The command-line tool, called Blinq, enables Web developers to quickly build an ASP.Net 2.0-based Web site with data from a SQL Server database, a Microsoft representative said. It is currently available as a prototype.

"Just point Blinq at a SQL database, and it will create a Web site with pages that display sorted and paged data, allow you to update or delete records, create new records, and follow relationships between tables in your database," according to a Web page (http://www.asp.net/sandbox/app_blinq.aspx?tabid=62) authored by Polita Paulus, a developer on Microsoft's ASP.Net team. Developers using Blinq do not need to write SQL queries.

The technology automates common tasks typically involved in displaying data in a Web site. Developers can generate a working Web site to serve as a starting point for building a customized data site as an example for LINQ queries. LINQ (.Net Language Integrated Query) features extensions to the .Net Framework that save developers from having to learn separate query syntaxes to query over data domains such as XML.

Microsoft is not providing any formal support for Blinq and has no plans to refresh the prototype. "Our goal with this prototype is to get community feedback as we consider this as a possible feature in Visual Studio Orcas," Microsoft's representative said. Orcas is expected to ship some time after the planned 2007 release of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system.

The May Community Technology Preview of LINQ is required to use the current version of Blinq.