How to get into SubSonic?

Question

Hi anybody,

a month ago i searched for some tools that will generate c# classes out for my sql database/tables. so i don't have to write DAL classes manually and to save a lot of time.

i came across "ORM" and subsonic. i watched the webcasts on the homepage http://subsonicproject.com/ and was pretty impressed by it. but i am still missing more documentation/knowledge to feel comfortable with subsonic to use it in our projects. today i read about the "migration" feature somewhere - accidental.

how to get into subsonic? how to get more comfortable with it? how to know about all the features/possibilities it provides? are there any good blogs/tutorials/whatever for subsonic?

thanks, toebens

Answer 1

SubSonic is irritatingly short on documentation (which is one reason I abandoned it). Scott Kuhl wrote a "Getting Started with SubSonic" document (just Google his name and SubSonic) but parts of it appeared to be out of date.

Here is Scott's blog - a place to start at least.

Here is the document's home page. I was curious as to whether the document is indeed out of date and I think it is: the web page has a last updated date in 2006.

Unfortunately, I know of no other documentation and I did look for it.

Update: See the link to documentation that Rob Conery provided in his answer.

Answer 2

Just start using it.

It is very simple and pretty straight forward. There are several screencasts on how to generate your classes with sub commander, once you have that just hit . and see what you can do with them.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, the best SubSonic "documentation" is in the form of screencasts, but they are very easy to follow.

Quite a lot about SubSonic on Rob Conery's (original creator) blog http://blog.wekeroad.com/tags/subsonic/.

Personally found the best thing is (like Matt said) to just use it, set it up in external tools in VS, get the connection string and a few other config settings sorted, and you're just about good to go. You can get the basics down in an afternoon.

The forum is quite active http://forums.subsonicproject.com/forums/, and a good place if you get stuck.

Answer 4

I admit it - our docs suck :(. I did try to put a site together: http://subsonicproject.com

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I put together a template project referencing SubSonic generated off the Northwind Database. A very simple project, but should easily be enough to get started on your first project. Check it out here:

http://ajondeck.net/post/2008/12/29/ASPNET-20-SubSonic-Project-Template-With-SQL-Server-2005-Northwind-DB.aspx