The Devevning ORM Showdown!

Dave Hawes

http://blog.davehawes.com

@davehawes

Coming up...

• A brief history of the tool

• Where you can get it from

• How is it used

• Where I have used it

• What are it’s good points

• What are it’s bad points

• Things I think people should know about

A brief history of the tool

• Created by Solutions Design

• Established product, over 5 years old

• Frans Bouma is lead developer, a MVP (he knows his beans)

– @FransBouma

Where you can get it from

• The LLBLGen Pro websitehttp://www.llblgen.com

Pricing

• 1 to 2 - EUR 249.00

• 3 to 5 - EUR 219.00

• 6 to 10 - EUR 199.00

• 11 to 20 - EUR 189.00

• More than 20 - EUR 179.00

How is it used

• Uses the database schema of 1 or more databases as its domain model

• Lists all Tables and Views as entities which can optionally be added to your code gen project as Entities

• Lists Stored Procedures which can be added as Actions

• Generate .Net DAL based on 1 of 2 templates

LLBLGen Pro generates the complete data-access tier and a business objects tier, utilizing powerful O/R mapping technology and a flexible task-based code generator.

GUI

BL

Database

LLBLGen Pro

DAL and business objects are immediately available.

GUI

BL

DAL

Database

Percentages of the total number of man-hours

30 %

40 %

30 % 0%

20%

80%

LLBLGen In Action – Create Database

Model In Sql Server

Point LLBLGen at Database

Create Entities From Tables

Hit Generate and get your .Net project

Out of the Box Database Support

• SqlServer 7/2000/2005/2008• Oracle 8i/9i/10g/11g• MySql 4.x/5.x• IBM DB2 7.x/8.x /9.x driver• Firebird 1.x/2.x• PostgreSql 7.4+/8.x • Sybase ASE• Sybase ASA • Microsoft Access 2000/XP/2003/2007 driver

Azure

• When I last checked when using my Azure CTP account, LLBLGen DALs would connect and run against a single Sql Azure database but could not use it as the domain model.

.Net Versions and Languages

• Support for multiple .NET versions:Generated code supports .NET 1.0/1.1/2.0/3.0/3.5, CF.NET 1.0, 2.0, 3.5 and generated Visual Studio.NET project files are compatible with Visual Studio.NET 2002/2003/2005/2008.

• Languages supported:All functionality is supported in both C# and VB.NET.

More...

Customers have access to the SDK and full source code for all parts of LLBLGen Pro except for the designer.

The SDK can be used to customize the various subsystems of LLBLGenPro.

Features

• Auditing• Authorization• Validation• Flexible concurrency management• Transparent authorization and auditing• Deep, fine grained validation framework• Efficient, tunable, querying system• Distributed systems (SOA) support• In-memory filtering and sorting of entity graphs• See full list here:

http://www.llblgen.com/pages/features.aspx

Where I have used it

• My website adventure:

– http://www.skillbook.co.uk

– http://www.tcbooker.com

– http://www.safetytrainingnetwork.co.uk

• Many small apps based on Access

• Creating a webservice sitting between Oracle and Microsoft Crm

Good Points

• Very very easy to use

• Is owned an run by a ‘Product company’

• Very clear roadmap

• Very good support from both community and company

• Very extensible (if required)

• Encourages good database design

Bad Points

• Hmmm, struggled to come up with any

LLBLGen 3 this year

• Lots of new features including:

– model first development

– To support

• Nhibernate

• Entity Framework

• LINQ To SQL

Summary

• It is a very easy to use product

• Implements latest .Net coding techniques

• Supports a wide range of databases

• Professional and Community support

• Clear Roadmap for the product

• Inexpensive for the benefits it returns

Thank you for your time

Questions?Dave Hawes

http://blog.davehawes.com

@davehawes