Suggested enhancements for template editing in Visual Studio

[billster6809]

System:
Visual Studio 2013.2
Entity Developer 5.7.387
Intel 4960X processor, 4.4GHz, 32GB RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate

After multiple days of editing Entity Developer templates in Visual Studio, I have several suggestions for improvement.

1. Speed up template parsing / validation
I have a very fast system, but often when I am editing a template and have entered partial code that wouldn't 'compile' by itself, the parser goes away and may not respond to further typing for 5+ seconds. This parser should be a background thread. I do editing in an external editor sometimes because of this delay.

2. Automatically detect when template has been changed outside of Visual Studio
Because of #1, I sometimes edit the templates in another editor. The Entity Developer add-in in Visual Studio does not detect this. In fact, when the model file is opened, it apparently caches a copy of the template. As long as the model is open, I can close and reopen the template multiple times, but no changes to the template that I have made outside of VS will show up. I have to close the model first.

3. Add a way to invoke the template stand-alone
As far as I can tell, in order to be able to run the template and generate code, the model has to be opened. Is it possible to have a context option on the template files in the solution explorer to generate code when desired?

4. Add documentation of the Entity Developer template classes
Adding to the help file the classes used in templates would help a lot in editing, since Intellisense help is often unavailable.

5. Add debug support
It's possible to debug a standard T4 template. Can this be added for Entity Developer templates as well?

[MariiaI]

1. Speed up template parsing / validation
2. Automatically detect when template has been changed outside of Visual Studio
5. Add debug support

Thank you for these suggestions. We will consider implementing them. We will inform you when any results are available.

3. Add a way to invoke the template stand-alone

You can perform "Run Custom Tool" on your model - right-click the *.edml file in the Solution Explorer and select "Run Custom Tool".

4. Add documentation of the Entity Developer template classes

Please refer to the corresponding topics in the Entity Developer documentation:
- Template System Concepts section
- ORM Support -> Entity Framework -> Reference -> Object Properties (basic properties of the object model are described).
Also, we recommend to use Reflector to see the structure of the model classes (e.g., the EntityDeveloper.Orm.Common.dll and EntityDeveloper.Orm.EntityFramework.dll assemblies).

[billster6809]

Run Custom Tool:
Thank you. I was trying the context menu on the .tmpl file itself, as I would for .tt. Didn't think to try the parent model.

Documentation on classes:
Sorry that I missed this too. I used the Search tab in the help file and looked for the class and property names. Since you split them into words, such as DeleteCascaded becoming "Delete Cascaded", nothing showed up. Now I know where to look. You might consider adding help tags so the actual names can be searched, or providing code docs similar to what's used for .NET

[figueiredorj]

Hi,

Has debug support been implemented?
thanks

[Shalex]

No, it hasn't. Please submit your suggestion at https://devart.uservoice.com/forums/386 ... developer/.

[figueiredorj]

Please...
there goes about 4 years since it has requested and there has been no evolution on this?