Prerequisites: SQL Server running and Northwind database available. You've
installed and registered TCDesigner.
TCDesigner will initially start with a pre-built project based on the
Northwind database. Northwind is an excellent test database because it uses all
the various data types. Here is what you will see when TCDesigner starts for
the first time:
You can use this provided project if you like, but that is not the purpose of
this tutorial. Instead, this tutorial will guide you through the steps of
building your own project just like the one provided.
TCDesigner provides help in the center pane. We won't need that right now,
so use the View menu to toggle the center pane out of view:
This shows what TCDesigner looks like after toggling the center pane out of
view:
Now, using the File menu, select New Project.
The screen cap below shows what a brand new project looks like before you start
work. Now, focus your attention to the properties pane over on the right.
The values of these properties will affect just about everything you do from
this point onward. The two main property categories are Project Namespaces and
Set output directories. If you are familiar with the concept of namespaces then
these properties should be fairly self-explanatory. Otherwise just understand
that namespaces are a way of organizing your code. Namespaces actually
show up in the code. Don't confuse this with output directories, which are
simply a place to put the generated code when you build your project (in
Tutorial 5).
To very quickly set all the properties correctly, simply position your
cursor in the NameSpaceRoot property and type in an appropriate value.
Below, you can see the default value has been changed from
"Company.Application" to "Northwind.Tutorial".
Below you will see what all your project properties should look like now. Time
to move on to Tutorial 2 - Adding Schema Items!
