The ORM Foundation

 I realize that VS 2013 has not been out long, but is there any possibility that an update to NORMA to add VS 2013 support is in the works?

<rant>MS is trying to kill me. What happened to a two year release cycle? What is wrong with releasing new or updated packages for the previous platform (VS2012) so that everyone other vendor's tools still install and register the same way? They used to call a few new features a service pack, not a new product. I just got an official VS2012 installed at the beginning of the summer so I could both build and run NORMA on VS2012 (instead of just building it, the license is only checked when you open the IDE, which isn't needed for build). Upgrade licenses don't cut it for me because I have to be able to build and run the previous platform as well, not transfer the license to another product.</rant>

I've been gone most of the summer, so I guess I missed the release. It's mighty unsporting of Microsoft to burden my poor build machine with a new (fifth) version of Visual Studio less than a year after I got the last one running. It will be at least a couple of weeks before I can look at this. After download and install, it takes around a day to investigate the new system and get it to build--assuming there are no interface or libary changes, and there are always some surprises. If the DSL templates have changed sufficiently that the new libraries no longer work with the older generated bits, then add at least one more day of work to integrate a third set of generated files.

That's just the predictable busy work. Then come the surprises.

The last go round deprecated all of the build and project system classes (full rewrite of the custom tool code generator), broke coloring in the fact editor (and hid the settings to fix it in a completely undocumented registry key just to make it fun), mangled the extension installation system badly enough that I could no longer use it reliably, changed the toolbox item registration system, added some new diagram events that crashed at odd times if you didn't handle or block them (which, of course, the existing code didn't), and required new WiX (installer) versions that didn't like the old setup files. They haven't had as long to stir the pot this time, so hopefully it will be a smoother transition.

I guess the rant continued past the end tag, sorry.

Seriously, though, I'll see what I can do to at least get this out in 2013. Until I burn a couple of days to get the build working and the packages running in a new VS version I have no way of providing any estimate as to the total time. It's a total crapshoot.

-Matt

Hello Karl,

I have no update to offer on this. NORMA installs for each visual studio version independently. It is possible that 2013 was reading some 2012 stuff in early trial versions, but it seems unlikely. The more likely scenario is that you had NORMA running in 2012 on a machine that also had 2013.

-Matt

Update: I've posted an initial VS2013 installation. Retargeting went relatively smoothly, but I haven't tested anything but the basic functionality yet. I'll leave this up until I have something else or make an official public drop.

-Matt 

 http://ORMSolutions.com/NORMAPreview/NORMA_VS2013_2013-11CTP.Build1533.zip

Update: The first build did not install the PLiX prerequisite for VS2013, and the ORMGeneratorSettings would not launch on VS2013. Please install with the link below.

-Matt 

http://ORMSolutions.com/NORMAPreview/NORMA_VS2013_2013-11CTP.Build1535.zip

 Thanks Matt,

I have updated the Library version.

Ken

Hi Ken,

There is a reason this was posted as a preview.

It still has minimal testing applied (as in I have had no reports of success off of my machine) and has several new undocumented features that did not exist in the previous drop, have nothing to do with VS2013, and can cause file format issues opening in the other public NORMA versions.

When I'm ready to make a public drop I'll let you know. In the meantime, please let me manage my own intermediate files and do not post NORMA versions to any library until I officially bless them as public releases.

An October 2013 release will be available soon, but build 1535 is not it.

Thanks,

-Matt

 Hi Matt,

Despite the fact that the link that you posted will have scrolled off the front page in a few days, this site gets up to 75,000 visitors per month so any links that you post are likely to be seen by several thousand people.

I thought that you might find it useful to have as many testers as possible so that's why I posted it in the library - with appropriate caveats of course.

Ken

 Big fan of ORM and will evaluate this over the next few weeks, but so far so good. The file types did appear in the New item category.

Thanks for the work you do on this tool. I always ask the Visual Studio DB tool people about incorporating ORM better but you know priorities. Keep plugging away and if you find that you get stuck or need some help or tools I am willing to donate some time.

Thanks for your vote of confidence in ORM and offer of help.
Matt continues to do a magnificent job of implementing features, solving bugs and providing user help (to name but a few) but he is carrying a big load and like all of us, he has his priorites.

If you want to look at them, here are two (of the many) things that (in my view)  "need doing".

1: Providing a generator that implements all data types available in SQL Server 2012.
Since different versions of SQL Server have different data types, I suspect that the DDL generator for SQL Server 2012 may have to be shown as a separate item in the ORM Generator Selection list.
You can see the ORM Generator Selection list at 1 minute 39 seconds into the experimental video that I posted here.
Apologies for the quality of this video. It's purpose was to test that I could upload an MP4 file of reasonable size into the library rather than to produce a pedagogically correct video. I'm working on several others...

2: Simplifying the DDL generation process
The procedure for generating DDL takes rather a lot of keystrokes so a simpler procedure would help a lot.
Tom Leeman had a go at this last year. He posted his suggestions in this thread.
Matt had some concerns about Tom's method but I don't recall what they were.

If you want to contribute, please start a separate thread for each topic.

Thanks

Ken