Linq to SQL code generator features
- by Anders Abel
I'm very fond of Linq to SQL and the programming model it encourages. I think that in many cases when you are in control of both the database schema and the code it is not worth the effort to have different relational and object models for the data. Working with Linq to SQL makes it simple to have type safe data access from .NET, using the partial extension methods to implement business rules.
Unfortunately I do not like the dbml designer due to the lack of a schema refresh function. So far I have used SqlMetal, but that lacks the customization options of the dbml designer. Because of that I've started working on a tool which regenerates the whole code file like SqlMetal, but has the ability to do the customizations that are available in the dbml designer (and maybe more in the future).
The customizations will be described in an xml file which only contains those parts that shouldn't have default values. This should keep the xml file size down as well as the maintenance burden of it.
To help me focus on the right features, I would like to know: What would be your favourite feature in a linq to sql code generator?
