Code Generator for CodeIgniter Framework anyone?

This would work in small CRUD-y apps, where form validation logic is as simple as field lengths, data type checking and commonly-used regular expression checking. Unfortunately, not a lot of web-apps are as simple as that.

@leypascua - True but then one can modify the source to his/her liking (say modifying/improving the so simple validation logic) and perhaps share these additions to the open source community or to the dev guy who started the thing.

My perception of having a code generator "tool" somehow "standardize" the code. Moreover, if we can feed this "tool" with a template of our desired code output then I guess developers can do away manual coding of repetitive task thereby shortening the development time.

I agree with you totally of getting alienated in the long run, but this is only when one misses out to learn the principles behind the outputted code, probably the design pattern used or "scaffolding" mechanism.

Can I assume you're not in favor of creating code generators targetting the CodeIgniter framework? Thanks!

IMO, Stick to the conventions published by CI and you'll be fine.

What I do is to keep a clean folder structure for CI which I can re-use in projects. I created a batch file to copy the folder structure to a location where I will put my code for a new project.

I haven't been in a situation where there are a lot of boilerplate code in CI aside from data access tasks. With sufficient code completion and refactoring support in your IDE you'll be churning out code fast enough to get the job done.

Developers are supposed to know all of the most used conventions, otherwise you are not getting the most out of CI. Its creators have already defined how code should be written so that the framework can work on infrastructure plumbing for you. IMHO, developers are required to strictly adhere to the conventions and know when to extend it when necessary. CI has already built-in the shortcuts, you don't need to create your own :-)

That's my point. When you're first starting out, you don't know all the conventions, so it's nice to have something to work from that follows them. To me, the code generator isn't a shortcut, it's a guide.