Category: ExcelToApp

Now , about how the workflow is organized . 

Step 1:  Read Excel

With https://www.nuget.org/packages/stankins.excel .

• From this it should find the name of the sheet  = name of the tables.
• Also, it should find the first row with names ( = column names).

So it generates models for each sheet

Step 2: Generating .NET Core , Angular and Cordova source code

• There are templates, in Razor style. It pass the models for the sheet and generates the source code.
• Also , will generate docker files to compile the application on docker

Step 3: Generating executables

•    Push the source codes from Step 2 to GitHub
•    The Github actions takes the docker files, generates the applications ( WebSite, Android )  into the docker , copies and puts into releases of Github
• Also, it puts the Angular files into the wwwroot of the .NET Coreo
• The application waits for the releases to be generated

Step 4: Creating application

• The application downloads the releases on the local
• Creates a Virtual Directory with the release
• Show the link to the Virtual Directory and to the APK application

And that is all. You can try the demo at http://demo.adces.ro:8080/

From the beginning of my programming I was pissed by the repetitive tasks. Most of the software for the business implies a database ( for me, it was mostly SqlServer – but can be also IBM DB2 , Oracle, others) and making a GUI for CRUD operations. Agree , the initial CRUD GUI was improving over time with business requirements  – from a simple GUI to something more complex. But , in the first phase, it was a simple GUI that performs CRUD operations.

I have started to automatically generated the CRUD SQL for tables – then generating VB6 frm text files for this. Then I was having just the source code for a CRUD application that I need to copy into my application. And that saves me a lot of time! ^{side note : After making this I saw that multiple people  have the same idea in that time – but better suited as product ( as an example, CodeSmith)}

Fast forward to  our days : everywhere  there is the DevOps / CI / CD . That means that you can automatically compile ( usually, with an YAML file ) the source code and make the application.

So let’s put those ideas together : we can generate the source code and  then compile and deploy the application, Or , in other terms : is : if you have a well formed data source then you will receive an well formed CRUD application . If I want to put a name, it is Software Application As Commodity ( SAAC )

Until here , there was the theory . Now let’s see some practice.  Please prepare an EXCEL that has sheeets tables –like and go to http://demo.adces.ro:8080/ . You can generate

1. .NET Core WebAPI application with DataAccessLayer, BusinessLayer
2. Angular Application that communicates with the backend
3. Cordova application
4. Source code for 1,2,3
5. A ready to try CRUD site ( composed by compiling the Angular and put into wwwroot of the .NET Core) with a SqlServer database that has the data from Excel  ( just the first 200 rows, to not spam)
6. An APK Android application – the html of Angular build  put into Cordova and compiled into APK. It communicates with the Website deployed at 5

Of course this is just a proof of concept. All it is based on templates ( compiled with Razor ) that can be modified to obtain any kind of application. And can be extended too . But , how this is made, in future posts – see you next time.