EditOverview
Template regeneration refers to executing the .netTiers template after the initial run. When your database schema is altered you should regenerate in order to keep .netTiers in sync with your database. Also, as newer versions of .netTiers are released you may want to regenerate the code in order to take advantage of any new features and fixes. This page documents basic concept relevant to regenerating .netTiers.
EditBackups
You should always backup all files related to your solution before regenerating.
EditCustom Code
You can extend .netTiers to add your own custom functionality. Several of the files generated by .netTiers can be modified directly. Pay attention to the generated comments at the top of the files, these comments will indicate when a file should not be edited. Files that contain "generated" in the file name should not be edited directly because the files will be overwritten during regeneration.
Also, any stored procedures generated by the templates should not be modified. If you need custom functionality for a particular stored procedure, consider creating a custom stored procedure to accomplish this.
EditMapping
The .netTiers templates use mapping files to control certain aspects of the generated output.
If you are looking to just manually control the name assigned to certain tables you should consider using an alias file. The alias file should contain one entry per line in the following format
<table name>:<alias>
If you want extensive control over naming consider using a mapping configuration file. This is an XML file that contains sections for each table. This file allows you to control other aspects of the generation process like data type and whether or not to include the table, column, etc. in the generated output. The first time you generate the templates, a configuration file is generated automatically for you. Once you have updated the mapping file you'll want to make sure the MappingFile option in the Getting Started section points to the right file.
Be aware that if you change the schema the mapping file is not updated. When you need to reconcile your custom mapping file against the latest schema, consider the following steps.
Note: these steps assume you are using the default output paths
-make a backup of your customized mapping file
-remove your customized mapping file from the output directory
-regenerate the template clearing out the value for the mapping file option
-use a diff tool to compare and merge your archived custom mapping file with the new mapping file created when regenerating
-regnerate again using your customized (and updated) mapping file
Options affecting alias and mapping files (by category number)
01 - MappingFile
02 - NameConversion
09 - AliasFilePath