RAD tool for .net

I need some suggestions on how to automate all the layers of my application (GUI,BLL and DAL), specially GUI, I would want to make a tool that could automate the creation of my forms based on some conditions that will be specified, I have already made a simple one but it lacks power, for instance I cannot specify if which container should a control be in, I don't know but maybe a drag and drop feature would be cool. I just want to automate as much as possible all the parts of the application with minor modification if there is a need to.

If you can suggest any similar that does this is welcome also.

TIA

What about creating some user controls? Or maybe creating a base form and Inheriting your other forms off of it?

What version of visual studio are you using. Personally inherited forms is a great way of accomplishing this. In VS professional you can actually create inherited templates.

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Originally Posted by dee-u

I need some suggestions on how to automate all the layers of my application (GUI,BLL and DAL), specially GUI, I would want to make a tool that could automate the creation of my forms based on some conditions that will be specified, I have already made a simple one but it lacks power, for instance I cannot specify if which container should a control be in, I don't know but maybe a drag and drop feature would be cool. I just want to automate as much as possible all the parts of the application with minor modification if there is a need to.

If you can suggest any similar that does this is welcome also.

TIA

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Just be careful in automating everything. It could become quite a chore instead of helping you make everything fast.

Define the parts of the application which you think is repetitive and user controls would be the best way to do it.

You see, there is this principle called KISS and it has served a lot of people well. There are so many things to consider; complexity, maintainability, readability... to name a few.

Good luck with the endeavor. :wave:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Or maybe creating a base form and Inheriting your other forms off of it?

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That's one of my idea and in that regard can we actually inherit a base form that has a toolbar and statusbar? I have changed their modifiers to public, etc... but I can not change or modify them in the child forms, this are just the intrinsic toolbar and status bar of .net...

I wish to make a tool so that I can actually generate a CRUD form as fast as possible, within minutes or seconds for an entire database, others have done it and I wish to make one also to gain a notch in the competitive programming jobs and just to make my life easier.

Design the base form with the controls that willbe common to all forms. Any controls you want to add are fine on the base form.

If you declare the toolbars events as Protected/Public Overrideable (I think is the correct designation) then you can override the event(s) in your created forms as needed.

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Design the base form with the controls that willbe common to all forms. Any controls you want to add are fine on the base form.

If you declare the toolbars events as Protected/Public Overrideable (I think is the correct designation) then you can override the event(s) in your created forms as needed.

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Hmmm.... I am not sure if I already tested that but I think I just copied a toolbar and statusbar to the baseform without specifying an event, some controls like the one from Janus can be modified by the child form but I have not succeeded with the intrinsic toolbar and statusbar. I wish to be able to modify them in the toolbar where I can add more buttons to the toolbar if there is a need. Am I missing something?

So what you are saying is that you need to customise the toolbar on the derived forms? If so then not sure about adding/removing buttons but to handle the event(s) differently in each derived form you just need to specify the overrideable.

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

So what you are saying is that you need to customise the toolbar on the derived forms? If so then not sure about adding/removing buttons but to handle the event(s) differently in each derived form you just need to specify the overrideable.

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Yes, I wish to be able to do that. Changing the Modifiers property should do that but I am unsuccessful... :-(

How about like this?

Code:

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Public Class Form1
    'Base Form
    Protected Overridable Sub ToolStripButton1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ToolStripButton1.Click
        MessageBox.Show("Base Form")
    End Sub
End Class

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Code:

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Public Class Form2
    Protected Overrides Sub ToolStripButton1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        MessageBox.Show("Form2 Derived Form")
    End Sub
End Class

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