Build Database-Driven Web Apps
by Ken Cox
Web Services in the Enterprise 2002
YesSoftware's CodeCharge Studio is a rapid application development tool for generating database-driven Web sites. The software produces server-side code in C#, ASP (VBScript), PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) 4.0, JavaServer Page (JSP) 1.1, ColdFusion 4.01, and Perl 5. This review focuses on ASP.NET development, although you can switch a CodeCharge Studio project from one programming language to another at any time.
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Quick Facts
CodeCharge Studio
YesSoftware
Web: www.codecharge.com
Phone: 650-754-9810
Price: $499.95
Quick Facts: IDE and wizards to build database-driven Web applications for ASP.NET, ASP, PHP, JSP, ColdFusion 4, and more.
Pros: Easy and fast code generation for multiple Web servers; excellent database support; creates code as VS.NET projects with code-behind.
Cons: No debugger; doesn't generate VB.NET code (yet); generated code might be hard to follow. |
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Whether you're connecting to a database, displaying records, or deploying to a server, CodeCharge Studio includes a wizard to make the task lightning-fast and easy. For example, my development group at work wanted a proof-of-concept Web page to show we could manipulate data from an Oracle database we'd just built. Once we had the ODBC connection string assembled, it took only five minutes to produce a small Web application using the CodeCharge Studio Application Builder. The attractive and useful pages included a search function, paging, and a drilldown to individual records.
Although the site's instant generation impressed my coworkers, I must acknowledge a few hours of preparation the night before. I recommend reading at least one section of the valuable 248-page tutorial. Its hand-holding approach is welcome, but it let me down in a couple areas. The suggested location for the C# compiler wasn't close, and the generated code wouldn't run because the project failed to configure an Application in Internet Information Server (IIS).
Another problem was serendipitous. CodeCharge Studio's handy Live Page tab produces a page as served up by IIS. The feature mysteriously broke pages I'd built previously. A newsgroup participant tipped me to republish the whole project after each Live Page viewing. While investigating the compiler issue, I discovered that CodeCharge Studio generates a Visual Studio .NET project file and uses code-behind. CodeCharge Studio doesn't have a debugger, so the compatibility feature could come in handy.
If you do get into the source code, CodeCharge Studio preserves your tweaks on regeneration. It's not a fault in the product, but beware that the generated ASP.NET code (only in C#—no VB.NET yet) encapsulates some ASP.NET functionality in wrappers. You might find it harder to understand than code you'd write for yourself.
CodeCharge Studio offers impressive features and code builders in an easy-to-understand development environment. Its "cake mix" approach to Web application construction can save you days of development time over baking a database-driven site from scratch.
About the Author
Ken Cox is a technical writer and Web/mobile/VBA developer in Toronto. A former broadcast journalist, Ken is also a Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET. Reach Ken at .
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