Hi Friends,

I made an application generator for Laravel and would like to know your opinion about it. Do you think this will make your development process easier?

Here is the background story of it:

I've created some information system applications and found that there were always repetitive tasks that took my time (I wanted to focus on the unique process). The tasks that I'm talking is not only for starting the development process, but also during the development. I was wondering if I could just describe my basic need of my next project so that I could focus on modifying the unique parts of the application. In information system application, my basic need is database schema.

So, I created a simple text file to describe database schema and the field type (in View, not database) as the input of my generator. By specifying in a text file, i can edit it and change it later more easily. It also help me to imagine how the form will look like. I wanted a solution that allow me not having to use command line.

This is the sample YAML

products :
	name : text
	price : number
	quantity : number
	discount : decimal
customer_categories :
	name : text
customers :
	full_name : text
	customer_category_id : select
	address : longtext-simple
	phone : text
	email : email
	website : url
	is_active : radio
sales_orders :
	customer_id : select
	date : datepicker
sales_order_items :
	sales_order_id : fk
	product_id : select
	price : number
	quantity : number

In case you want to know more about designing YAML (I'm using Google Translate now and working on translating it to English) :

So my development workflow is :

1. Designing YAML
2. Generate the application prototype
3. Modify the unique parts.

I realised from the beginning that it will be hard to automate all things, the modification process will always required (especially because it is business application). However, I do hope that I can reduce the development time, so any saved time is always appreciated.

During project development process, there will always repetitive tasks too. I was inspired by Active Admin from RoR, so I took some approach from there.

You can read more about it at Avelca Website - www.avelca.com and Avelca Wiki.

Please sign up (free) to try the Live Preview of your generated application at Avelca Platform.

I wonder if this tool might be useful to any of you.

Thanks. :)