Naresh.Jois
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Asp.net Dyanamic Data : A leap for RAD

I have always basically forms over data for the longest period of time (LOB Apps) and most of the time its the same thing over and over again, Setup Database, create scaffolding forms for all the master tables and then move to the next steps, but wait there should be an easy way to this, In the MVC framework you can generate pages based on the model, but there are still a few things that you should wire up manually, enter dynamic data template and this feels like a magical unicorn at the beginning and once you dig deep into into it, its just beautiful, and will save a lot of steps for you.
So lets begin

New Dynamic Data WebApplication

You have 2 options a Linq2SQL based Application or Entity Framework based application and its just a matter of your preference, Then just create a data Context, This is what i did just to go through and this is not a perfect data model but you can get the point, just create your data context you are almost good to go

Dynamic Data : A Test Model

then you ll have to uncomment a single line in global.asax

DefaultModel.RegisterContext(typeof(DataModel), new ContextConfiguration() { ScaffoldAllTables = true });

Here the default property for ScaffoldAllTables is false, change it to true if you want scaffolding on all tables, (for now)
and you are done
And this is what you get , Projects and Tasks along with filter and foreign key correctly linked

Tables Listing

Projects Listing

Task Listing

Task Insertion

Now lets customize this a little bit, we would never want all the scaffold all tables and also we would need some validation and hearer names to be changed a bit.
To Scaffold specific tables we will have to mark the tables with [ScaffoldTable(true)] property, and as the Datacontext generated classes are partials we can extend the classes in a seperate file also to provide metadata we will use data annotations and mark all the necessary fields with the required information

namespace TestApplication
{
    [ScaffoldTable(true)]
    [MetadataType(typeof(Attributes.Project))]
    public partial class Project
    {
 
    }
 
    [ScaffoldTable(true)]
    [MetadataType(typeof(Attributes.Task))]
    public partial class Task
    {
 
    }
 
 
    namespace Attributes
    {
        public partial class Project
        {
            [Required]
            [StringLength(50, MinimumLength = 5)]
            [Display(Name = "Project Name")]
            public string ProjectName { get; set; }
        }
 
        public partial class Task
        {
            [Required]
            [Display(Name = "Project", Order = 0)]
            public Project Project { get; set; }
 
            [Required]
            [Display(Name = "Employee Code", Order = 1, GroupName = "Employee")]
            public string EmployeeCode { get; set; }
 
            [Required]
            [Display(Name = "Track Date", Order = 2, GroupName = "Date & Time")]
            public DateTime TrackDate { get; set; }
 
            [Required]
            [Display(Name = "Hours", Order = 3, GroupName = "Date & Time")]
            public decimal TaskHours { get; set; }
 
            [Required]
            [Display(Name = "Task Descriprion", Order = 4, GroupName = "Information")]
            public string TaskDescriprion { get; set; }
 
        }
    }
}

The modified task screen would look like

Task Entry Screen Modified

And this is just the beginning we can do a lot more stuff as all the controls can be customized, I will post about grouping and also customizing display and edit controls in a subsequent blog.

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