The Properties Window

Owned by Autumn Wilkins (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 14, 2012Version comment
2 min read

The Properties window lets you view and edit the property settings for the current template. It is similar to the property sheet you can get by invoking Execute from Template Explorer.

You can navigate to the Properties window by selecting Properties Window from the View menu or by pressing F4.

Before you can generate code from a template, you must supply values for all of the non-optional properties in the Properties window. 

One of the features of CodeSmith Generator is the ability to cache property set values for each template you open. This feature gives the ability to persist property set values from one Generator session to the next for that particular template. This includes when you change a template, recompile a template, close and re-open Generator.

You can toggle the availability of Property Persistence by using the Enable Property Persistence checkbox in the Options dialog.
Click here to learn how to set property values.

Property Sheet Toolbar

The Template Explorer property sheet toolbar includes the following buttons:

 Categorize: By default, the properties in the property sheet are sorted by categories. If you'd prefer them in a single alphabetical list, click the Alphabetic toolbar button.

 Alphabetical: Sorts the properties in the property sheet alphabetically by property name.

 Save Property Set: Opens a Save As dialog box to let you save the settings from the property sheet as a CodeSmith Generator Project file.

 Open Property Set: Opens a File Open dialog box to let you select an existing CodeSmith Generator Project file. The settings from the XML file will be loaded into the property sheet.

 Copy Property Set: Copies the settings from the property sheet into a CodeSmith Generator Project and to the Windows clipboard as an XML file. CodeSmith Project files can be used as input to the CodeSmith Generator Console application.

 Paste Property Set: Restores the property values from the CodeSmith Generator Project file (the Xml file from Copy Property Set) stored in the Windows clipboard.

 Refresh Property Values: Refreshes the values of the property sheet and also clears any cached values like cached database information.

 Reset Properties to Default: Resets the property values to the default values.

 Filter: You can also Filter the properties that are displayed in the property sheet by typing in the name of the property or properties you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for a property that starts with 'a' or contains the letter 'a', just type 'a' into this filter box.

To clear any cached database schema information press the  Refresh Property Values button at the top of the property sheet.