We recently released CodeSmith Generator 6.5.0, which includes many new features and improvements. One of the areas that we focused heavily on was the Template Editor. We did a lot of work to ensure that the Template Editor experience is consistent in both Generator Studio and Visual Studio Integration. As such, all of the following features and improvements can be found in both IDE’s. The following document will cover some of the features that were added to the Template Editor in Generator 6.5.
Code Snippets
We added beta support for Code Snippets to the Template Editor. This will allow you to develop templates even faster!
Currently this feature will only pick up snippets installed by Visual Studio 2010.
Indention Support
We added Indention support which allows you to quickly format the document to your coding standards while generating beautifully formatted text.
Intellisense
We have done a lot of work improving the IntelliSense since Generator 6.0. Below is a list of some of the IntelliSense features we’ve improved or added to the Template Editor:
- Greatly improved the IntelliSense for Visual Basic and Lambda Expressions.
- Added Linq completion support.
- Intellisense support for C# And Visual Basic code behind files.
- XmlProperty Intellisense.
Permissions
We also made sure to confirm that you have the correct permissions to open and save a template. In the previous versions, we would just assume you had the permissions, which could lead to an increase in application crashes.
Progress Notifications
In previous versions of the Template Editor, you didn’t know what was happening after you opened a template. With the new version, it will properly display that a template is compiling by updating the Output Window, Status Window, and Progress bars inside of the editor.
Also, when a template fails to generate or compile, the status bar will update accordingly. This allows you to see the current actions status without needing to open the output window.
Error Window and Syntax Error Improvements
We’ve continued making more improvements to the Error Window Experience in 6.5 based on feedback. Now, errors are properly merged and removed when compiling, building, or opening template documents.
We have also done some work to ensure that Syntax Errors show up correctly inside Template Documents and code behind Documents.
Output Window Improvements
We’ve done some work to improve the Output Window Experience. In Generator 6.0, the output window would be shown anytime you tried to generate or anytime an error occurred. We felt that this could get in your way, as such we’ve mimiced the Visual Studio Output window experience and added other visual indicators via the Status Bar.
Also, we intelligently switch between the various output windows based on context and added support for showing trace messages to the output window when generating.
Other Improvements
We’ve made some other improvements to the Template Editor in Generator 6.5. We added the ability to compile and generate a document without having to save it to disk. Also all new editor documents are not saved to disk until you press save. This gives you the ability to use the Template Editor like a programmers notepad for trying out snippets.
We are always looking for ways to improve the Template Editor, so please send us your comments.
Downloading CodeSmith Generator 6.5
CodeSmith Generator 6.5 is a major version update and requires a new serial key. You can upgrade your existing serial keys by visiting the following website. Also, don’t forget to check out the Generator 6.x documentation and the upgrade documentation.
Please let us know if you have any feedback or questions about CodeSmith Generator 6.5.