Imagine that you've just been tasked with designing and implementing an enterprise-wide HR (human resources) system for your organization.

The system will be implemented with an ASP.NET-based user interface, business objects based on COM+, and an ADO.NET-based data tier. Oh, and did I mention that there is no database schema either? So, you have to design a best practices-based SQL Server database too.

Okay we've all been there before - now comes the part that's hard to believe.

Using Modularis Accelerator 6.0, imagine that you can develop the database and around 70% of all the code within the tiers in the time it took your boss to take lunch.

Maybe I should say that again...

You can develop the database and around 70% of all the code within all tiers in about the same time as your boss will spend taking lunch!

Don't Believe Me?
Accelerator 6.0 allows you to model the business entities using an intuitive user interface and then enables you to automatically generate a Visual Studio .NET solution using either C# or VB.NET as your implementation language (see Figure 1).

If you have an existing UML model in a tool such as Rational Rose XDE, you can export that model into XMI and then import the XMI directly into Accelerator 6.0, generating your .NET solution based upon the UML model.

Accelerator 6.0 allows you to view the hierarchy of the entities in diagram form. However, considering the support for XMI (which is a core subset of the UML standard), it would have been nice if this diagram was presented in the form of a UML class diagram.

The generated solution features a fully functional ASP.NET user interface, business objects, transactional and non-transactional data objects, Web services, and DDL scripts to allow for the creation of a SQL Server (or Oracle) database.

With a few clicks of the mouse, you can also associate all of your generated assemblies with a strong name key file. This allows them to be stored within the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).

Accelerator 6.0 also enables full customization of business and data tier objects, allowing your data tier objects to be based upon the ADO.NET classes found within the System. Data.SqlClient, System.Data. OracleClient, or the System. Data.OleDb namespace.

The nature of your distributed objects can also be customized with only a few clicks of the mouse. Generated components can either run in-process, use .NET remoting, or use .NET enterprise services (COM+).

Generation is based upon templates that can be edited to conform to internal coding standards and practices. However, the editing of these templates is supported only if you have a paid support contact in place with Modularis.

Accelerator 6.0 allows you to mark areas of custom code so that they will be preserved if the model is altered and another iteration of code generation is performed.

It would be nice if these regions could be indicated either through the #region and #endregion directives or even with custom XML tags within the XML-based comments found today in the C# language as well as in VB.NET in the next version of the language, which is shipping as part of the .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005 (Whidbey).

The generated code is well documented in the form of code comments. However, these comments are currently not in the XML format supported by the C# language (see Figure 2). It's possible that this will change once the VB.NET language catches up in this regard with the release of VB.NET 2005.

Modularis usually provides instructor-led training for new teams adopting the Accelerator tools. I have to say, however, that I did find the tools very intuitive and easy to learn using the PDF-based "Getting Started" guide provided with the product installation.

You may not be able to get your boss to agree to hire any more developers today, but a software tool that is as productive as another developer on your team? Now there is a cool idea!

Product Name: Modularis Accelerator 6.0
Manufacturer: Modularis
List Price: $2,275/month for a team of 5
Rating: ****
Reviewer: Doug Holland