Dave Burke - Using CodeSmith dropdown template properties

Using CodeSmith dropdown template properties

I created a CodeSmith template the other day to generate a Data Provider method that returns a single value from a query. It's not a method I'll use a lot since if retrieving data I'm usually populating an object, but still a task I wanted to automate. Below is an example of the template's generated output.

I wanted the ability to return integers, strings and DateTime types, so the best way to do that was using a dropdown selection in the CodeSmith template. The dropdown is shown in the template execution dialog.

The dropdown is populated from an Enumerator created in the template's CodeBehind

public enum DataSelectType
{
    Integer,
    String,
    DateTime
}

declared as type DataSelectType in the template .CST header.

<%@ Property Name="DataTypeReturned"
        Type="DBVTHelper.DataSelectType"
        Category="2. Return Value Settings"
        Description="Type of Data returned: int, string, DateTime currently supported" %>

To create the first line in the method, DateTime completeTime = Convert.ToDateTime("6/9/1969"); the .CST code would be

<%= InitVariable(DataTypeReturned, VarReturned) %>

which calls a method in the .CST's <script /> area called InitVariable()

public string InitVariable(DataSelectType dataSelectType, string _varReturned)
{
    switch (dataSelectType)
    {
        case DataSelectType.String:
        {
            return "String " + _varReturned + " = String.Empty;";
        }
        case DataSelectType.DateTime:
        {
            return "DateTime " + _varReturned + " = Convert.ToDateTime(\"6/9/1969\");";
        }
        default: return "int " + _varReturned + "= 1;";
    }
}

You'll find examples of dropdown property selections in the CodeSmith sample templates.