Project Cato README File

INTRODUCTION
------------

Cato is a CRUD generator that can be used to generate files for any
programming language or tool. For instance, you can generate any of
these CRUD-based files, and many more:

  * Java model classes
  * Java JSP files
  * Spring Framework XML files
  * Ruby on Rails files
  * CakePHP files
  * Drupal form files
  * SQL statements for any language
  * Anything else you can imagine that can be driven off your
    database tables

All you have to do is tell Cato where your database is, define
some template files (as needed), then point and click to
generate whatever file you want that can be based off your
database definition.

This is essentially the same process used in the "generate"
processes of Ruby on Rails and CakePHP, but it is (a) independent of
programming language, and (b) available through a web GUI.

USING CATO
----------

Once installed, using Cato is easy to use. From the main screen:

  1 Select the database table you'd like to generate CRUD from.
  2 Select the table fields you want to include.
  3 Select the template for the output you want to generate.
  4 Click the "Generate" button.

You can see a short demo in action at this URL:

/screenshots-crud-generator/

Our INSTALL file describes the process of installing Cato, which
we've also tried to make as painless as possible.

TEMPLATE FILES
--------------

As you saw in that demo, Cato generates its CRUD output based on
template files. As a result, if you can define the template file
for what you want, you can easily generate CRUD-based output.

Many template files are included as examples. You can use those, or
just use them as examples to create your own template files.

The templating language is based on the Smarty template project.
We've documented this in our TEMPLATES documentation page, and you
can learn much more about Smarty templates at this URL:

http://www.smarty.net/

MORE INFORMATION
----------------

You can find more information about the Cato Project at this URL:



THE NAME "CATO"
---------------

The name "Cato" comes from the character on the old Pink Panther
movies. When I (Alvin Alexander) first started developing this
project, I thought that this app should be an "assistant" to me
when developing database applications. As soon as I thought of
"assistant" I thought of Cato, Inspector Clouseau's trusty
assistant.