Feature Request - Better Source Control Integration

Discussion of open issues, suggestions and bugs regarding ADO.NET provider for Oracle
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Nahmis
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon 13 Jul 2009 21:38

Feature Request - Better Source Control Integration

Post by Nahmis » Fri 11 Dec 2009 16:53

I know the title is broad, but we have some very specific problems relating to EntityDeveloper that make it a little difficult to work with inside a team using source control, hopefully you guys have some work-arounds, or can improve these things in a future release.

Generator/Absolute Settings
  • The template we use is in a static place beside the model, but there's no way to set a relative reference to this file, meaning each developer has to manually create their copy of the template (more on that below), any way this can be relative?

    The generation directory is also an absolute reference, relative would be useful here as well, otherwise each developer that changes the model has to set it to their local path of the project, generate, commit, and the next person if it's anyone else, has to change it again.

    The connection string to the database for the model would ideally not be stored in the model, but in a separate file which we could exclude from source control...different developers have different setups, and the database/connection strings may not be identical.
Template Creation
  • We all have the model in source control (and I could be an idiot if I am missing this please, please show me), currently there is no way to reference an existing template, you have to create and copy/paste in, and then save over the same template that's source controlled...even though I'm not changing it.

    This is more than a minor annoyance because of another problem...templates are lost each time we upgrade dotConnect. Can the templates either be stored on the model (as a relative path!) or somewhere on my system? Every upgrade of the software results in these steps:
    1) Uninstall dotConnect (manually, the new installer ideally would at least initiate this...)
    2) Install new dotConnect
    3) Open the model, go to add template
    4) Outside entity developer, go find the template, open it, copy everything
    5) Re-create the same template as before uninstall (the model is still asking for it by name!), paste the contents in
    6) Now I'm able to generate
In a source controlled environment everything else is relative, and anything that may be user-specific is usually stored in a separate file, source control being optional. I think with some simple changes/options to how these things work, it can make working with EntityDeveloper a lot less painful, the same for upgrading. The installer performing an install on the previous version would be great....I don't have to update just my machine, it's my machine, a secondary development box, a build server, a test server, a validation server and production...this currently is very costly in terms of time. I would point you to Resharper's install or anything from JGSoftware as a point of reference of how pain-free it can be to upgrade.

These suggestions aren't to sound negative, just our current bottlenecks when working with your product, we love the product and are impressed with the speed you guys have resolved our bugs. Keep up the great work...if you make improvements that would ease the problems I've listed above, it will make it even easier to use, at least in our case but hopefully to many other users.
Last edited by Nahmis on Mon 14 Dec 2009 12:54, edited 1 time in total.

AndreyR
Devart Team
Posts: 2919
Joined: Mon 07 Jul 2008 13:16

Post by AndreyR » Mon 14 Dec 2009 09:31

Thank you for the reasonable suggestions.
We will add the requested functionality in one of the next versions.
We appreciate your feedback, it helps us to improve our product.
Feel free to contact us.

Nahmis
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon 13 Jul 2009 21:38

Post by Nahmis » Tue 19 Jan 2010 12:55

I just upgraded to 5.35.79 to test a bug before submitting it to you guys and I have to say: thanks for the installer improvements.

The upgrade process takes less than 1/3 of the user time it did before by not having to go hunt for the uninstall yourself. Thanks!

AndreyR
Devart Team
Posts: 2919
Joined: Mon 07 Jul 2008 13:16

Post by AndreyR » Fri 15 Apr 2011 14:07

We have significantly improved the template processing in the upcoming Beta version of Entity Developer.
This Beta version will be available in a week or two.

AndreyR
Devart Team
Posts: 2919
Joined: Mon 07 Jul 2008 13:16

Post by AndreyR » Fri 22 Apr 2011 12:06

The latest 6.30.145 Beta build of dotConnect for Oracle can be downloaded from here (the trial version) or from Registered Users' Area (provided that you have an active subscription).
For more information about the fixes and improvements available in dotConnect for Oracle Beta, please refer to
http://devart.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20828

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