Are there any limitations on what libraries can be imported in a t4 template?

Question

We're trying to learn to use T4 Templates. I have a desire to use the System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices library in order to better pluralize some Entity Model names within my template, but I've come across some issues in the achievement of this goal.

1. Running code to generate output text. I think this is possible, but if it's not going to work, then there's no need to go any further. (I could call Date.Now.ToString() and get the expected result. I haven't tried anything much more complicated yet)
2. I am in a Silverlight App, and so I can't add a reference to the project for the PluralizationServices library in the place where I need the generated .cs file. I was planning on just moving the .tt file to a non-SL app, using the namespace and moving the generated file to the correct space. Haven't got that far yet, so I don't know how much trouble that will be, but it doesn't seem like it should be too hard.

My current problem is that when I import the namespace of the library, I get an "ErrorGeneratingOutput" and I haven't been able to move on past that yet.

I am having a hard time finding information about how the import command works, so I assume that it's just obvious. At the same time though, this one doesn't work so I wonder if it might be an exception to the standard.

<#@import namespace="System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices" #>

I have no idea why adding this line (and only this line) causes everything to break. I haven't even started to try to use it yet! Is there something somewhere about libraries in T4 that I should know or read? Thanks!

Answer 1

Here a description of how the import directive works. Without knowing the actual error T4 reports when transofrming the template in your environment, I can only guess that you didn't add an assembly directive to reference the System.Data.Entity.Design assembly. If this doesn't work, look at the errors reported by T4 in the Error List of visual studio, which should be more helpful than "ErrorGeneratingOutput".