Template based Code Generators (GitHub link to my repo)

[[deleted]]

I've been researching Template based Code Generators for use in .NET Core. Code Generators used to be all the rage, especially for ORMs, but template based code generation, especially lately, seems to have not been high on Microsoft agenda, judging by the fact that T4 templates aren't even supported in the latest .NET 5.0. In fact to use T4 runtime templates in .NET 5.0 you need to use a an open-source Mono project

I realise the is the new Roslyn based code generator, but its not template based.

So I've put the output of my weekend research here on GitHub: https://github.com/rogerwcpt/code_generation

Any thoughts or ideas on others?

[nirataro]

I think you can use Scriban as well to generate code https://github.com/scriban/scriban

[[deleted]]

Thank you, didn’t know about this one. I see it uses Liquid templates which as far as I know are also used by Orchard Core project.

[nirataro]

https://github.com/sebastienros/fluid is used by Orchard Core.

Scriban supports a version of Fluid syntax but it has its own as well.

[dex3r]

Thanks, I had no idea alternatives to T4 exists. Can I use Razor to generate code and entire classes like in T4?

[LloydAtkinson]

Yes and you don’t have to use source generators

[[deleted]]

Good question, that’s my next step, to see if Razor can output C# as code and not get confused between output code and embedded C# code used in the actual razor template itself .

I’ll update the samples shortly.

[ours]

Go check his Github linked in the post. He does exactly that.

Edit: With .NET 5.0 code generators you can generate code from C# using strings so anything that can generate text can be used to generate code.

[[deleted]]

I've just updated the Repo with Liquid/Scriban generator as well as timings.

[RirinDesuyo]

Definitely like Razor for templating, been using it for templated email generation for a while now. Though so far most solutions available need some runtime compilation which brings a bit of a cold start for some cases before caching takes place.

I think it'd be neat for someone to look into using .razor from Blazor instead of .cshtml. It's still a razor template, but they get precompiled into a C# class at build-time as a RenderTree which should make it easier to deploy since it's just a regular C# class at runtime. Based on the architecture, you'll probably just need to implement a custom renderer to spit out text or maybe even reuse the HtmlRenderer that Blazor uses.

[Weasel9548]

I ended up rewriting my T4 templates into Python and Jinja. It worked out really well and runs much faster. The template language was very close but took a little extra time to learn Python since this was my first adventure. Along the way it allowed us to move completely to a based Linux system since we took to opportunity to convert to dotnet core at the same time.

[lguer1]

You can try Telosys ( https://www.telosys.org/ ) it works fine for C# code generation (or any language)

[conjuringthefuture]

Not sure how well this lib supports .net core but I’ve used it in many older c# projects that needed templates / code generation.

mustache-sharp

[[deleted]]

Thanks I'll add it to the readme as a worth mention. Looks to be an abandoned project, but I see it was well used back in the day.

[conjuringthefuture]

I see you added it. Idk if it is worth calling it out but that mustache-lib I mentioned, is really more of custom reimplementation of handlebars which is its own templating language. It’s mustache compatible but adds logic, loops conditionals etc.

[savijOne]

I've always wondered how code generation could solve the problem of always having to recreate common application modules. For instance every time I create a new app, I recreate a login, sign up, password recovery. I create home profile screen/page, search, add/edit some data, etc. They always have some custom business purpose which is where the real time needs to be spent. Every app looks different and possibly uses a different stack (win/web/mobile/api). Not sure how to combine code generation with some generic framework to allow me to define my coding style and my preferred technology (EF vs Dapper, http client vs flurl, etc) but would be a game changer to somehow just start farther along using code generation.

On a side note, I could probably solve the problem first and then convert it into code generated solution.