Project Settings

Each project has its own set of settings, most of them initialized with a value inherited from the Designer Preferences. These settings are called Project Settings, and are editable through the Project Settings Editor. The meaning of each property setting is described below. Each property is listed in the same group as it is listed in the Project Settings Editor. It's highly recommended you examine the various project settings right after you have created a new project, as they control the behavior of the various features of the designer when operating on various project elements.

A project setting overrides a preference with the same meaning. This helps with a consistent designer behavior when a project file is shared among team members: the project properties are stored inside the project file, the designer preferences are stored locally on the user's computer.

Per setting group, reflected as a node in the left tree of the Project Settings Editor, the settings are described in more detail below. To open the Project Settings Editor, load an LLBLGen Pro project, and use the menu option Project -> Settings, or right-click the Project node in the Project Explorer and select Settings from the context menu. This brings up the following dialog:

The Project Settings Editor

General

Designer behavior

• Additional task performer folder If specified, LLBLGen Pro will look for taskperformer assemblies in this folder as well, besides the default taskperformer folder. Specify the folder with full path or if you want to make the path relative to the project location, specify the path as a relative path. A relative path starts with '.' or with '..' (without the quotes). If you don't want to use an additional folder, leave it empty.
• Additional tasks folder If specified, LLBLGen Pro will look for *.tasks/*.platform/*.presets files in this folder as well, besides the default Tasks folder. Specify the folder with full path or if you want to make the path relative to the project location, specify the path as a relative path. A relative path starts with '.' or with '..' (without the quotes). If you don't want to use an additional folder, leave it empty.
• Additional templates folder If specified, LLBLGen Pro will look for templateGroups.config/*.language/*.templatebindings/*.frameworksettings files in this folder as well, besides the default Templates folder and the additional templates folder defined in the LLBLGen Pro preferences. Specify the folder with full path or if you want to make the path relative to the project location, specify the path as a relative path. A relative path starts with '.' or with '..' (without the quotes). If you don't want to use an additional folder, leave it empty.
• Additional type converter older If specified, LLBLGen Pro will look for assemblies with TypeConverter classes in this folder as well as .typeimports files, besides only in the default TypeConverterRootFolder folder defined in the LLBLGen Pro config file. Specify the folder with full path or if you want to make the path relative to the project location, specify the path as a relative path. A relative path starts with '.' or with '..' (without the quotes). If you don't want to use an additional TypeConverter folder, leave it empty.
• Auto assign sequences to integer pks When set to true (default), the designer will for every auto-mapping action try to assign a sequence to every integer typed identifying field, if the identifying field is the only field for the entity, it's not a foreign key field and not inherited. If no sequence could be found and the target database supports user sequences, a new sequence will be created, using SequencePattern.
• Auto assign type converter to field mapping When set to true, the Type Conversion Definitions in the project are searched for a matching Type Converter for the mapping of a field and if found the Type Converter is assigned automatically to the field's mapping. Used during reverse engineering, relational model data refresh, forward mapping to new fields and forward mapping to existing fields. Default is false.
• Group usage This setting controls how the grouping functionality of the designer is used with respect to the generated output: solely as visual grouping construct (default) (so all elements in the entire project are seen as one project) or as separate projects (one per group). If you choose to see groups as separate projects, validation will verify that there are no ties between groups whatsoever and will report errors if there are. If you choose to see groups as a visual grouping construct only, validation will verify if there are duplicate named elements among groups and will report errors if there are.
• Target per entity edges require backing fk constraint. If true (default), the designer will require that every inheritance edge between a subtype and a supertype in a hierachy of type TargetPerEntity has a backing foreign key constraint in the relational model data (if supertype and subtype are mapped both mapped onto tables in the same catalog). Only set this to false in the situation when you need to define a TPE hierarchy and can't add new foreign key constraints.
• Use custom field ordering on new elements. False by default. If true, it will set the FieldIndexes of the fields created through reverse engineering and when fields are added to a new entity through model-first functionality. This setting can help in a DB first scenario when ordinals on target tables have to be used to guide field ordering, and when new entities are created in the designer and fields have to have a given order from the start.

Miscellaneous

• Project creator. The name of the person who created this project.
• Project name. The name of the project.

Validation / Relational model data adjustment

• Excludable orphaned element detected action The action to perform when the system detects an 'orphaned' excludable relational model data element (element which is not a mapping target). If the specified value isn't applicable for the specific element, ExcludeFromProject is used instead.
• Non excludable orphaned element detected action The action to perform when the system detects an 'orphaned' non-excludable relational model data element (element which is not a mapping target). If the specified value isn't applicable for the specific element, RaiseError is used instead.

Conventions: Element Name Construction, General

Name construction

• Enforce pascal casing always When set to true, the setting 'Make element name pascal casing' is enforced always. When set to false, the setting 'Make element name pascal casing' is enforced only when names for new elements are created.
• Make element name pascal casing When set to true, all names of new entities, entity fields, typed views etc. will be properly PasCal cased. This means that each character in the name is lowercased, except the first character after each word boundary ('_' or ' ') and the first character. All spaces are always removed. When set to false, the name is left untouched, except for the first character, which will always be UpperCase.
• Remove underscores from element name When set to true, all single underscores in names of new entities, entity fields, typed views etc. will be removed. When set to false, the name is left untouched.

Name construction, Name patterns

• Field mapped onto related field pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for Fields mapped onto a related field. Pattern elements can be: {$RelatedEntityName} for the name of the related entity which contains the mapped related field and {$RelatedFieldName} for the name of the field in the related entity which is mapped by the field mapped onto a related field. You can also specify any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.
• Foreign key field pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for Foreign Key fields in entities. Pattern elements can be: {$NavigatorName} for the navigator name mapped onto the relationship used, {$RelatedFieldName} for the field referred to by the foreign key field (the PK field) and {$RelatedEntityName} for the name of the related entity (the PK side). You can also specify any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.
• Navigator mapped onto many to many pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for Navigators mapped on m:n relationships. Pattern elements can be: {$StartEntityName} for the name of the start entity, {$EndEntityName} for the name of the end entity, {$IntermediateEntityName} for the name of the intermediate entity, $P or $S suffix to entity name macros to pluralize or singularize them (example: {$EndEntityName$P}), {$StartEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in start entity, {$EndEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in the end entity and any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.
• Navigator mapped onto one many to one pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for Navigators mapped on m:1 or 1:1 relationships. Pattern elements can be: {$StartEntityName} for the name of the start entity, {$EndEntityName} for the name of the end entity, $P or $S suffix to entity name macros to pluralize or singularize them (example: {$EndEntityName$P}), {$StartEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in start entity, {$EndEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in the end entity and any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.
• Navigator mapped onto one to many pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for Navigators mapped on 1:n relationships. Pattern elements can be: {$StartEntityName} for the name of the start entity, {$EndEntityName} for the name of the end entity, $P or $S suffix to entity name macros to pluralize or singularize them (example: {$EndEntityName$P}), {$StartEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in start entity, {$EndEntityFieldNames} for all the names of the fields of the relationship in the end entity and any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.

Name construction, Strip patterns

• Entity field name strip pattern The pattern which contains two sections, enclosed in {}, one for the prefixes and one for the suffixes. Add prefixes and suffixes to strip off by separating them by a comma. The first match is stripped. If the entity field's name is equal to a prefix/suffix strip pattern, nothing is stripped off. Stripping is case insensitive.
• Entity name strip pattern The pattern which contains two sections, enclosed in {}, one for the prefixes and one for the suffixes. Add prefixes and suffixes to strip off by separating them by a comma. The first match is stripped. If the entity's name is equal to a prefix/suffix strip pattern, nothing is stripped off. Stripping is case insensitive. Example: prefix strip pattern tbl_ and suffix strip pattern _dev will form the strip pattern {tbl_}{_dev}.
• Stored proc name strip pattern The pattern which contains two sections, enclosed in {}, one for the prefixes and one for the suffixes. Add prefixes and suffixes to strip off by separating them by a comma. The first match is stripped. If the stored procedure's name is equal to a prefix/suffix strip pattern, nothing is stripped off. Stripping is case insensitive. Example: prefix strip patterns pr_ and sp_ and suffix strip pattern _dev will form the strip pattern {pr_, sp_}{_dev}.
• Typed view field name strip pattern The pattern which contains two sections, enclosed in {}, one for the prefixes and one for the suffixes. Add prefixes and suffixes to strip off by separating them by a comma. The first match is stripped. If the typed view field's name is equal to a prefix/suffix strip pattern, nothing is stripped off. Stripping is case insensitive.
• Typed view name strip pattern The pattern which contains two sections, enclosed in {}, one for the prefixes and one for the suffixes. Add prefixes and suffixes to strip off by separating them by a comma. The first match is stripped. If the typed view's name is equal to a prefix/suffix strip pattern, nothing is stripped off. Stripping is case insensitive. Example: prefix strip pattern vw_ and suffix strip pattern _dev will form the strip pattern {vw_}{_dev}.

Conventions: Element Name Construction, Abbreviations

LLBLGen Pro supports the automatic conversion of abbreviation fragments in names into full name fragments using abbreviation-full word pairs defined per project. You can specify these abbreviation-full word pairs in the 3rd tab of the Project Properties. For example a field called 'Addr' or fields with 'Addr' in the name can be updated with 'Addr' being replaced with 'Address' so CustAddr will then become CustAddress, and if 'Cust' is also added to the abbreviations to become Customer, it will convert CustAddr into CustomerAddress. Abbreviations are stored inside the project file so everyone using the same project file has the same abbreviations. They're simple Abbreviation - FullWord pairs and don't use regular expression syntaxis. They're matched with fragments found during name processing. Fragments are elements separated by non-usable characters, space, underscore, a full word, or where an Uppercase/Lowercase change appears. So the string AaBb_CCC Ddd has 4 fragments: Aa, Bb, CCC and Ddd.

The following rules apply:

• Abbreviations are added per project, in the Project Properties Editor, and should be inserted right after the project has been created and before the entities are added to the project.
• They're used during reverse engineering, when names have to be created for entities, typedviews and stored procedures, and fields for entities, typedviews and for parameters for stored procedure calls
• The abbreviations are evaluated during name processing and before a FieldMappedOn*Pattern/NavigatorMappedOn*Pattern has been applied and also before casing rules have been applied.
• All abbreviations are case insensitive.
• Abbreviations can be used as well to specify specific casing. For example the abbreviation - full word pair: ID - ID will make sure that all ID fragments found won't be cased to Id, but will kept as ID.

It's also possible to export/import abbreviations to/from textfiles. These textfiles should have at each line the abbreviation and the full word separated by a TAB so example: addrTABAddressCRLF

Conventions: Database First Development, General

Reverse Engineering

• Auto add many to many relationships When set to true, the designer will automatically add new m:n relationships it detects during the reverse engineering process of entities from relational model data. Default is false.
• Fk fields are named after target field When set to true (default), the name of a foreign key field in an entity created through reverse engineering, is created from the target field of the foreign key field. When set to false, the Foreign key field pattern is used to construct the name for the foreign key field.
• Retrieve db custom properties When set to true, all custom property data of the database objects a new project object is based on will be copied to the object's Custom Properties.
• Set group name after schema name When set to true (default), the designer will automatically set the group name of new elements to the name of the schema the target element is located in. If the target database has a default schema name (e.g. 'dbo', the default schema name is converted to the empty string for the group name. If the target database doesn't use schemas, this setting is ignored.

Conventions: Database First Development, Catalog Refresher

Catalog Refresher

• Add new elements after refresh When set to true, any new entities, typed views and stored procedures are added to the project automatically after a catalog refresh has been completed. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Add new fields after refresh When set to true (default), any newly found, unmapped field in an entity's target, which hasn't been removed previously from the entity, is added as a new entity field to the Entity automatically after a catalog refresh has been completed, except if the entity is in a TargetPerEntityHierarchy hierarchy and not the root of the hierarchy. If the entity is in a TargetPerEntityHierarchy hierarchy and the new target field is not nullable, it's added to the root entity only, if this setting is set to true. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Add new views as entities after refresh When set to true, for each new view found in the catalog(s) a new entity will be added to the project automatically, after a catalog refresh has been completed. Default is false. This option is ignored if Add new elements after refresh has been set to false as well. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Identifying fields follow db primary key constraints When set to true (Default), all identifying fields in entities have to have a target field which is also a primary key in the new relational model data after refresh, or they'll be cleared from being identifying fields. When set to false, identifying fields without a primary key field as target in the new relational model data are left as-is and there aren't any fields marked as identifying fields based on primary key fields found in the new relational model data. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Length precision scale follow db length precision scale When set to true (Default), a model field / parameter will have its type parameters max length, precision and scale synced with the target it is mapped on (ValueType contained fields are not updated, as they can have more than one target). When set to false, it will leave the model field / parameter type information as-is, which could cause validation errors. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Relationships follow db foreign key constraints When set to true (Default), all normal relationships which are not marked as 'model-only' have to have a foreign key constraint in the new relational model data after refresh, or they'll be removed. When set to true, new relationships are created from newly found foreign key constraints. When set to false, relationships without a foreign key constraint in the new relational model data are left as-is and there aren't any new relationships created from foreign key constraints found in the new relational model data. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Remove unmapped elements after refresh When set to true, any element which doesn't have a mapping after a catalog refresh is removed from the project. Default is false. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Reset field order based on target order at refresh. This setting, false by default, when true, resets all field indexes to the target ordinal after a catalog refresh.
• Sync mapped element names after refresh When set to true, LLBLGen Pro will rename any entity, navigator, typed view, entity field and typed view field if the name of the element they're mapped on has changed, for example a table field was renamed. Setting this option to true can break your own code, so use this option with care. When Sync renamed mapped element names after refresh is set to false, only non-manually changed element names are synced, otherwise all element names are synced. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Sync renamed mapped element names after refresh When set to true (default: false), LLBLGen Pro will sync manually renamed elements after a refresh if Sync mapped element names after refresh is set to true and the name of the element they're mapped on has changed. If Sync mapped element names after refresh is set to false, this setting is ignored. Multiple entities mapped onto the same target will all be resynced in case of a target name change, so use this setting with care. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Unique constraints follow db unique constraints When set to true (Default), all unique constraints in entities have to have a unique constraint in the new relational model data after refresh, or they'll be removed. When set to true, new unique constraints are created from newly found unique constraints. When set to false, unique constraints without a unique constraint in the new relational model data are left as-is and there aren't any new unique constraints created from unique constraints in the new relational model data. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.
• Update custom properties after refresh When set to true, any custom property in an entity, entity field, typed view, typed view field or stored procedure will be updated with a similar named custom property in the newly catalog information, after a refresh of the catalog(s). Setting this option to true can break your own code, so use this option with care. If you have set Retrieve db custom properties to false, this option has no effect. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.

Conventions: Model First Development

Designer behavior

• Reflect nullability of element field in target field. Boolean property which makes (when true) the designer change the nullable flag on a target field based on the IsOptional value of the model field. Default is false.
• Sync relational model data element name after rename When set to true, the designer will automatically synchronize a table name or table field name with its mapped project element if the project element is manually renamed in the designer. Default is false. The value Default means the value in the preferences is used.

Relational model data element construction

• Insert underscore at word break case insensitive dbs. Similar to the Case Sensitive variant, but is now used for case insensitive databases.
• Insert underscore at word break case sensitive dbs When a new table or table field has to be constructed based on a project element (entity, field, typed view), or when the project element is manually renamed and Sync relational model data element name after rename is set to true, the name for the element is based on the project element name using this setting. Ignored on case-insensitive databases. When set to true, an underscore is inserted at word breaks. Default is false.
• Prefer decimal over currency types When set to true (default), the designer will, when creating a relational model data field element, prefer the decimal type (if present / supported) over currency / money types (if present / supported), when more than one database type matches the model element's .NET type.. When set to false, currency / money types are prefered.
• Prefer natural character types When set to true (default), the designer will, when creating a relational model data field element, prefer natural character database types (e.g. nvarchar, nchar) over normal character database types (e.g. char, varchar), when more than one database type matches the model element's .NET type.. When set to false, normal character database types are prefered. A new project will inherit this value
• Prefer variable length types When set to true (default), the designer will, when creating a relational model data field element, prefer variable length database types (e.g. varchar, varbinary) over fixed length database types (e.g. char, binary), when more than one database type matches the model element's .NET type. When set to false, fixed length database types are prefered.
• Relational model data element name casing case insensitive dbs. Similar to the Case Sensitive variant, but is now used for case insensitive databases.
• Relational model data element name casing case sensitive dbs When a new table or table field has to be constructed based on a project element (entity, field, typed view), or when the project element is manually renamed and Sync relational model data element name after rename is set to true, the name for the element is based on the project element name using this setting. Ignored on case-insensitive databases. AllUpperCase means all characters are upper-cased. AllLowerCase means all characters are lower-cased, AsProjectElement will use the name of the project element as-is.
• Sequence pattern The pattern which is used to construct the names for sequence objects in the relational model data using auto-mapping functionality. Pattern elements can be: {$EntityName} for the name of the entity containing the identifying field which is sequenced and {$FieldName} for the name of the field which is sequenced. You can also specify any literal text. An element can be mentioned more than once.
• Set schema name after group name. If true (default), an automatically created table will have its schema name set after the group name the entity is in. Otherwise the schema name will be set to the default schema name.

Conventions: Target Framework Settings

This group shows the settings related to the target framework chosen, e.g. the settings related to the LLBLGen Pro runtime framework are located here. See for the framework specific settings the LLBLGen Pro manual for the specific target framework shipped with LLBLGen Pro

Conventions: Code Generation, General

Task performers, General

• Clean up vsnet projects When set to true, the VS.NET project file task performer will first remove all references to files which were generated by LLBLGen Pro from an existing VS.NET project file, before adding the files generated. Default is true. A new project will inherit this value
• Connection string key name pattern The pattern for the key in the generated config file under which the connection string for a target database is stored. A macro is required for this property: {$ProviderName}. This macro is replaced with the short name in the driver.config of the active driver. This way multiple connection strings can be emitted into the generated code without name clashes.
• Encoding to use The encoding to use for text files being written by the generator task performers. Use UTF8 if you use Visual SourceSafe, as Visual SourceSafe can't handle unicoded textfiles
• Fail code generation on write error When set to true (default is false), the code generator engines of LLBLGen Pro will throw a GeneratorAbortException to terminate the code generation cycle if a write error occurs. A write error is generated when the target file exists and is readonly and failwhenexistent is false for the executing task
• Root namespace The initial root namespace to use for code generation
• Store time last generated into project When set to true (default: false), the time the last generation cycle for a project took place is stored inside the project. This will make the project 'changed' after every generation cycle, which could influence sourcecontrol behavior if you store the .lgp file in a sourcecontrol system. A new project will inherit this value

Conventions: Code Generation, Attributes / Additional Interfaces / Additional Namespaces

The groups Attributes, Additional Interfaces and Additional Namespaces, allow you to specify the defaults for Additional Attributes, Additional Interfaces and Additional Namespaces resp. for the various element types found in the project. These defaults are then inherited by every instance of these types (for attributes, if a rule is applied, the attribute is only inherited if the rule resolves to true for the particular element). At the element level you can decide (by editing the element in its own editor, on the Code gen. info tab of that element's editor) whether you want to inherit the default, ignore it for that element, or add new definitions only for that element.

This allows you for example to specify in the Project Settings the attribute definition 'Serializable' for the element type 'Entity', which is then inherited by every entity definition in the project. If you don't want this attribute definition to be specified on a particular entity, you can open that entity's editor, go to the Code gen. info tab and uncheck the checkbox for the inherited 'Serializable' attribute, or define a rule which resolves to true only for a subset of all entity definitions in the project. When code is generated for the project, every class representing an entity definition which inherited the attribute will then have the 'Serializable' attribute applied to it. See for more information: How to assign attribute definitions to elements easily.

Conventions: Type Shortcuts

This group allows you to define additional type shortcuts which are used for specifying field types in the editors for entities, value types, typed views and stored procedure calls. Shortcuts make it easier to specify a type. LLBLGen Pro already defines a list of shortcuts for all types supported by all supported databases, which are called the System Type Shortcuts. System type shortcuts are readonly and can't be removed.

Additionally it will auto-create custom type shortcuts for imported types, like enums, and the types supported by loaded type converters, as well as, the CLR UDT types retrieved from a SQL Server database, when working database first. 

To add a new custom type shortcut, simply add a new line in the grid on the Custom Type Shortcuts tab and press enter.

Conventions: Type Conversions

To overcome .NET type mismatches between the model element and the mapped target element, the LLBLGen Pro designer supports Type converters. Type converters are classes which can convert from one .NET type to another and vice versa. Type Converters are supported on the LLBLGen Pro runtime framework and NHibernate (for NHibernate, the TypeConverter type has to implement the NHibernate specific interface IUserType). There are two kinds of type converters: normal type converters and system type converters.

To set a type converter for a field, you do so on a Field Mappings Tab of the containing element's editor. This can be a time consuming process if your project has a lot of fields which require a type converter. To overcome this, the designer supports Type Conversion Definitions. These type conversion definitions define for a given .NET type pair and optionally a set of filters, a type converter. If the designer recognizes this .NET type pair and optionally filters match too, and additionally the Project Settings setting Auto assign type converter to field mapping is set to true, the type converter of the defined Type Conversion Definition is assigned to the model field automatically. This happens when you refresh the relational model data or when you map an entity onto a target element.

Type Conversion Definitions are stored per database, as different target databases can require different type converters or different filters (as the filters are target database specific). To edit type conversions for a given project, right-click the project node in Project Explorer and select Edit Type Conversion Definitions... or select Project -> Edit Type Conversion Definitions... from the main menu.

The Type Conversion Definition editor edits the type conversions per database. Only databases which currently have a Relational Model Data storage in the project are selectable.

In the Defined type conversion definitions list, the currently defined type conversion definitions are shown with the filters, types and type converters they are based on. To remove a type conversion definition, select it in the grid and click Remove selected. To add a new type conversion definition, click the Add new... button. This will open a dialog which is described more in detail below.

Adding a new Type Conversion Definition

When you click the Add new... button, a dialog is opened which allows you to define the base elements for a type conversion definition. You start by selecting the Relational Model data .NET type. This is the .NET type related to the database type of the table/view field. This type is called the from type. Based on this .NET type, the list of Type converters to select from in the Converter to use combo box is filtered. After you've selected a type converter in the Converter to use combo box, the Model .NET type is known, as that's the core type of the type converter. Click the OK button to create the Type Conversion Definition, which will be a conversion definition between the Relational Model Data .NET type and the Model .NET type using the Converter to use type converter.

Additional Filters

Per type conversion definition you can specify extra filters. This can be useful when more than one database type results in the same .NET type, or you want to filter on length for example. To enable a filter, check the checkbox in front of a filter element at the bottom in the Additional filters on database field properties area. If a filter is enabled, it has to match exactly with the target field's specific property, e.g. length or precision to get the type converter of the particular type conversion definition assigned to the field mapping.

Custom Properties

Custom properties are name-value pairs (name and value are both strings) which can be used in templates to generate project specific information. They can be used to drive custom-made templates, be used as additional output in templates. They don't have a logical function inside the designer. The templates shipped with LLBLGen Pro emit the custom property value pairs in XML DOC fragments into the code, so you can use them to add additional documentation to the various elements. Besides the Project, all major project elements, like entity definitions, value type definitions etc. allow the user to specify additional custom property value pairs. When reverse engineering entities and other elements from the meta-data, LLBLGen Pro will, if available, add the description / additional properties read from the relational model data as custom property value pairs.

The Custom Properties Tab allows you to specify the value pairs for the project itself.