The second version of Salamanca has just been released : 1.0.1 (alpha 2).

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Changes from the previous release include :

  • A complete refactoring of the libraries : all the base classes are now grouped together in a single assembly (Data Rules, Data Access and Data Activities), available in 2 editions (.NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework). Additional assemblies are available for the use of external libraries (Enterprise Library).
  • The concept of enumerations has been added to the SDML designer.
  • Many bug fixes.

Note that you will have to uninstall the previous version of Salamanca before installing this one.

There are a few things to be noted about the new enumerations :

  • Enumerations defined in the SDML can obviously be used as data types for entity attributes.
  • Enumerations have an underlying type (pretty much like in C#). This defines how enumerated values will be stored in the database.
  • An enumeration translates into a lookup table in the database (each tuple matching an enumerated value).
  • An underlying value must be provided for every enumerated value (this is optional in C#).
  • The default underlying type for an enumeration is a string (impossible in C#). This allows for the use of mnemonics in the database. Your DBA will thank you for this !

And as a conclusion, here is a short list of features that are planned on our roadmap to a final release :

  • Multi database provider SQL code generation : we should at least be able to generate code for Oracle systems.
  • A first pick at a SAML designer. Salamanca looks a lot like (yet) an (other) ORM framework right now, but this is not all there is to it. The ability to design activities (that may use our entities) will bring huge benefits to developers and will show what our vision truly holds.

But for now, enjoy this release. And any feedback will be more than welcome !