Admin auto generation

Question

Hi,

I create custom CMS sites and then go ahead for the backend/admin side. Is there any tool out there to automatically create admin side of my sites, for example, based on table relationships or whatever customization we may put in place.

PHPMaker seems to claim something like what i ask for but i have not used it. Any tool out there to auto-create admin side or PHPMaker is up to the point?

Thanks

Answer 1

phpMyAdmin :oP ?

Answer 2

There is nothing out there that can automate an admin control panel sufficiently. There are too many things that your data can mean. An INT could be an integer, or it could be a code where each value 0-9 represents some different value. What about other tables which are not visible to public eye, like the users database and the logs? What do you do with those? If you want a control panel that's worth two cents, you'll build it yourself. One of the main reasons for admins to stop using a CMS is that the admin panel is incomplete or confusing.

Answer 3

Did you mean something like this? http://www.phpgrid.com/grid/

It visualizes all of the data and allows for editing, paging, sorting, kinda like MS Excell, or asp.NET gridview's.

If you're looking for something that automatically reads your database structure and deduces everything you might possibly want to do, and provides buttons for it - no such thing exists, well, not until software really begins to program itself.

Answer 4

Symfony has such an admin generator:

http://www.symfony-project.org/screencast/admin-generator

Answer 5

You need a code generator that can read your DB structure and then generate your back-end based on a few additional definitions you may supply.

Like @animuson said, "there are too many things that your data can mean". However, only a limited subset of those "many things" is relevant to you, so you can associate a well-defined meaning (from that subset) to a specific field or data set. The code generator will then act on that specification and generate the correct back-end code.

Model-driven development will help you here because a model of, let's say, a table column, may contain only the definitions that are needed to properly understand the meaning of that column.

There are tools on the market for this, open-source and commercial, that will help you define your models and build your code generators.

Of course, there is an additional cost of building and maintaining your code generator, but once you have it you start reaping the benefits in time savings and less errors.

Answer 6

I too need something halfway between a full-blown framework and doing everything from scratch myself.