I used Code-on-Time before stopping using it.
The problem itself is multiple:
You will have to weigh this product (and other non-ORM products like IronSpeed, Code-On-Time, CodeCharge, which uses proprietary data access levels.) Versus using the ORM level with Advanced Code-Generators.
The first problem you will encounter is defining a piece of business logic. You will need their Premium or Unlimited version. So, you switch from Standard to Premium very quickly. Personally, I encountered many limitations in my Premium version and needed to upgrade to the Unlimited version, such as complex business logic, dynamic access control (necessary to redefine access control), simple audit and logging.
The unlimited version of CodeOnTime is $ 2,499 for 12 months. Unfortunately, I could not justify this price due to the recession in the USA and cost reduction. Therefore, if you own CodeOnTime for 4 years, you can imagine a big bill for which you ultimately pay.
The second problem you will encounter is part of the data model and what actually constitutes the ORM + MVC approach and the Code-Gnerator level approach.
For example, the way their modeling works is that it extracts all the MSSQL tables and creates editing fields, tables, and grids from it. This works great until you need to add business logic, limit input, validate input. To do this, you will need to make a lot of custom code if the default settings are not applicable to you. You can see this in the extended Time Code tutorials.
The third problem is slowness. Their demos are quick because they load limited data, clear the data after a while. In live production, the client must come to terms with CSS problems (this was later fixed in later versions), slow loading of massive data (try in a production environment), editing collisions that can ruin the data.
The fourth problem is the black box approach. You want to check your final results. How do you check all attributes and view all parameters and settings without losing your previous work due to code generation errors? I lost my job due to code inconsistency. It’s very hard for me.
An alternative to Code-On-Time is an objective examination of Visual Studio and an assessment that the use of simple code generators (CodeOnTime, IronSpeed, CodeCharge) outweighs using the C # + ORM + MVC or WinForms level).
Examples:
- LBLGenPro (ORM) + CSLA.NET (code generation) + ASP.NET MVC
- DataGen.net (ORM) + CSLA.NET (code generation) + WinForms
Entity Framework + CSLA.NET + WinForms or MVC
LBLGenPRo (ORM) + Entity Framework + (with your own rules and workflow engine) + ASP.NET
- Entity Framework + (Workflow Engine) + ASP.NET
SubSonic + Castle ORM + ASP.NET MVC
Linq + ASP.NET Dynamic Data
- Entity Framework + ASP.NET Dynamic Data
In other languages:
- PHP + Cakewalk (you can almost create an entire site with 50 tables in 1 day)
PHP + YII
Java + Struts
- Java + JBoss + JSF + ExtJS
The above results allow you to achieve a more cost-effective way and what you can build in your enterprise.
This question has been here for almost 3 months without an answer. You can imagine a really small community versus a huge community for C #, ORM and ASP.NET MVC.
Hope this helps.