So I'm signed up to receive ".NET Insight", the newsletter from the guys over at FTPOnline, and I get a recent one with “Generate Data-Based Web Sites With Blinq” as a news title. My first thought is “greeeat... another blahLINQ technology to add to all the xLINQ confusion....”. Hesitantly, I click the link and begin to read about BLINQ... blah, blah, blah... “Blinq.exe is a deceptively simple command-line tool—similar to SqlMetal.exe for LINQ to SQL—that auto-generates a complete, fully navigable Web site for viewing, editing, adding, or deleting data in a SQL Server database.”... ERRRRRRT!!! (insert deer in headlights look here)... In a haze I kind of make out “autogenerate...” “25-page ASP.NET Web site...” “NorthWind...”. I finally come to and continue reading to the next page when I hit “Each table generates a TableName.aspx page with a paged GridView control, TableNameDetails.aspx page with a DetailsView control, and a NewTableName.aspx page with a DetailsView that defaults to Insert mode. Users navigate the site with SiteMap buttons and breadcrumbs, as well as HyperLinkField objects in GridView and DetailsView controls.”. Next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor and my dog is licking my face. I gracefully get back into my chair and resume reading the article and yes, the product/tool truly is as horrible as it reads.
Why does Microsoft do this to people? Does anyone remember Microsoft Access? Didn't everyone learn that auto-generated apps from tables are inflexible and hard to maintain? Even the most simple database designs have numerous intersection tables and this thing is going to create 3 screens plus all the plumbing for each of those? What happens if I have a database schema, generate the whole app using this tool, tweak it for look and feel, remove the useless stuff like intersection table screens and then... gasp... I have to make a schema change like add a new table or pull a column out into a lookup table. What then? I have to regenerate the whole thing again, tweak the look and feel, and delete all the useless stuff again? How is that productive? How is this helping anyone Microsoft? The people that would even use a product/tool like this are exactly the ones that shouldn't be using a tool like this it's going to get abused, get them in trouble and then they are going to have to call in consultants to help them redo the whole thing properly...
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So as I was saying... this new BLINQ tool sounds like the real deal business people, you don't need developers, you can do it all yourself! Go BLINQ!