Thanks to everyone who came out to see “What’s New in NHibernate 3?” at the Calgary .NET User Group last night. I had a fun time sharing all the new tidbits available in NHibernate 3 including…
- .NET Client Profile support
- Loquacious configuration
- Support for new data types
- Lazy-loaded properties
- Built-in LINQ provider via Query<T>()
- Strongly-typed Criteria via QueryOver<T>()
- Get/Load polymorphism
I also talked about a few changes coming in NHibernate 3.2 including…
- Improved batch update support
- Built-in ProxyFactoryFactory
A few folks asked why I chose to use hbm.xml files rather than Fluent NHibernate. I used hbm.xml files because I wanted to focus on new NHibernate features. In my projects, I often use Fluent NHibernate’s ClassMap<T> and/or automapping. (ConfORM is another option for automapping, which worth considering.) And PersistenceSpecification<T> from Fluent NHibernate is da bomb! Great way to test your mappings whether or not you’re using Fluent NHibernate.
