What is Data Generator?

The new CornerstoneDB Data Generation Tool is a combination of a desktop application and API that allows for generation of data for different database targets.  SQL Server, SQL CE and VistaDB are the initial database targets supported, with more planned for release later.

Data generation allows for repeatable generation of columns into a database.  For example a desktop accounting application may want some way to generate customers, deposits, withdrawals, etc.  This data may be used for application tests (Nunit or other unit testing frameworks), load testing of your application design, or even sample databases for end users.

Why data generation?

There are several other data generation tools out on the market today.  But none of them are 100% managed code, and none of them have APIs that you can use to build data generation into your own product.  A few offer an SDK that is based upon you shipping their application to end users, and paying royalties for each desktop you deploy that generator. 

There are also current no data generators that support SQL Server, VistaDB, and SQL CE (our initial goals).  Most of the SQL Server tools are built around SMO and will not work with VistaDB or SQL CE.  We are using the ADO.Net providers for our generators.  That means that generation will be slower than SMO based solutions, but we can target other databases with the same core code.

Having an API is the key

In our view data generation is pretty much worthless to anyone other than a DBA if you have to install the complete generator product in order to run it.  We have built the CornerstoneDB Data Generator from the ground up to be an API based product that enables developers to built data generation into products or utilities as needed.

Some users will only ever want to use the desktop user interface, and we will have a SKU that only includes the ability to run interactively only.  But we feel that the majority of customers will want the API access for generation within their own applications.

Shared Project Files

The saved project from the desktop application may be saved and used with the API. The API can use these projects directly for generation inside your applications, unit tests, or anything really.  You can also programmatically edit, or build these project files with the API.  The desktop application  may then be used to tweak settings, or preview the data generation.

The ability to share these project files across both the API and user interface means you can have non technical users configure the project, and then run the generation using your own custom application.

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Telerik is launching an updated Premium Collection today that includes a new release of the Telerik OpenAccess ORM.  This release supports VistaDB 4 as a targeted database.

This is something we have been holding the lid on for a while, but it is great news for the VistaDB community.  We continue to work with industry leaders to ensure our customers have the most options when it comes to how and where they use their databases.

What is OpenAccess ORM?

All Object Relational Modelers (ORM) are built to allow object oriented languages to map their objects to the relational database model.  There is an mismatch (called the Object relational impedance mismatch) between how things work in a relational database, and how we as object oriented programmers view those objects.  ORM tools aim to ease that process by creating mapping layers that hide the complexity of these problems.

An added benefit to modern ORM tools is that they often encapsulate you from the underlying database (mostly).  Many are now also starting to allow for advanced features like the ability to model your application in objects first, and have the database generated from that model.

From the Telerik website:

Telerik OpenAccess is an Enterprise-grade .Net ORM that does the data access plumbing in desktop and web applications. Supporting both forward (model-first) and reverse (schema-first) mapping, the tool offers transparent persistence for your DAL and business objects. OpenAccess ORM provides tight Visual Studio integration and allows you to seamlessly create database independent code. Take full control of the generated code by customizing the tool and leveraging its advanced features for code optimization and caching.

Visit the OpenAccess ORM Features page to read through their complete list of features.  The list is quite large, and includes a lot of features you won’t find in the Entity Framework.

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Welcome to the main site for Infinite Codex, Inc.

This site is our corporate site, and a general information release portal for public relations about what we do.  Expect a number of announcements over the next two weeks as we start launching new products.

Background

Infinite Codex, Inc was originally incorporated as VistaDB Software, Inc in Apr 2007.  We have decided to change our name as a broader decision to offer more products and services to our customers.