Generate Enums from database lookup tables. CoreAutomation.tt - t4 helper class, that uses EnvDTE to get all Projects in Solution, configurations, etc. DBEnum.tt - generates enums for tables by criteria enumDescriptionColumnName

CoreAutomation.tt

<#@ template debug="true" hostspecific="true" language="C#" #>
<#@ output encoding="utf-8" extension=".cs"#>
<#@ assembly name="EnvDTE" #>
<#@ assembly name="EnvDTE80" #>
<#@ assembly name="System.Core" #>
<#@ assembly name="System.Configuration" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Configuration" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Text.RegularExpressions" #>
<#@ import namespace="EnvDTE" #>
<#@ import namespace="EnvDTE80" #>
<#+

public class CoreAutomation
{
    private readonly DTE _dte;
  
    public CoreAutomation(IServiceProvider host)
    {
        _dte = (DTE)host.GetService(typeof(DTE));
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides access to the host project.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/envdte.project.aspx
    /// </remarks>
    public Project CurrentProject
    {
        get
        {
            return (Project)((Array)_dte.ActiveSolutionProjects).GetValue(0);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides access to the host solution.
    /// </summary>
    public Solution Solution 
    { 
        get { return _dte.Solution; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides access to the hosts solution startup project.
    /// </summary>
    public Project StartUpProject 
    {
        get
        {
            var startupProjectName = ((Array)_dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.StartupProjects).GetValue(0).ToString();
			
            var projects = Projects();

            foreach (var project in projects)
            {
                // returns object typeof(Project), not just project name
                if (project.UniqueName == startupProjectName)
                return project;
            }
            return null;
        }
    }
	
    /// <summary>
    /// Provides access to the application/web configuration file.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.configuration.configuration.aspx
    /// </remarks>
    public System.Configuration.Configuration Configuration(Project project)
    {
        string configurationFilename = null;
        foreach (ProjectItem item in project.ProjectItems)
        {
            if (!Regex.IsMatch(item.Name, "(app|web).config", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) 
                continue;
            configurationFilename = item.FileNames[0];
            break;
        }

        if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(configurationFilename))
        {
            var configFile = new ExeConfigurationFileMap {ExeConfigFilename = configurationFilename};
            return System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(configFile, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        }
    	return null;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns all Projects in Solution
    /// </summary> 
    public IList<Project> Projects()
    {
        var projects = _dte.Solution.Projects;
        var list = new List<Project>();
        var item = projects.GetEnumerator();
        while (item.MoveNext())
        {
            var project = item.Current as Project;
            if (project == null)
            {
                continue;
            }

            if (project.Kind == ProjectKinds.vsProjectKindSolutionFolder)
            {
                list.AddRange(GetSolutionFolderProjects(project));
            }
            else
            {
            list.Add(project);
            }
        }
        return list;
    }

    private IEnumerable<Project> GetSolutionFolderProjects(Project solutionFolder)
    {
        var list = new List<Project>();
        for (var i = 1; i <= solutionFolder.ProjectItems.Count; i++)
        {
            var subProject = solutionFolder.ProjectItems.Item(i).SubProject;
            if (subProject == null)
            {
                continue;
            }

            // If this is another solution folder, do a recursive call, otherwise add
            if (subProject.Kind == ProjectKinds.vsProjectKindSolutionFolder)
            {
                list.AddRange(GetSolutionFolderProjects(subProject));
            }
            else
            {
                list.Add(subProject);
            }
        }
        return list;
    }
}
#>

DBEnum.tt

<#@ template debug="true" hostspecific="true" language="C#" #>
<#@ output encoding="utf-8" extension=".cs"#>
<#@ include file="EF.Utility.CS.ttinclude"#>
<#@ include file="CoreAutomation.tt" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Data.Entity.Design.PluralizationServices" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" #> 
<#            
    // instantiate CoreAutomation
    var coreAutomation = new CoreAutomation((IServiceProvider)this.Host);
	
    // get startup project for our solution
    var startupProject = coreAutomation.StartUpProject;
    var connectionStrings = coreAutomation.Configuration(startupProject).ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings;
    string connectionString = null;
	
    // Release or Debug?
    var configuration = coreAutomation.Solution.SolutionBuild.ActiveConfiguration.Name;
    switch (configuration)
    {
        case "Debug":
            connectionString = connectionStrings["development"].ConnectionString;
            break;
        case "Release":
            connectionString = connectionStrings["production"].ConnectionString;
            break;
    }
	
    // System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(connectionString); - you can view it with Dbgview.exe from SysInternals

    // enum value column name:
    const string enumDescriptionColumnName = "EnumDescription";

    // enum namespace
    const string enumNameSpace = "MyNamespace.Enums";


    var fileManager = EntityFrameworkTemplateFileManager.Create(this);
    var codeGenerationTools = new CodeGenerationTools(this);

    // open ADO connection
    if (connectionString != null)
    {
        var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
        var command = connection.CreateCommand();
        connection.Open();

        command.CommandText = string.Format(@"select distinct t.name 
                                            from sys.tables as t
                                            inner join sys.columns as c on t.object_id = c.object_id
                                            and c.name = '{0}'", enumDescriptionColumnName);

        var tableReader = command.ExecuteReader();
        var enumTables = new List<string>();
        while (tableReader.Read())
        {
            enumTables.Add(tableReader["name"].ToString());
        }
        connection.Close();

        foreach (var tableName in enumTables)
        {
            connection.Open();

            // get the enum name
            var enumName = PluralizationService.CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US")).Singularize(tableName);
            fileManager.StartNewFile(enumName + ".cs");
            
            WriteLine("namespace " + enumNameSpace);
            ClearIndent();
            WriteLine("{");
            PushIndent("    ");
            WriteLine("public enum " + enumName);
            WriteLine("{");

            ClearIndent();
            command.CommandText = string.Format("select * from {0}", codeGenerationTools.Escape(tableName));
            var columnReader = command.ExecuteReader();
            var values = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            while (columnReader.Read())
            {
                // Fill only the values that the field "enumDescriptionColumnName" have value
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(columnReader[enumDescriptionColumnName].ToString().Trim()))
                {
                    values.Add(columnReader[enumDescriptionColumnName].ToString().Trim().Replace(" ",""),
                               columnReader[0].ToString().Trim().Replace(" ",""));

                }
            }
            
            foreach (var entry in values)
            {
                PushIndent("    ");
                PushIndent("    ");
                WriteLine(entry.Key + " = " + entry.Value + ",");
                ClearIndent();
            }
            PushIndent("    ");
            WriteLine("}");
            ClearIndent();
            WriteLine("}");

            connection.Close();
    }
    fileManager.Process();
}
#>

Thank you for putting this out on Gist. The code itself did what I wanted, but more importantly for me, it's a great T4 example to learn and build on. Thanks