Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Code Charge Studio and helping hands for weary Web app developers.

So for the last two weeks I've been evaluating (aka trying to build something that works) a RAD tool for Web apps. Code Charge Studio 4 is a fine tool for rapidily spitting out pleasant looking Web sites for CRUD actions on database driven sites. It provides a very simple front-end for building the main structure of the app, but generates readily manipulatible code (I'm having it output C# ASP.NET but it also does PHP, Java, "classic" ASP). In between it provides a way to "reach through" the IDE tools and easily add custom code that won't get overwritten by the CCS code generator. That is about as much as I've gone behind the curtain, but I have found it much easier to learn for the fairly common features for a Web front-end for a database application than I have with MS Visual Studio. I suspect as I get more skilled with the CCS tool and C#/ASP.NET, I'll reach more often for the more advanced powers of VS2005/2008. But for now, CCS has helped me get some stuff off my to-do plate quicker than I could have with my current VS2005 skills AND it has helped me advance my C# skills from reverse engineering the code it outputs. Thumbs Up.

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