Creating Custom Generators

You can use Microsoft Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals to generate meaningful data for testing. By using the built-in data generators, you can generate random data, generate data from existing data sources, and control many aspects of data generation. If the functionality of the built-in generators is insufficient, you can create custom data generators. To create custom data generators, you use the classes in the Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamSystem.Data.DataGenerator namespace.

In This Section

• An Overview of Data Generator Extensibility
  Describes how you can extend the data generation capabilities of Team Edition for Database Professionals by creating custom data generators or by reusing the standard data generators.

• Considerations for Custom Data Generators
  Describes additional information that you might want to consider when you create a custom data generator, such as how to avoid having multiple data generators appear with the same name.

• How to: Create Custom Data Generators
  Describes the high-level process for creating custom generators.

• How to: Add Output Properties to a Data Generator
  Explains how to designate a property as an output property for a custom generator.

• How to: Add Input Properties to a Data Generator
  Explains how to designate a property as an input property for a custom generator.

• How to: Register Custom Data Generators
  Describes how to register a custom generator on your computer.

• Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Data Generator
  Provides a detailed walkthrough that demonstrates how to create a custom data generator.

• Walkthrough: Registering a Custom Data Generator
  Provides a detailed walkthrough that demonstrates how to register a custom generator.

• Walkthrough: Deploying a Custom Generator
  Provides a detailed walkthrough that demonstrates how to create a deployment project for a custom generator.

• Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Data Generator for a Check Constraint
  Walks you through creating a custom data generator that you can use to handle complex input. The custom data generator generates data from one of two ranges.

• Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Data Generator that Aggregates Standard Generators
  Walks you through creating a custom data generator that aggregates standard data generators. The custom data generator generates data from one of two ranges by using the standard DateTime generator.

Reference

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamSystem.Data.DataGenerator

Related Sections

• Using Standard Generators
  Contains links to topics that describe how to use the standard data generators, such as the integer, string, and regular expression generators.

• Data Generation Plans
  Contains links to topics that describe how to create data generation plans and run them to generate random data.