Went to lunch with some friends today and Justin was totally raving about SubSonic, a DAL (Data Access Layer) generator that includes Intellisense Integration at design time, scaffolding (Rails-style) and full generation of a project specific DAL (using partial classes so you can regenerate without upsetting your own code). Here's the blurb on the website:
SubSonic is a toolset that helps a website build itself. At it's core it's:
- A Data Access Layer (DAL) builder that requires no code on your part, it builds itself at compile-time with a full object layer and strongly-typed collections
- A complete utility toolset, complete with Rails-like scaffolding, migrations (DB Versioning), and code generators
- A dynamic query tool, that lets you use SQL Server and the Enterprise Library without having to know SQL
- An OR Mapper that extends to views and stored procedures so you're not locked into the OR/M thing
Might look at it one of these days. In the meantime, check it out here. There's also a demo webcast here