The latest beta version of DesiGen is now released, containing the latest improvements and bugfixes.
User feedback is most welcome.
Details on how to install this version can be found on the installation page of the documentation.
New in this release:
New Feature: Artefact set templates now support the ability to define custom properties, and apply the values entered for those properties in either the artefact name or the artefact's custom properties using overrides. This can be used to speed up the addition of multiple artefacts.
New Feature: The Blazor Server and Blazor WASM solution artefact set templates make use of the new custom properties feature to speed up the addition of a new solution to a design.
Enhancement: Applied enhanced styling to the menus.
Known issues/limitations in this release:
The application will not run if installed inside of the "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" folders. This is a permissions problem that is out of my control. Please workaround this by installing it outside of these folders. The default location is C:\DotNotStandard\DesiGen.
Clicking on a link in the design menu causes unsaved changes made on the current page to be lost. This will be fixed when the application is upgraded to .NET 6; this will take place later in the year. The workaround is to click either the Next or Back button before navigating away from the design section.
There are a limited set of templates at the moment. We do not intend that we deliver all of the templates you will ever need; instead you are able to create your own. However, there are a number of solution quickstarts that we do intend to add, such as a template for a hybrid MAUI solution.
The navigation between the design section and the rest of the application is still somewhat incomplete, such as how you close designs. We are currently seeking feedback on how navigation should be enabled. For the moment, you should either use the small 'X' in the top-right corner of the design section. Alternatively you can click on the application name at the top of the design menu to return to the main menu, although you risk losing changes if you use this approach.
There is limited functionality to assist with collaboration between team members, including design reviews. We will assess what extra work is required in this area as part of a future development phase. The workaround for the moment is to interact via other channels. If you wish to do offline collaboration, we suggest generating a Word document, which you could print and review by hand, or use the notation features in built into Word to enable collaboration upon it.
There is no data management in place, such as the scheduled deletion or archiving of old designs.
Additional styling and UI tidy up is on the backlog for prioritisation.
All child CSLA objects are code generated to have async data access code. However, a limitation in CSLA currently makes async inserts and updates unreliable in some UI technologies, especially WPF applications built using Mobile Blazor Bindings. It is recommended that repository interfaces and classes are changed to use synchronous methods for Insert, Update and Delete if any application hands are encountered with generated code. This issue does not affect Fetch methods/operations, which can still benefit from async data access for maximum scalability.
Whilst custom artefact templates can make use of artefact template helper types, at this stage only built-in helper types can be used. This is an intentional limitation because importing user-defined helper types needs careful consideration; importing external code could represent a security vulnerability if not handled correctly. This limitation will be removed in a future release, once the code to mitigate the security risk has been completed.