Making webdatagen data-binding friendly

UPDATE - update to this script available here: Updated data binding friendly script for Data Services.aspx.

If you have looked at this stuff and you're a big fan of data-binding then, like me, you were probably a little dissapointed to see that the webdatagen.exe util (now called datasvcutil.exe in .NET 3.5 SP1 beta 1) doesn't generate data-binding friendly classes for you.

Not to worry - there isn't much that PowerShell and regex can't fix. Just point this script at your generated (c#) file and it will implement INotifyPropertyChanged and use ObservableCollections where possible for you:

$content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText("PATH_TO_YOUR_GENERATED_FILE_HERE.cs");

$re = [regex] ".Collection<"
$content = $re.replace($content, ".ObservableCollection<")

$re = [regex] "this.On(.*?)Changed\(\);"
$content = $re.replace($content, "this.On`$1Changed();`r`n`t`t`t`tthis.OnPropertyChanged(`"`$1`");")

$re = [regex] "this._(.*?) = value;(\s*?)}"
$content = $re.Replace($content, "this._`$1 = value;`r`n`t`t`t`tthis.OnPropertyChanged(`"`$1`");`$2}")

$re = [regex] "(?m)public partial class (\w*?)`r`n(\s*?){"
$content = $re.Replace($content, "public partial class `$1 : System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged`r`n`t{
`t`tpublic event System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;


`t`tprotected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
`t`t{
`t`t`tif (PropertyChanged != null)
`t`t`t{
`t`t`t`tPropertyChanged(this, new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
`t`t`t}
`t`t}



")

[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText("PATH_TO_YOUR_OUTPUT_FILE_HERE.cs", $content);


I hope that by RTM the generated classes will have some data-binding friendly pieces but this should see you through until we get there.