I’m shopping for an ORM tool. I’m agonizing over the purchase of either CodeSmith (which is currently available at a substantial discount) versus an ORM tool.
LINQ to SQL is off my list; SubSonic 2.x is off the list (I don’t want to invest in that dead end knowing that SubSonic 3.0 is coming. NHibernate seems like overkill as does LLBLGEN. I’ve only briefly evaluated EF but don’t get quickly get a warm and fuzzy feeling from it.
Am I crazy thinking that CodeSmith is a rational alternative to off-the-shelf ORMs? Will CodeSmith pay for itself in other ways?
Please note that I am in no way related to any vendors and this isn’t a cheap shot SO question just for the sake of generating product noise! I am looking for honest advice and opinions about CodeSmith as an ORM tool (with its provided, or community available) templates.
In fact, hibernate is a good ORM tool. But it stops there!
Code smith capabilities can be more than just a relational mapping staff! I use code smith to generate some UI forms, business layers (templates), data access layers, patterns, and so on.
But to work with code smith, you may need good experience with system design or use their templates which I don’t like to use but I like as an example.
Code smith approach has one special drawback; you have to design your system considering the database implementation first. Nowadays, in object analysis approach, people success in implementing business logic & entities just before any database implementation – they forget about this.
Decision is hard; I’ve constantly read important names such as Scott W. Ambler, Kent beck, Robert C. Martin and people from The Pragmatic Programmers series which recommends ORM Tool to speed up development. They said that ORM Tool developers are concerned with all database issues (pooling, connections, database vendor specifics, etc). So when we have to design data access layers we have to consider all these aspects too.
I believe that these ORM tools come along with an overburden. I don’t know yet how these tools would behaviour in low budget projects (I mean not good hosting servers or any kind of shared resources).
I’ve seen inexperienced developers not taking this into account as they try to evangelise their beloved tools. But in java projects, hibernate is already a widespread and well-known tool. I have no doubt the great projects has been delivered using this technology but I have seen anyone and again java developers may need to teach us (.net developers) how to build great solutions. (Sorry, we have to admit.)
The only thing I would recommend is to consider your context. Are you doing a new system? You need work in pattern? Have you ever try to consider such code generator and ORM tools altogether?
I do prefer code smith because I generate entire solutions at once, not just data access layer. Code generation is very important and it is not for less that Microsoft has imitated code smith approach in visual studio.net 2008 and so on.
Good luck