Oh yeah....I use VB. 

Do I need to create a custom field property for the state in the CompanyBO?  In the Business Object Mapper, what do I need to put in the "custom code" for the State field on the CompanyBO? 

Meaning I would not check the box to create a descriptor?  I apologize for being slow.  Is there a sample project that illustrates the use of the BO Mapper to create custom code?

As for your second question, yes, you would want to leave the Create Field Descriptor unchecked or the BOMapper will create the FieldPropertyDescriptor for that property.

Not that I'm aware of... I wouldn't suspect that it would be in SQL Server Management Studio, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if there was a 3rd party tool that would do it. 

Hrm... the StrataFrameSample database with sample data should be deployed by the SF install to the same server that the StrataFrame database was installed.  So, unless you skipped that option, you should have some sample data somewhere.

My point was the data schema Robert send was for two tables that aren't part of the sample data

And I was wondering if before creating the sample you had somehow magically imported from the schema into a DB so you could map with the BO mapper.

I think I was having a bad expressing myself day

( but it did get me Googling and it turns out there is indeed a way to create XSD Schemas from SQL 2005 with t_sql and then the there a way of creating data structures in SQL from schemas, but the format Robert used wasn't the one, so I guess that wasn't the intention )

Just trying to catch up on the huge gaps in my basic knowledge of VS/VB tricks

I'm glad you found a few tools to convert the XSDs and so forth.  But just remember, the only 2 sources of structures for the BOMapper are the DDT and the database itself on the server.

I added the following custom code to the StateBO for a parameterless data retrieval method:

Then I modified the custom code for the CustomersBO by adding the following lines of code only:

Next I did a BuildAll so that the Company and State Business Objects were recompiled.

To test it, I moved the State Textbox (Textbox9) to the bottom of the form (you could just as easily remove it) and replaced it with a StrataFrame ComboBox on which I set the following properties: BusinessObject=Customers, BindingField = cust_State, DropDownStyle=DropDownList, PopulationType=BusinessObject, PopulationDataSourceSettings=StateBO.FillAllStateTable().  The PopulationDataSourceSettings property gets built by clicking the ellipsis on the property.  Inside there I put {0} under Display Member and Drop-Down Display, StateName under ValueMember and added StateCode to DisplayMember.

When you run the form the combo box will display the state code for the current record as you browse.  If you edit/add a record the combo box displays a list of all possible state codes.  If you change a value and save it, the Customers table will save the state name associated with the state code.

That should get you started if you're still looking at this.

In the following declaration statement what is the naming convention calling for the variable name to begin with an underline?  Is this typically used for property variables?

Other than that, I don't know of any convention that says that your private fields (or any other member fields) need to start with an _.  We just do because we like the convention.  I've looked through the .NET framework using Reflector a few times, and in most of their stuff, they either start their private fields with an _ and camel case them or just camel case them (_myField or myField).  It's entirely up to you.

I can't find the MSDN page that lists the .NET naming conventions, but this guy has most of them listed.  Look down at the one that says "Class-Level Private and Protected Variables"

http://www.irritatedvowel.com/Programming/Standards.aspx

I have this working with one caveat.

I have a "Users" table that hold basic inforamtion such as First and Last name but am using forms authentication and want to take full advantage of that so am using the aspnet_ tables as well. To do this, I am joining together my Users table with aspnet_Users and aspnet_Membership. There is no data of use to me in the aspnet_Users table but there is quite a bit of useful info in the membership table.

To do this the way that has been described, I am customizing the UserName field in my user table (the FK to the UserName field in aspnet_Users) and replacing it with a BO that I mapped against aspnet_membership. I would much rather keep my user name field intact but there is no way in the object mapper to create a field. You can only use (override) fields that are aleady part of the underlying database table.

I can see these work arounds

1. Create a "fake" field in the database to fool the mapper into believing there is an extra field.
2. Manually modify the designer.vb file each time I do a build (kind of pain but not out of the question)
3. Overwriting my UserName field.

Is there something simple and basic I'm missing or is my understanding correct?

Thanks!

If you want to create a second property (instead of replacing the property itself), you'll want to create a new property in the main code file so that it does not get overwritten when the partial class is re-created again.  The easiest way to do this is to copy one of the fields from the designer file, paste it into the main code file (attributes and all) and modify it the way you want it.  Then, just override the GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors() method and return the property descriptor for that property.  (You should be able to search either the help or the forum for "GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors" because it might show you some more information and show you what happens when you don't provide a descriptor ).