Using AdvancedTemplates

Summary== ==Setup

Setting up SubSonic's is pretty simple and involve's 4 steps.

=Add a Reference to SubSonic=== This part is pretty simple: right-click your project, Add Reference, and Browse to find the SubSonic 3.0 dll. ===Add a Connection String=== In order to work with your database you'll need a connection string. If you're working with a provider other than SQL Server (such as SQLite), you'll need to specify which one using "providerName": ===Set The Connection In The Templates=

The Templates that create the classes you're going to work with need to know what your connection string is. To set this, open up the file called "Settings.ttinclude". Below the @import statements, you'll see three settings you'll need to set:
const string Namespace = "Northwind.Data"; const string ConnectionName = "Northwind"; // This is the name of your database and is used in naming the repository. const string DatabaseName = "Northwind"; The main one you need to set is "ConnectionName" - this tells SubSonic which connection to use in the DB. The namespace constant is the namespace of the classes that SubSonic will generate.

=Add the T4 Templates To Your Project=== After you've set the settings above, just drag into your project. Whenever Visual Studio 2008 sees a "tt" file, it will automatically execute it - so you don't have to do anything, it will just run. If you make a change to your database, just right-click the SubSonic3Creator.tt file and select "Run Custom Tool" - this will execute it again. As opposed to the ActiveRecord template - the AdvancedTemplate uses the T4 Toolkit to do some fancy stuff - including outputting a file for each class (many people like this) and also creating a generation log so you know what it's doing. ==Querying

Querying the AdvancedTemplates works just like Linq to Sql:
var db = new Northwind.Data.NorthwindDB(); var qry = from p in db.Products select p; In this example, "db" is akin to Linq to Sql's DataContext (what we call a " - but all it does is expose the tables in your database as IQueryable - it does not do any "UnitofWork" or change tracking. You can also use the to use SubSonic's existing query tool:
var db = new Northwind.Data.NorthwindDB(); var products = db.Select.From() .ExecuteTypedList();

Testing

The AdvancedTemplates center on an implementation of - which is essentially a query contract for you to work with your database. You can mock this using your favorite mocking tool, or create a Fake if that makes more sense.