SQL-Hero® is a sizeable product, yet it's still in its infancy in many ways. A large code-base, a powerful yet simple application framework upon which it is built, and careful construction are opening doors to many other features to expect from it down the road. A list of different design goals shows some of the guiding principles in development to date, and going forward.

Our vision is to make building entire applications as simple as possible. One way that can be achieved is by scaffolding a great deal of functionality and then allowing you to customize it. Another is by providing base classes, shared libraries and templates. This all helps codify best practices, leading to repeatable solutions that perform well under heavy load. We're constantly thinking about things like "separation of concerns" and "points for extensibility" during this evolution. Although purists might complain about some kinds of sacrifices, we always think these through with a view to flexiblity, performance, and simplicity. We think you'll be intrigued by the new possibilities opened up... Just one example: generating strongly-typed code from result set output that you can attribute declaratively - data or columns! What does this do for you? You can now automatically create enumerations that match your database. Or how about create business objects that are populated from stored procedures where that makes sense for efficiency. Or creating an entire search screen where the only code written is the base query for it! In some of SQL-Hero's real-world use, it's shown how fundamental schema changes have been handled quickly and gracefully, with fewer run-time issues.

But doesn't everyone have a perfect framework? Have a perfect code generator? Have a perfect Domain Specific Language that's so incredibly easy to understand and use that we're pumping out countless applications in no time? Or isn't there the perfect language that removes all mundane tasks?

Hardly.

Things will be perfect for you if you find a solution that works for you and you're happy and familiar with it. Our mission is to facilitate, inspire some new perspectives, and in the end, we have enough tool space covered that you'll want SQL-Hero for some reason, if not every reason. Are we trying to be too many things to too many people? Only if we've failed to deliver something of value and don't have a way to lead it into the future.

So let's get very specific... future plans for SQL-Hero include:

• MySQL and Oracle support: the internal workings of SQL-Hero includes a SQL abstraction layer that allows for other database types to be added, offering similar functionality as is currently exposed for SQL Server.

• Triggers: the infrastructure to support notifications can be extended to fire off actions when certain events occur; for example, automatically launching a code gen (integrated with source control) when certain user-defined properties are changed.

• There's a host of small features, fixes and improvements that taken together transform a solid and tested product into an even better performer.

• Adding new types of meta-data that can be attributed; SQL-Hero will continue to become a repository for virtually any kind of enumerable entity and all their relationships.

• More direct support for Business Intelligence solutions, including constructing ETL (SQL), SSIS and SSAS structures from meta-data, continuing the theme of declarative programming. An interesting extension of the central repository that's part of SQL-Hero is the fact that future versions can provide more tools that present data mining models over top your enterprise meta-data. The repository's scalability is proven in production environments already where millions of records of meta-data are being tracked: imagine the wealth of knowledge embedded within!

• Further work that enhances the CodeX framework, leveraging the best-of technologies such as Microsoft's Entity Framework and LINQ (which is already supported).

• New kinds of templates that allow you to do things you hadn't even thought of yet... integration with PowerShell scripting will offer some interesting options.

• Adding extensibility points to SQL-Hero, letting you plug in your own reports as one example.

• More examination of real patterns of developers: research and development that benefits you by saving time in your daily tasks.

• New kinds of meta-data and declarative programming - leading to new kinds of code generation, in turn leading to the ultimate use case: can we build a complete application with only coding that is related to fundamental behavior and data? And can we do it better than many competitors? And can it be simple enough to understand that an average developer can pick it up and make it work without spending hours learning the tricks and nuances? What would the maintenance implications of this be? We already have a nice example of building complete and richly functional search screens with minimal coding. More effort will be focused on this going forward.

• A comprehensive study / white-paper that compares different approaches and frameworks, in effect quantifying the previous point and making it clear what approaches have traction for the next generation of developers and their solutions; and we're paying close attention to performance as a primary driver (and yes, measuring it). It's critical to support non-trivial requirements, and so we're talking about building complex screens and functions: study fodder will get into complex business logic and multi-tiered application topologies.

Getting involved with SQL-Hero today gives you a leg up in your learning process, poised to take advantage of these new features later.