The following is a couple of T4 templates that I have been fooling around with in my spare time (sharing the time between jQuery, StringTemplate view engine for ASP.NET MVC and other endeavors).  For the most part these templates are nothing special, they generate both the T-SQL (stored procedures) and a simple but effective data access layer.  Like I said nothing special.

A good resource for starting with T4 templates is @ David Hayden site where he has a Screencast on how to use them.  Below describes some of the settings used to get my simple sample up and running.
Extract the _common.tt, DataClass.tt and T-SQL.tt files from the zip and add them to your VS project in a folder (like Generation).  In the _common.tt file there are some settings (variables) that you can use to modify how the code is generated.  You will need SQL 2005 client tools installed on your machine as it uses the SMO object library.  Once the code is compiled just cut and paste it into separate class files and run the T-SQL code on your db.

• ConnectionString - This is your connection string to your database
• TableName - This is the table you are going to run the code against
• SchemaName - Use this for applying a schema to your T-SQL code if you use schemas (default is dbo)
• ColumnsToOmit - Comma delimited list of columns to omit from the DAL code that is generated
• NameSpace - Namespace of your application
• ProcPrefix - Use to add a prefix to your stored procedures (ie. up_)
• UseShortProperties - True | False to tell code generation to generate the C# short form for get/set properties
• insertColumnsAsGetdate - Comma delimited list of column names that will automatically be assigned the GETDATE() T-SQL statement on an Insert.  (Also omits the fields from the insert statement parameters)
• updateColumnsAsGetdate - Comma delimited list of column names that will automatically be assigned the GETDATE() T-SQL statement on an Update.  (Also omits the fields from the update statement parameters)

The code is supplied as is and if it's broken fix it, you're a programmer aren't you?  :P

T4 Templates.zip (4.98 kb)

Recently I was working on a web service that required logic than needed the span of time passed in months and days based on a start and end date.  I figured someone has already written this before me so why waste my time.  EPIC WRONG!!!!!!  While I was able to find code (mostly snippets) that did various calculations most of them were either; a) not what I needed or b) fundamentally flawed in the calculations (most choked on month/day crossovers, where the as-of-date was 1 month previous and 1 day later than the sample start date).  So I decided that I would take a chapter from the TimeSpan class and create my own AgeSpan class.

This class helps answers the question how many years, months, days, total months, total days from the birth date to the as-of-date.  So for example on Mar 04 2009 this class tells me I am 40 years; 5 months and 1 day old or 485 total month or 14762 total days old.

One of the options available is to set the include as of date in the days calculation.  What this does is include the as of date inclusively as part of the date range.  Basically it adds one day to the days and total days.  So taking the example from above I would be 40 years; 5 months and 2 days old or 485 total month or 14763 total days old.  This option is set to false by default.

Included in the zip is a unit test project to validate the actual logic.  The class is written in c# and it probably can be ported to VB pretty easily or just use the assembly as is.

AgeSpan Class

Download the code: AgeSpan.zip (521.59 kb)

"Application popup: Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file 'xxx'. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere."
I had this error recently during my nightly backups.  I narrowed it down to my server’s 10/100/1000Mbps LAN card.  Since my network is only 10/100Mbps I forced the speed and duplex to 100Mpbs and Full Duplex rather than Auto Negotiate.  After I did this the error went away and my network latency issues got better.

"You must use the Role Management Tool to install or configure Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 x64 (or x86) (Windows 2008)"
Under Windows 2008 .NET is considered a Feature; to install open up the Server Manager and highlight Features -> Add Feature it is at the top of the list.  To install the .NET 3.5 framework use the installer method.