Understanding Power Tools Templates

Power Tools uses templates to generate the code for the various features. This allows you to customize the code that is generated to fit your needs. Before starting this section, please read the How to Create & Edit Power Tools Templates section.

Basically we are using partial templates to generate code in main template. Let's take a quick look:

MainTemplate.txt

{{Enum_Using_Looped_Template_Here}}{{NP_Using_Looped_Template_Here}}using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
using Abp.Domain.Entities.Auditing;
using Abp.Domain.Entities;{{Using_Auditing_Here}}

namespace {{Namespace_Here}}.{{Namespace_Relative_Full_Here}}
{
	[Table("{{Table_Name_Here}}")]{{Auditing_Attr_Here}}
    public{{Overridable_Entity_Abstract_Here}} class {{Entity_Name_Here}}{{Overridable_Entity_Base_Here}} : {{Base_Class_Here}}{{Primary_Key_Inside_Tag_Here}} {{May_Or_Must_Tenant_Here}}
    {{{Tenant_Id_Here}}
{{Property_Looped_Template_Here}}
{{Navigation_Property_Looped_Template_Here}}
    }
}

A part of PartialTemplate.txt

{
"propertyTemplates":[
		{
			"placeholder" : "{{Property_Looped_Template_Here}}",
			"condition" : "",
			"templates" : [
					{
					"type" : "default",
					"content" : "{{Required}}{{Regex}}{{MixMaxLength}}{{Range}}
		public virtual {{Property_Type_Here}}{{Property_Nullable_Question_Mark_Here}} {{Property_Name_Here}} { get; set; }
		"
					},
					{
					"type" : "file",
					"content" : "//File
					{{Required}}{{Regex}}{{MixMaxLength}}{{Range}}
		public virtual Guid? {{Property_Name_Here}} { get; set; } //File, (BinaryObjectId)
		"
					},
				]
		}
	],
    .
    .
    .
}

Property_Looped_Template_Here is a placeholder in MainTemplate.txt and it is replaced with the content of Property_Looped_Template_Here in PartialTemplate.txt.

Partial Template Types

There are four types of partial templates:

propertyTemplates

The property templates are used to generate the properties of the entity. It will loop entire content of propertyTemplates for each property of the entity.

Example property template object

{
    "placeholder" : "{{Property_Looped_Template_Here}}",
    "condition" : "",
    "templates" : [
            {
            "type" : "default",
            "content" : "{{Required}}{{Regex}}{{MixMaxLength}}{{Range}}
public virtual {{Property_Type_Here}}{{Property_Nullable_Question_Mark_Here}} {{Property_Name_Here}} { get; set; }
"
            },
            {
            "type" : "file",
            "content" : "//File
            {{Required}}{{Regex}}{{MixMaxLength}}{{Range}}
public virtual Guid? {{Property_Name_Here}} { get; set; } //File, (BinaryObjectId)
"
            },
        ]
}

This property template will generate a content for each property of the entity. If the property is a file, it will generate a content for file property. If the property is not a file, it will generate a content for default property.

enumTemplates

Example enum template object

{
    "placeholder" : "{{Enum_Using_Looped_Template_Here}}",
    "preventDuplicate":true,
    "content" : "using {{Enum_Namespace_Here}};"
}

This enum template will generate a content for each enum of the entity. It appends the using statement for each enum.

conditionalTemplates

Conditional templates are used to generate a content if the condition is true. It will not generate a content if the condition is false.

{
    "placeholder": "{{May_Or_Must_Tenant_Here}}",
    "condition": "{{Is_Available_To_Host_Here}} == true && {{Is_Available_To_Tenant_Here}} == true",
    "content": ", IMayHaveTenant"
},

This conditional template will generate a content if the entity is available to host and tenant. It will not generate a content if the entity is not available to host or tenant.

navigationPropertyTemplates

Navigation property templates are used to generate the navigation properties of the entity(foreign key / master-detail). It will loop entire content of navigationPropertyTemplates for each navigation property of the entity.

{
    "placeholder" : "{{NP_Using_Looped_Template_Here}}",
    "templates" : [
            {
            "relation" : "single",
            "content" : "using {{NP_Namespace_Here}};"
            },
            {
            "relation" : "multi",
            "content" : "using {{NP_Namespace_Here}};"
            }
        ]
}

This navigation property template will generate a content for each navigation property of the entity. If the navigation property is a single relation, it will generate a content for single relation. If the navigation property is a multi relation, it will generate a content for multi relation.

Template Info

Template info is used to define the path and condition for the template. It is used to generate the code for the feature.

Example TemplateInfo.txt

{
	"path" : "{{Namespace_Here}}.Core\\{{Namespace_Relative_Full_Reverse_Slash_Here}}\\{{Entity_Name_Here}}.cs",
	"condition": "{{Is_Master_Detail_Page_Child_Here}} == false",
}

Placeholders

Placeholders are used to replace the content of the template. As you are familiar with from many programming tools and languages, {{placeholder}} is used to define a placeholder.

Predefined Placeholders