Adapdev Technologies Blog

Microsoft Announces Popfly Beta and Mashup and Win contest

Some more great news from Microsoft.  Popfly is now in beta mode and can be downloaded for free.  They've also announced a Mashup contest where you can win a Zune or XBox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition.

 

What is Popfly?

"Well, it is one of the coolest way you will ever see to build mashups, gadgets and web pages.  It uses Silverlight 1.0 to create a real slick UI that allows you to use drag-and-drop tools to build some cool things.  It even includes support for Vista Sidebar and Live Gadgets. Of course, you can host your killer creations in your own web pages as well using nothing more than an iFrame.  Like to use Visual Studio, well, there is VS support for editing Popfly pages - any page, any markup.  Popfly also includes a gallery so you can find and look at what other folks are doing with Popfly. "

Pretty cool stuff.  Link: Microsoft Announces Popfly Beta and Mashup and Win contest.

.NET's New Gem: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, IronRuby and the DLR

I meant to post this a while ago.  This is a presentation that I did for the Wisconsin .NET User's Group in Sept, focusing on Microsoft's implementation of Ruby (IronRuby).  The session went through the features of Ruby, Ruby on Rails, the DLR architecture, IronRuby, and several different tools to get you up and running.

One of my main thrusts of the presentation is that I believe Ruby is going to be a truly cross-platform and cross-runtime language in the near future.  Ruby itself already runs on almost every OS to include Windows, Linux and Mac and via Ruby on Rails can work with almost any database out there (MySql, Postgres, Firebird, Oracle, DB2, Sql Server, Sybase, etc).  JRuby is providing a Ruby-runtime that integrates with the Java framework, similar to what IronRuby is doing for Ruby and .NET.  Shortly you'll be able to develop a Ruby application and deploy it on any OS...and on any major run-time, be it by itself, on a Java stack or on a .NET stack.  On top of that, you're already seeing significant support from the industry at large, to include ThoughtWorks (one of the first commercial JRuby implementations via Mingle), Borland (3rdRail Ruby IDE), JetBrains (Ruby IDE), Microsoft (IronRuby and the DLR), several Google Summer of Code projects, and industry icons such as Martin Fowler and Pragmatic Dave.  Pretty powerful...in my humble view, Ruby has reached the tipping point.

DirectSupply hosted the meeting.  It was an awesome facility and perfect for our audience (~150 in attendance).

One cool new development since my presentation is that Microsoft has decided to host IronRuby on RubyForge...making a truly open-source implementation.  That's great news!

Download IronRuby.ppt

Adapdev.NET v2.0.3 Released

A minor release is out for Adapdev.NET, in support of the new Codus 1.4 release.  Changes are primarily around the Adapdev.Data.Schema namespace to include adding support for native Oracle drivers, MySql foreign key retrieval, Sql Server Express 2005, and some small bug fixes.

Download is here.

Elementary v0.8.5 Released

This is a small update to address several minor bugs, the most important one being around sql generation for composite keys.

Latest binaries are here.

Codus v1.4 Released

I'm pleased to announce the final release of Codus 1.4!

If you aren't familiar with Codus, it's a comprehensive code generation tool for object-relational  mapping. It takes an existing database and automatically generates all of the code for updating, deleting, inserting and selecting records. In addition, it creates web services for distributed  programming, strongly-typed collections, and a full set of unit tests.

What's New
This new release brings tons of new features, to include:

• Upgraded to .NET 2.0 and Generics
• Generation for VS2005
• Upgraded to NAnt 0.8.5 final
• Upgraded to NUnit 2.2.9
• Upgraded to NHibernate 1.0.4.0
• Upgraded to Adapdev.NET 2.0
• Added support for 1-1 and n-n mappings
• Added a relationship editor
• Added support for .config based connection strings (no longer hard-coded)
• Improved saving of schema modifications
• Improved MySql schema coverage
• Added support for MySql foreign key retrieval
• Added support for Sql Server 2005 OLEDB connections
• Added support for Sql Server 2005 Express
• Added support for native Oracle drivers (ODAC)
• Added [DataObject] support to allow for ASP.NET and WinForms Object Binding

Thank Yous
This is an exciting new release that's been a long time coming.  Many thanks to everyone that helped make it possible through extensive beta testing and input.  In particular I'd like to thank Bhaskar Sharma of HCL Technologies for his code donations around VS2005 generation and n-n mappings.  He also had several other improvements that hopefully will make it into a later release, to include support for optimistic locking and better code retention.  Other kudos go to the following community members for their bug reports and feedback:

• bhs
• eliassal
• leo
• davidmohara
• Andrea
• Doomer D. Great
• mcalder
• liewkh

Codus Has Gone Commercial!
Codus is now being released as a commercial product.  The support demands have grown substantially over the past year - Codus now averages almost 8,000 downloads per month - so a commercial model is the best option for continuing to grow and improve Codus and meet the increasing support demands.  It will also open the doors for the completion of several other super secret products that are currently being worked on.

So, if you've used Codus in the past, I'd encourage you to purchase the latest version - details are here.  All of the previous versions are still free and available for download.  The commercial version is available in a Single Developer and Site License option.  Purchase includes full source code, all minor updates, and priority support.  In the near future you'll also get access to a member portal with nightly builds and access to the source code repository.

What's Next?
Two quick releases are planned over the next few months to support generation of Castle ActiveRecord mappings and our emerging Elementary framework.  Those will comprise 1.5 and 1.6 respectively (and we may even sneak a few extras in!).  After that, the focus is on version 2.0 which will be a ground up rewrite.  Focus for 2.0 is:

• Better UI and usability
• Support for custom templates and plugins
• Improved update model
• Improved test automation to shorten development and deployment cycles (current UI requires extensive manual testing)

Current direction is WPF for the interface and ClickOnce for deployment - but it's up for debate and we're definitely open to suggestions.  Something else that's being floated is a model designer...Beyond that, we're looking at generation of ASP.NET websites and WinUI apps for database administration, along with support for several other ORM frameworks.  Current roadmap is here.  Lot's of opportunities!

Thanks again to everyone that helped get this out the door!

Slides and Videos for Community Launch of .NET 3.0 and Vista

Attached are the slides and videos from the Wisconsin .NET User's Group launch of .NET 3.0 and Vista.

Download Net30Launch.zip

Also, here are links to the 2 videos I showed:

German Coastguard
Interview in Northern Iraq

Codus v1.4.0b 031507 Released

A new beta has been released following on the heals of 031307.  Most important in this release is a bug fix for an issue that popped up in 031307.  Codus wasn't copying the Oracle.DataAccess.dll to the generated output folder, so depending on your environment, if you try running the compiled code you'll get an error stating that it can't find the Oracle.DataAccess.dll. (Thanks to Darren Sellner for the screen shot and bug report)

To solve this, simply copy the Oracle.DataAccess.dll from your Codus install folder to the generated output folder and you should be good to go.  Or, you can download the new beta. :)

There are also two major additions in this beta, making it feature complete:

• Added support for MySql foreign keys
• Added support for Sql Server 2005 Express

Throw on top of that a few minor bug fixes, and it's pretty close to gold!  I'll be addressing bugs over the next 1-2 weeks, with the goal of a final release at the end of the month.

Latest Beta (under Current Development Release):
http://www.adapdev.com/codus/downloads.aspx

Elementary v0.8.4 Released

The latest release of Elementary, an advanced ORM framework, is available.  Elementary is currently in the early stages, but is being used in several commercial environments with great success.  All feedback so far has been very positive and the framework is quite stable, so a 1.0 release isn't very far off.

This release addresses several minor bugs.  The three major bugs that were fixed:

• When GetCollectionWithChildren is called, and only 1 parent record exists, an improper query is generated.  This now works correctly.
• Mappings were wrapped in a try catch block.  This means invalid casts did not bubble up.  All mapping errors now bubble up w/ a custom exception that provides detailed information
• Ordering / Sorting was provided but not fully implemented.  It should now work for most scenarios.

The download is available here:
http://www.adapdev.com/elementary/

If you're using Elementary, shoot me an email and let me know what you think and what you'd like to see added!

Codus v1.4.0 Beta 031307 Released

The latest 1.4 beta build of Codus is now available.  This build addresses the following:

• SaveDS method should now work properly for MySQL
• Improved support for Null values
• Support for [DataObject] bindings
• Improved support for schema persistence
• Improved support for Oracle data types via OLEDB
• Support for up to 500 columns in a table

What's new in 1.4?

• Upgraded to .NET 2.0 and Generics
• Generation for VS2005
• Upgraded to NAnt 0.8.5 final
• Upgraded to NUnit 2.2.9
• Upgraded to NHibernate 1.0.3.0
• Upgraded to Adapdev.NET 2.0
• Added support for 1-1 and n-n mappings
• Added relationship editor
• Added support for .config based connection strings (no longer hard-coded)
• Improved saving of schema modifications
• Improved MySql coverage
• Added support for Sql Server 2005 OLEDB
• Added support for native Oracle drivers

What's left:

• Automatic retrieval of MySql foreign keys

IMPORTANT:
The naming for the Sql Server database connection options have changed.  When you click on a saved database connection that's using Sql Server, you'll get an error saying the key can't be found.  That's because it's looking for "Sql Server" and there are now two options "Sql Server 2000" and "Sql Server 2005".  Simply select the new Sql Server option that you want to use and you're good to go.

Latest download is available here (under Current Development Release):
http://www.adapdev.com/codus/downloads.aspx

I'm currently on track for releasing the final 1.4 version by the end of this month.  Please try out the beta and provide feedback!  Thanks to everyone that identified the items above and provided suggestions so far.

Slides for Fox Valley .NET User's Group: Rapid Web Development in .NET

Here are the slides from last week's presentation to the Wisconsin Fox Valley .NET User's Group.  The session covered SubSonic and MonoRail, with a brief mention of the Patterns and Practices Web Client Software Factory.

Download 022107.ppt