C# Library for Code Generation

... or Yet Another Code Generator. Maybe a little better than T4 templates.

This project is comprised of a few different components (maybe you're looking for a specific template, and not the core library):

CodegenCS is a class library for code generation (for writing code or any text-based output) using pure C#.
Basically it provides a custom TextWriter tweaked to solve common issues in code generation:

• Keeps track of current Indent level.
  When you write new lines it will automatically indent the line according to current level.
• Helpers to concisely write indented blocks (C-style, Java-style or Python-style) using a Fluent API (IDisposable context will automatically close blocks)
• Helpers to write multi-line blocks without having to worry about different indentations for control logic and output code.
• Helpers to keep track of multiple files which can be saved at once in the output folder.

Sample usage:

var w = new CodegenTextWriter();
w.WithCBlock("public class MyClass", () =>
{
    w
        .WriteLine("// Testing FluentAPI")
        .WithCBlock("void MyMethod()", () =>
        {
            w.WriteLine("OtherMethod();");
        });
    foreach (var column in columns)
        w.WriteLine($"public {GetTypeDefinitionForDatabaseColumn(column)} {propertyName} {{ get; set; }}");
});
    
w.SaveToFile("File1.cs"); 

See full documentation with more examples and list of features here.

Templating Engines are usually good for end-users to write their templates (like Email templates), due to their sandboxed model, but what's better for a developer than a full-featured language?

By using a full-featured language (C#) and a full featured IDE (Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code) we can write complex and reusable scripts, with strong-typing, intellisense, debugging support, etc.
We can use Dapper, Newtonsoft, and other amazing libraries.
Generating code with C# is much easier (and less ugly) than using T4 templates - easier to read, easier to write, easier to debug, easier to reuse.

In this blog post I've explained why I've created this library, why T4 templates are difficult to use, and how I tried many other tools before deciding to write my own.

This is a brand new project, and your contribution can help a lot.

Would you like to collaborate or share your own template?

Please submit a pull-request or if you prefer you can contact me to discuss your idea.

Some ideas for templates:

• Generate Dapper/Petapoco classes from database schema files - check CodegenCS.POCO
• Generate EF Core Entities/DBContext
• Generate REST Web API endpoints from OpenAPI YAML
• Generate Nancy endpoints for retrieving/updating business entities
• Generate REST or SOAP web service wrappers (client)
• Generate ASP.NET MVC (Razor Views CSHTML and Controllers) to display and edit business entities
• Data Access Objects from database schema files
• Object caching
• Application-level database journaling

MIT License