CodeSmith Batch Utility

Hi all,


Here's my contribution to the CodeSmith world: The CodeSmith Batch Utility.

This utility is comprised of a library and console executable for running xml batch files which in turn run the CodeSmith console engine with the appropriate parameters. The batch files provide a more succinct way of expressing multiple parameters to the CodeSmithConsole program.

Basic features:


- A batch file can be defined containing any number of tasks, each comprising templates and their parameters.
- Multiple templates can be specified for a task, resulting in multiple files being generated from the task's parameters.
- A default property set can be specfiied, reducing the amount of duplicated properties.
- Custom xml can be defined, which can be passed into a template (via a temp file) or transformed with XSLT into the standard parameter format.

Enjoy,

Ben Mackie

Post Edited (pneutam) : 9/7/2005 1:50:42 AM GMT

Updated to 1.0.1

Brilliant Idea ;>

I am already working on a template to generate the appropriate XML to batch my groups of templates

Cheers
Taliesin

Thanks Taliesin :)

If you come up with some useful stylesheets it'd be great to see them.

Cheers,
Ben

Updated to 1.0.2

Changes:
Further improved error handling and path resolution.
Uses CodeSmith samples in sample batch files.
Added schema for batch file validation.
Finished basic help in readme (describes basic xml structure and path tokens).

Cheers,
Ben

I am curious, is it possible to supply a database table as a property. I am not sure how to do call templates that use databases using Batch utility.

Please can you supply an example. This ability would allow you to do some really kewl stuff. I want to generate an xml file that will generate CLSA.net objects from a database. CLSA templates have table properties though :(

Cheers
Tali

The easiest way to see what your property set XML should look like for any property, is to go into the CodeSmith GUI, set all the properties to what you want them to be, expand the right hand output panel, and click the copy property set xml toolbar button at the top.

Thanks,
Eric J. Smith

Thanks to Eric I know how to get the value for a database connection. But I can not seem to get the Batch Utility to accept the following code. I even tried the /nv switch but it still seemed to bomb out. Do I need to use a custom XLST file or something to make it accept database connection strings (perhaps you should be allowed to pass any XML data along)


<propertySet>
<property name="ClassNamespace"></property>
<property name="CollectionName">RootCollection</property>
<property name="ItemName">RootClass</property>
<property name="RootTable">
<connectionString>Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\Tali\BusinessObject\BusinessObject.mdb;</connectionString>
<providerType>SchemaExplorer.ADOXSchemaProvider,SchemaExplorer.ADOXSchemaProvider</providerType>
<tableName>Business</tableName>
</property>
<property name="MemberPrefix">m</property>
<property name="Accessibility">Public</property>
<property name="Serializable">True</property>
<property name="MustBeInherited">False</property>
</propertySet>


Cheers
Taliesin

Currently only property elements are passed as parameters to the batch engine. I'm not using schema based generation at this stage, and didn't know it used different element names. I could just pass through anything, but I would prefer to keep using a schema. Perhaps I'll just pass through everything when /nv is passed. Eric, is there a schema of some kind (or a list of valid element names) that I could reference?

Regards,
Ben

Ben,

Updated to 1.0.3

Changes:
Support custom properties (see “defaultPropertySet element” section in readme for difference in behaviour).

Cheers,
Ben

Updated to 1.0.4

Changes:
Added support for defining Xml in a batch file and passing it to a template (it is written to the temp folder and its path is passed to the template).
Added support for using CodeSmith.Engine.dll directly for much better performance. This can be turned on with the /e option.
Made temporary file names match the template/task numbers shown on the console.

Cheers,
Ben

Updated to 1.0.5

- Now checks if an output file is read-only. If it is, it outputs to <file>.tmp instead, compares with the output file, and only raises an error if it is different. You can leave files you know haven't changed in source control! The /nr option suppresses this behaviour.
- The /e option now writes out the same output (banner etc.) as when CodeSmithConsole is used.
- Added excludeTemplates attribute on propertySet element to prevent certain property sets from being passed to certain templates (I use it to prevent multiple IList generations).

Cheers,
Ben

Post Edited (pneutam) : 9/11/2003 8:54:48 AM GMT

Ben,

Looks great!! Keep up the good work!

Eric J. Smith

Ben,

FYI: You may want to take a look at the latest builds (available to any registered forum user in the Beta Builds forum) so that you can be ready for the command line interface changes. I think the new CodeSmithConsole interface is much cleaner and should be stable for a long time.

Thanks,
Eric J. Smith