Features related to NHibernate

To use NHibernate, you have all the designer features at your disposal. Choosing NHibernate as target framework allows you to generate code from the entity model in your project. The following list gives an overview of the various aspects of that generated code, what options are available to you and which functionality is available to you to configure the generated code and control what the generated code looks like. The Databases which are supported for NHibernate: SQL Server 2000 and higher (Default dialect is SQL Server 2005), CE Desktop 3.5 or higher Oracle 9i or higher using ODP.NET or MS Oracle. (Default dialect is Oracle10g) Sybase iAnywhere / ASA Sybase Advanced Server Enterprise / ASE MySql. (Default dialect is MySQL5) PostgreSql DB2 Firebird Hbm.xml and FluentNHibernate support. You can generate mapping files in hbm.xml format or FluentNHibernate format and switch whenever you like. Configure the generated code using a wide range of settings. For NHibernate, the designer offers specific settings for both hbm.xml and FluentNHibernate. For more details see NHibernate settings Generated code is divided into two VS.NET projects: Model and Persistence Through the selection of 'presets', you can select what kind of code is generated: code which uses hbm.xml mappings or FluentNHibernate mappings, and also whether you just want to generate mappings and not classes or classes plus mappings. More information... IUserType support through type converters By implementing IUserType on a TypeConverter you can map a field of any type onto any table/view field. More information... Designer constructs and their effect on the generated code Entities can be mapped onto a table or view and are available as normal classes. Fields mapped onto a related field are available at the entity class level. Value Type Definitions are generated as normal classes Typed Lists are generated as HQL queries. This allows you to design projections over model elements in the LLBLGen Pro designer and use them using HQL in your code. More information... Typed Views can be mapped onto a table or view and can be used as read-only classes in queries. More information... Generated code is source-control friendly and well documented. The generated code is designed to be generated in the same form every time so elements appear at the same position and are named the same. Every element is documented with XML document elements to make it easy to produce XML Doc reference manuals. Generated code is extensible. The generated code is designed to be extensible: both with generic base classes which can be used to add code to all generated classes of a given kind (e.g. all entity classes) and through a partial class per generated class to implement partial methods and add own custom code. The hbm.xml files are extensible through user code regions so you can add your own XML to the hbm.xml files at various places inside safe regions which are preserved by the code generator across code generation cycles. FluentNHibernate mapping classes are extensible through partial classes and partial methods Generated code comes with own Session manager and hibernate.cfg files The generated code is ready to use and comes with a SessionManager class and a pre-setup hibernate.cfg file so you can get started with your own application right away. You can decide to use your own versions of these files or extend them. Generated code implements best-practices The generated code is designed to meet the NHibernate best practices like implementing Equals and GetHashCode, using IList typed properties for collection navigators and more.