NHibernate is an open source object-relational mapper, or simply put, a way to retrieve data from your database into standard .NET objects. Quite often we spend hours designing the database, only to go back and re-design a mechanism to access that data and then optimize that mechanism. This book will save you time on your project, providing all the information along with concrete examples about the use and optimization of NHibernate.

This book is an approachable, detailed introduction to the NHibernate object-relational mapper and how to integrate it with your .NET projects. If you’re tired of writing stored procedures or maintaining inline SQL, this is the book for you.

Connecting to a database to retrieve data is a major part of nearly every project, from websites to desktop applications to distributed applications. Using the techniques presented in this book, you can access data in your own database with little or no code.

This book covers the use of NHibernate from a first glance at retrieving data and developing access layers to more advanced topics such as optimization and Security and Membership providers. It will show you how to connect to multiple databases and speed up your web applications using strong caching tools. We also discuss the use of third-party tools for code generation and other tricks to make your development smoother, quicker, and more effective.

This easy-to-follow guide will show you how to connect the NHibernate object-relational mapper to your projects to create a rich, efficient, object-oriented data access layer with little or no additional work

Rapidly retrieve data from your database into .NET objects

Incorporate robust, efficient data access into your .Net projects

Gain database independence, not tied to any particular technology

Avoid spending countless hours developing data access layers

Eliminate writing stored procedures

Clear, precise step-by-step directions to get up and running quickly

What you will learn from this book

Use NHibernate to retrieve and store data in your database

Develop an efficient, robust data access layer with little or no code

Design or modify your database for high performance

Connect to multiple databases or database backends with simple code

Implement base classes to provide basic functionality for all database objects

Improve the performance of your data retrieval methods with proven open source technology

Make web applications faster using strong caching strategies such as memcached

Simplify data storage and display using built-in .NET data controls with NHibernate

Using NHibernate to control application security using Membership and Role providers and .NET security controls

Aaron Cure has been a developer for over fifteen years, developing web applications, Windows and web services, desktop applications, external interfaces, custom hardware, and everything in between. Many of his applications run in both Windows and Linux environments using the Mono .NET framework. He has extensive experience using multiple data access technologies, as well as knowledge of multiple database server platforms. He is a frequent contributor to open source applications, including the NHibernate Generation project he started on Sourceforge.