SQLMetal and LINQ

Now that we have VS2008 did you know there is a command line tool to generate classes for you (just like the designer does) to be used with LINQ to SQL?  Yep, it's called SQLMetal and you get to it by going to the Visual Studio Command Prompt.

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I have taken the liberty of regurgitating the help here:

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Microsoft (R) Database Mapping Generator 2008 version 1.00.21022
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 3.5
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

SqlMetal [options] [<input file>]

  Generates code and mapping for the LINQ to SQL component of the .NET framework. SqlMetal can:
  - Generate source code and mapping attributes or a mapping file from a database.
  - Generate an intermediate dbml file for customization from the database.
  - Generate code and mapping attributes or mapping file from a dbml file.

Options:
  /server:<name>             Database server name.
  /database:<name>           Database catalog on server.
  /user:<name>               Login user ID (default: use Windows Authentication).
  /password:<password>       Login password (default: use Windows Authentication).
  /conn:<connection string>  Database connection string. Cannot be used with /server, /database, /user or /password options.
  /timeout:<seconds>         Timeout value to use when SqlMetal accesses the database (default: 0 which means infinite).

  /views                     Extract database views.
  /functions                 Extract database functions.
  /sprocs                    Extract stored procedures.

  /dbml[:file]               Output as dbml. Cannot be used with /map option.
  /code[:file]               Output as source code. Cannot be used with /dbml option.
  /map[:file]                Generate mapping file, not attributes. Cannot be used with /dbml option.

  /language:<language>       Language for source code: VB or C# (default: derived from extension on code file name).
  /namespace:<name>          Namespace of generated code (default: no namespace).
  /context:<type>            Name of data context class (default: derived from database name).
  /entitybase:<type>         Base class of entity classes in the generated code (default: entities have no base class).
  /pluralize                 Automatically pluralize or singularize class and member names using English language rules.
  /serialization:<option>    Generate serializable classes: None or Unidirectional (default: None).
  /provider:<type>           Provider type: SQLCompact, SQL2000, or SQL2005. (default: provider is determined at run time).

  <input file>               May be a SqlExpress mdf file, a SqlCE sdf file, or a dbml intermediate file.

Create code from SqlServer:
  SqlMetal /server:myserver /database:northwind /code:nwind.cs /namespace:nwind

Generate intermediate dbml file from SqlServer:
  SqlMetal /server:myserver /database:northwind /dbml:northwind.dbml /namespace:nwind

Generate code with external mapping from dbml:
  SqlMetal /code:nwind.cs /map:nwind.map northwind.dbml

Generate dbml from a SqlCE sdf file:
  SqlMetal /dbml:northwind.dbml northwind.sdf

Generate dbml from SqlExpress local server:
  SqlMetal /server:.\sqlexpress /database:northwind /dbml:northwind.dbml

Generate dbml by using a connection string in the command line:
  SqlMetal /conn:"server='myserver'; database='northwind'" /dbml:northwind.dbml

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Here are some helpful links on how to use SQLMetal to your advantage:

 

https://blog.benhall.me.uk/2007/08/power-of-sqlmetal.html

 

https://blogs.msdn.com/sanjeets/archive/2007/06/07/how-to-use-sqlmetal-exe-to-create-a-class-from-xml-and-database.aspx

 

https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-tools/exploring-linq,-sqlmetal-and-sqltac/

 

Technorati Tags: linq, sql, sqlmetal, visual studio 2008, orcas

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 24, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 28, 2008
    I am having an issue in that the database I am force to hook up to has 1000+ tables and the dbml generated blows VS when opened. I really want to automate the creation of the dbml but sqlmetal is too brute force. Any other options?

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2008
    User Interface for SqlMetal http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlmetalbuilder/

  • Anonymous
    December 03, 2008
    The link mentioned by Vikas is great. It works and is easy to use ;-)

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