Release Notes

Several users have reported the following error when trying to generate a project with Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

System.InvalidOperationException
The Writer is closed or in error state.

The exception has been raised by ADO.NET when trying to extract user-defined types from the database. File [My Documents]\Code OnTime\Library\CodeOnTime.ModelMap.xml defines a collection of queries that are extracting database information and storing it in the PROJECTTYPE.Metadata.xml file in the root of your project. We have changed SQL Server data discovery entry to exclude UserDefinedTypes as shown in this snippet.

<modelMap>
  <provider providerName="System.Data.SqlClient">
    <collection name="*" exclude="Users,Databases,UserDefinedTypes"/>
    <collection name="$TableSchemas"/>
    <query name="Tables">select * from information_schema.tables</query>
    <query name="Columns">select * from information_schema.columns</query>
    .......

This has eliminated the problem. The fix has been deployed and will be automatically downloaded when you start Code OnTime Generator. None of the current projects is supporting user-defined types and this does not affect any of the available features.

If you are creating a brand new project with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 then metadata discovery should work fine if you have installed the update or downloaded the code generator after the publication of this post.

If you did experience this problem then please click on open link next to the name of your project on the main page of code generator. Delete Error.PROJECTTYPE.Metadata.xml and PROJECTTYPE.Metadata.xml files and generate the project again. If you project type is Aquarium Express then the metadata file is DataAquarium.Metadata.xml.

Alternatively you can open your project and navigate to Database Connection page where the error message is displayed. Click on the link 'Click here if your database has changed and you would like to refresh the cached metadata'. This will delete the file with meta data and will guarantee that your project has been generated with the latest database changes.

Please report any errors or suggestions at http://codeontime.com/contactus.aspx. You can download Code OnTime Generator at http://codeontime.com/download.aspx.

The latest release of code generator has resolved the issue of "Access Denied" that has been experienced by some users trying to install the code generation library or to register a premium projects subscription.

New typeConstructor element allows to generate a static or shared constructor for a type. For example, you can declare the following type member in a class:

<typeConstructor>
  <statements>
    <assignStatement>
      <fieldReferenceExpression name="typeMap"/>
      <objectCreateExpression type="SortedDictionary">
        <typeArguments>
          <typeReference type="System.String"/>
          <typeReference type="Type"/>
        </typeArguments>
      </objectCreateExpression>
    </assignStatement>
  </statements>
</typeConstructor>

This will result in the following code being generated.

C#:

static Controller()
{
    _typeMap = new SortedDictionary<string, Type>();
}

VB.NET:

Shared Sub New()
    m_TypeMap = New SortedDictionary(Of String, Type)()
End Sub

There were also minor code generator changes that allow to skip target definition in delegateCreateExpression and eventReferenceExpression elements. The missing target is automatically defaulted to thisReferenceExpression.

Project descriptor CodeOnTime.Project.xml file now supports two additional elements in the information section. You can supply a link to a live demo application and a link to a detailed project description. Here is a snippet from the project descriptor of Data Aquarium Framework code generator project.

  <information>
    <product>COT200805-DA</product>
    <title>Data Aquarium Framework</title>
    .......
    <website>http://www.codeontime.com</website>
    <about>http://www.codeontime.com/productsdaf.aspx</about>
    <demo>http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/northwind</demo>
  </information>