filtering, collection editing, default instance creation, auto expanding of objects and much more.
New default property serializer that will enable serialization of just about any object and not require custom property serializers to be written. You can now just create an object in the template and use it as a property type.
Brand new Template Explorer that provides complete shell context menus and other features. If you are using something like Tortoise for version control, you will now have access to those features right inside of Template Explorer.
64bit assembly support.
Most of the engine is multi-threaded and should make better use of multiple core machines.
Updated the ISeriesSchemaProvider to include filters to allow wild cards % and _ in the filters.
Added ISeriesSchemaProvider configuration setting to control the CommandTimeout on large schema's.
Added F12 keyboard shortcut for Go To Definition.
Added the ability to access SchemaExplorer from within Visual Studio.
Added GetCustomValidationErrors() method to CodeTemplate which allows a developer to add custom Template Validation Rules during the validation process. This change introduced a breaking change to CodeTemplate's Validate method as it is no longer marked as virtual (Breaking Change). One should now update their existing code to use GetCustomValidationErrors().
The Template Editor no longer locks assembly references.
Added Go to Definition support (beta).
Added Code Navigation support.
Added View Source context menu item to view a templates code behind file.
Added ExtendedPropertyNames class which gives quick access to all defined ExtendedProperty Names.
Added the ability to create new files and folders to Template Explorer and Windows Explorer.
New property grid editors for common data types.
Added a new TemplateContext.Current that allows getting access to the currently executing template.
Massive SchemaExplorer refactor including interfaces for all schema objects and better designer and serializer support.
Added initial code navigation drop downs to the top of the template editor.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where an exception would occur when using the ViewColumnSchemaCollection PropertyGrid Editor.
Fixed a bug where MemberColumnSchemas Parent property was never being set.
Fixed the Code Navigation Drop Down menu's to include the selected image.
Major updates to the ActiveSnippet Configuration dialog that includes validation and much more.
Fixed a bug where a black Visual Studio theme would not be formatted properly.
Fixed a bug where the PropertyGrid was not refreshing property values that were updated dynamically.
Updated all providers to use the new utility class for ExtendedProperty Names.
Fixed a StackOverFlowException that could occur if an error occurred while showing the output window.
Update the about us dialog to include lines generated.
Fixed a bug where Visual Studio could crash at launch due to an corrupt visual style.
Fixed a bug where Template and Compiler Errors were not taking priority over Warnings when being merged.
Fixed a bug where the CompileTemplateResult would return an incorrect result when any CompileWarnings existed.
Fixed a bug where Manage Outputs would not properly save an output when a template existed on a different hard drive.
Fixed a bug where Template Explorer wasn’t properly saving or loading a CodeSmith Generator Project File.
Fixed a bug where the installer would write to an incorrect registry hive on 64bit machines.
Fixed a bug where the Name Attribute Value on a Property Directive wouldn't be valid if it had a space as the leading or ending character.
Fixed a Stack Overflow Exception that was occurring in MemberColumnSchemaCollection's IndexOf method.
Fixed template includes so that all templates should work now.
Fixed issue with collapsing code behind items in solution explorer after generating.
Improved error messages and more robust checks during template parsing.
Fixed various licensing bugs.
Fixed bugs where schema providers were not being found properly.
Added new TemplateSourceGenerator custom tool for .cst files that enables better template debugging support.
Fixed parser bug that wasn't parsing <% // some comment %> correctly.
Fixed an issue where an Exception would occur when trying to load a template marked as read-only.
Fixed a bug that caused Configuration to call LoadDefault multiple times.
Many other small improvements and bug fixes.

Performance Enhancements

Many performance and memory optimizations across CodeSmith Generator.
Updated the Template Editor to apply the default Visual Studio Fonts and Colors when opening a template.

Usability Enhancements

Fixed a bug where Visual Studio Shortcuts like Control+Tab were being ignored.
Change RenderToFile to not modify a file if the contents would be the same. Helps with exclusive checkouts.
Updated Go To Definition support to check for In Memory document and code behind changes.
Updated CodeTemplate to issue an Validation Error when GetFileName() is Invalid or an exception occurs while a template is validating.
Updated the Visual Studio Build Template button to force a recompile of the template.
Updated the start menu help shortcut location.
Added a start menu link to the online help and API documentation.
Samples are now kept up-to-date on an end users machine without overwriting any modified templates upon extraction.
Added support for refreshing cached PropertyGrid values (E.G., DatabaseSchema).
Updated the ADOXSchemaProvider to use the new Microsoft ADOX ConnectionString Designer.
Updated the OracleSchemaProvider to use the new Microsoft Oracle ConnectionString Designer.
PostgreSQLSchemaProvider's and SqlSchemaProvider's CommandSchema and ColumnSchema ExtendedProperty name for CS_IsScalarFunction now share the same name (maintained backwards compatibility).
Fixed an issue where Enumerations with defined base types could lock up the PropertyGrid.
Updated the TemplateSession to refresh the CodeTemplate's instance when clicking generate.
Fixed an issue where a file could be opened from the Template Explorer Window in a new Visual Studio Instance.
Fixed an issue where the Error Window would be out of date when switching between templates.
The Error Window is now cleared when you close a template editor.
Updated the TemplateEditorDocument to refresh the errors when a parse error occurs when the generate button is clicked.
Updated the GetHashCode() for all of SchemaExplorer's implementations.
Fixed a bug where Custom UITypeEditor’s were showing up with non-default formatting styles.
Fixed a bug where Custom UITypeEditor’s Dropdown Menus were not behaving correctly due to a focus issue.
Updated all of the CodeSmith Generator Sample Projects.
Double clicking template inside of codesmith explorer in VS will now open the file for editing.
Improved the error window behavior for templates.
Better support for old UITypeEditors.
Fixed issue with being able to copy text from the output window.

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CodeSmith Generator 6.0: Debugging

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:53:00 GMT

One of the areas that we have been testing since we released the CodeSmith Generator 6.0 Release Candidate is Debugging Support . We feel that this has always been a key feature to the product and an area we want to make sure works well and is easy to use. For those of you who are new to Debugging a Template, we have completely updated all of our Debugging Documentation ! The underlying debugging experience has changed a lot under the hood since we integrated the Editor into Visual Studio, but the...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.0–Status, Website and Future

ejsmith — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:48:35 GMT

We are on the home stretch of Generator 6.0 and things have come together really nicely. This is going to be a great release! We have been mostly working on performance, memory utilization and bug fixes, and we are doing really good on all fronts now. The feedback we have been getting is very positive and everyone seems to love the new version. We are really excited to get this release out the door, but we have some house cleaning to finish first. I have been working on making...(read more)

CodeSmith Generator 6.0–Status, Website and Future

ejsmith — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:38:42 GMT

CodeSmith Generator 6.0 Release Candidate

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:02:00 GMT

New Features

Added F12 keyboard shortcut for Go To Definition.
Added the ability to access SchemaExplorer from within Visual Studio.
Added GetCustomValidationErrors() method to CodeTemplate which allows a developer to add custom Template Validation Rules during the validation process. This change introduced a breaking change to CodeTemplate's Validate method as it is no longer marked as virtual (Breaking Change). One should now update their existing code to use GetCustomValidationErrors().

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where an exception would occur when using the ViewColumnSchemaCollection PropertyGrid Editor.
Fixed a bug where MemberColumnSchemas Parent property was never being set.
Fixed the Code Navigation Drop Down menu's to include the selected image.

Performance Enhancements

Many performance and memory optimizations across CodeSmith Generator.

Usability Enhancements

Fixed a bug where Visual Studio Shortcuts like Control+Tab were being ignored.
Updated Go To Definition support to check for In Memory document and code behind changes.
Updated CodeTemplate to issue an Validation Error when GetFileName() is Invalid or an exception occurs while a template is validating.
Updated the Visual Studio Build Template button to force a recompile of the template.
Updated the start menu help shortcut location.

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CodeSmith Generator 6.0 Release Candidate Released!

Blake Niemyjski — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:05:00 GMT

The CodeSmith team would like to start off by telling everyone thank you for all of your continued effort with testing and providing feedback for CodeSmith Generator 6.0. With this note, we would still love to hear your feedback on what you think of Generator 6.0. We have started to wind down on this release, focusing on finishing touches and ensuring the performance of Generator 6.0 is up to every ones expectations. Download CodeSmith Generator Release Candidate Release Notes...(read more)

How Does Premier Support Work?

Autumn Wilkins — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:45:00 GMT

So, what is Premier Support and how does it work? We get this question from time to time and I am here to clear up any questions you may have about it. Premier Support is a support option that can be added to any of our CodeSmith Generator licenses. With it you get the following: FREE upgrades to new major and minor releases of CodeSmith Generator. Priority access to the CodeSmith development team for your support issues. 1 Business day email response time with priority over standard users. Access...(read more)