Question

I have written a code generator using CodeDom and it generates a number of classes from stored procedures. I’d like to add its execution as a build step and then add all of its classes to the solution programatically at build-time.

How do I do this?

Answer 1

Use Custom Build Providers

Subsonic also uses Build Providers to generate its DAL and code. Please check subsonic configuration for custom build provider. It is open source you can check its implementation also.

<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <compilation>
      <buildProviders>
        <add extension=".abp" type="SubSonic.BuildProvider, SubSonic"/>
      </buildProviders>
     </compilation>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

It uses .abp extension file to initiate its build provider.

Edit : Yes, Custom build providers are super feature of ASP.Net. But
traditional winform or other
developers can use MSBuild custom
tasks to get the same effect. Dino
Esposito has provided a great article
for the same. You can check it
here.