We are right now in the process of evaluating an ORM tool for our enterprise application. I initially suggested DLINQ, but people were also interested in NHIBERNATE (a port of the popular HIBERNATE ORM tool in the Java World).
I downloaded NHIBERNATE and am in the process of evaluating it. I see that it has a lot of features, but unfortunately there is no in-depth documentation or books on the same.
I would like to know the roadmap of DLINQ and when its next update is expected. Also, if anyone has done comparision of DLINQ with NHIBERNATE, do let me know as I do not want to reinvent the wheel again.
Srinivas Sampath
DLINQ vs. NHIBERNATE
laszlo.gosztola
I can strongly recommend the "Hibernate in Action" book despite the fact that it is describes the Java version. The book is an excellent description of what an ORM should do and this knowledge is platform agnostic. Sure the code is always in Java but heck there really is not much difference between Java and C# and it reads well. I totally enjoyed it.
I have just come off a 9 month project dependent on nHibernate and was very pleased with how well we were able to map complex joins etc. However there is one thing that worries me and that is the longterm future of nHibernate. To my knowledge it was been maintained at JBoss and they were bought by someone (I believe Red Hat). If that is true I wonder if Red Hat will continue to support the effort as they have little interest in .NET . If I were starting a project right now I would make sure that database layer was carefully abstracted e.g provider base as I think we are dealing with a moving target.
nashvilledan
Depending on your business needs, DLinq may not be an option. Remember that it's only a preview, due for Orcas, and as such isn't licensed for production use.
However, you can already see the strong-typing, the language integration, etc that happens when you have compiler support. There are C# chats every two weeks (including this one, I believe) on Thursdays, where you can get live Q&A with the devs on the team.
Answer please
DLinq isn't mature yet (it is in preview) and I wouldn't bet an enterpise application on it - I would wait at least for go-live license.
NHibernate is an open source project and as such, I wouldn't use it for professional applications, too.
That said, I would use a professional ORM. My primary choice would be either Developer Express' XPO2 (in RC version right now) or LLBLGen Pro.
Here is a guide that might help you (not that it is missing XPO2 since it is soon to be released):
http://www.howtoselectguides.com/dotnet/ormapping/
Your Neighbour
You stated “but unfortunately there is no in-depth documentation or books on [NHibernate]”.
After using NHibernate for over a year (successfully for a fairly large ERP system) and still do on a daily basis, I’d like to say that the statement is 100% wrong.
Since NHibernate is a port of Hibernate, 99% of the literature, forums, etc. are valid for NHibernate as well. Personally, I use Hibernate In Action as my primary source of documentation and am very pleased.
// Martin Rosen-Lidholm
Sean2408
because you can use any dbms and transport any dbms... in additionaly; you create db things only one command!..
Jean St-Arneault
Thanks a lot. This is what I was looking for.
Srinivas Sampath
EdwinLam
I did see books on Hibernate, but had some difficulty porting the samples to the .NET world. ORM tools is a new area for me and I was looking more at books aimed at the appropriate platform. Also, the documentation for NHibernate itself mentioned that it was not complete and was evolving and I saw sections in the documentation that were empty and not fully complete. I was also lost in quite a few sections since the documentation is not aimed at teaching a novice about ORM techniques.
Anyways, now that you mention and re-iterate it, I will dig more through Hibernate's documentation.
Srinivas Sampath