Microsoft’s Web Language Integrated Query tool called Blinq can generate ASP.NET websites based on database schema.
First of all, Blinq is a prototype at the moment. Developers will want to experiment with the websites the tool can create, and proceed with the usual rigorous testing and QA any new project merits.
But let’s face it, anything that makes it easier to spin out a usable web front-end from a database and does it well enough to be functional has to at least be worth a look.
One starts with Blinq by feeding the executable information about a SQL database. Blinq connects and does its thing, as noted on the ASP.Net website:
[Blinq] will create a website with pages that display sorted and paged data, allow you to update or delete records, create new records, and follow relationships between tables in your database. You don’t need to write SQL queries to use Blinq; LINQ will generate optimized queries for you that request just the data you want to show.
ASP.NET Developer Polita Paulus wrote on the Blinq site that the code created with Blinq could be customized to fit the developer’s needs. Using Blinq will require some other components a Visual Studio developer probably has already.
The May LINQ Community Technology Preview is needed for Blinq to run correctly. Users of either Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition or higher, or Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, can use Blinq.
Since it is a prototype, Blinq is not formally supported. However, informal support may be found at the Blinq Preview forum online. Paulus noted in response to one question that Blinq is an all or nothing tool. It will pass through the whole schema and includes all tables and columns that can normally be seen in Visual Studio’s GridView rendering.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
