Layered Architecture Solution Guidance (LASG) FAQ

Over the years, I have collected a number of frequently asked questions while working on Layered Architecture Solution Guidance (LASG) and I think it will be good if I put them in a FAQ.

1. What versions of Visual Studio are supported?
The latest version of LASG targets Visual Studio 2013 but you can still download the older versions for Visual Studio 2012 and 2010. Older versions will contain lesser features and development on them has been discontinued.

2. What editions of Visual Studio are supported?
LASG is designed to run on Visual Studio Professional, Premium and Ultimate editions. The Modeling project only appears in Visual Studio Ultimate.

3. Is non-English version of Visual Studio supported?
As of version 1.0.1.0, LASG can only run on English versions of Visual Studio. A version that is supposed to support non-English Visual Studio is currently under works and hope to address the issue. The labels however, will still display in English even if it runs on non-English Visual Studio.

4. Can the Inertia code-generator support non-Microsoft SQL Server databases i.e. Oracle?
No. Inertia uses the SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) library and therefore, can only support Microsoft SQL Server.

5. Can I use Microsoft SQL Server Express edition?
Yes.

6. Does the Momentum code-generator supports Entity Framework?
No. Momentum only generates code that targets Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block (DAAB).

7. Are there plans to support Entity Framework in future?
No. There are no plans to support Entity Framework currently, but there were some thoughts on it.

8. How can I use LASG with Entity Framework?
Depending on your choice, you can use Inertia to generate the entities as POCOs and write your own CRUD methods in the Data Access Components that uses EF. You can then continue to use the LASG generators from Business Layer onwards and things will still work.

9. Does the Momentum code-generator supports Stored Procedures?
No.

10. Are there plans to support Stored Procedures in future?
No. Some experimental work was done to support Stored Procedures but it was shelved due to the massive effort required to re-design the internals of Momentum.

11. Why the code-generators have such code-names?
They were initially part of a separate pet-project called Project Newton before being merged into LASG. Hence, they all have code-names taken from articles describing the Newton Speed Theory.


If you have more questions, please feel free to put them in the comments and I will try my best to answer them. :)