The MM .NET Business Layer Generator
allows you to generate business and
data access layer from an existing
database such as SQL Server or
Oracle. You can choose to generate
from Tables,
Views or Stored Procedures:
Why Generate
Business Layer from Database
Objects?
At first glance, this may seem like
driving the process the wrong way.
Typically, you perform
business object modeling first, then
derive your database schema from the
business layer. However, often
developers create applications that
must work with an existing database.
If the database has been designed
well, it contains constraints,
default values and other information
from which business rules can be
derived. In this case it's pragmatic
to leverage the many hours spent
designing and fine tuning your
database into generating your
business layer.
Tables in your database often
represent real-world entities. For
example, each of the following
database table represents a
real-world entity:
Similarly, business objects also
represent real-world entities:
The difference is that database objects
only model the attributes of real world
entities (such as Customer name,
address, phone number) while business
objects model both their attributes and
behavior. Since we can at least derive
business object attributes (as well as
some business rules), its pragmatic to
derive business object classes from
database objects to help jump start the
application development process.
Generating Data
Access Layer from Database Objects
Even if you don't use the Business Layer
Generator to generate business layer,
you can use it to generate your data
access layer. Specifically, if you are
using stored procedures to retrieve and
update data, the Business Layer
Generator can generate stored procedures
and associated data access classes for
you:
