Introduction to FluentData - The Micro ORM

Introduction to FluentData

Lars-Erik Kindblad
Senior Consultant
Blog: kindblad.com

Agenda

 What is FluentData?
 Why was FluentData created?
 Architecture
 Sample code
 Road map

| Sector, Alliance, Offering

What is FluentData?

 Micro ORM for .NET
 Makes it simple to query a relational database
 Open Source
 MIT license
 http://fluentdata.codeplex.com
 NuGet: FluentData


Why was FluentData created?
 ORMs such as Entity Framework and NHibernate have too many
disadvantages
• Framework is too complex
• Forces you to design the .NET Model in a special way by using attributes and
ORM Framework specific types
• Hard to define the mapping between the database model and business model
• A lot of mapping code/XML – not any less code than SQL and manual mapping
• Uses an abstracted query language instead of SQL
o Hard to do complex queries, Generates poor SQL, Slow
• Takes a long time to learn and master
• Drag and drop designers are buggy and limiting
• = Leads to unpredictable development time and performance
 ... had to be a better way to do it


Alternatives to ORMs?

 ADO.NET
• Powerful
• Flexible
• Great performance
• ... but too much manual code


A Better Alternative?

ORM Micro ORM ADO.NET

Secure Fast
Auto mapping Simple
Flexible
Fast
Predictable
Flexible
Manual mapping
Predictable
Secure
Auto mapping
Manual mapping


Micro ORM

 Uses SQL – the native and optimized query language for databases,
rock solid – in use since the 70s
 Thin wrapper layer on top of ADO.NET:
• Reduce repetitive code
• Support auto mapping
 Map per query instead of per Entity

 = Result
• Fast
• Simple
• Efficient


Goals of FluentData

 Easy to learn
 Simple and efficient to use
 Fast
 Secure
 Single DLL
 Only the Data Access Layer should be affected by FluentData
 Select queries should be SQL, insert, update and delete queries can
be SQL or generated
 Support the major databases


Features

 Fluent API
 Supports SQL Server, SQL Server Compact, SQL Azure, Access,
MySQL, Oracle
 Use SQL to select data and builders to insert, update, delete data
 Supports
• Auto mapping and custom mapping
• Stored Procedures
• Transactions
• Multiple result sets
• Custom collections eg. ProductCollection instead of List<Product>
• Provider model
• ++


Architecture


DbContext

 Starting point for working with FluentData
 Use it to define settings such as
• ConnectionString or ConnectionStringName
• UseTransaction
 Hook up your own method to any of the supported events
• OnConnectionOpened
• OnConnectionOpening
• OnConnectionClosed
• OnExecuting
• OnExecuted
• OnError


DbCommand

 Responsible for performing the actually query against the database


Mapping

 FluentData can automap query results to your own entity type or to a
dynamic type (new in .NET 4.0)
 or you can map the query results manually


Builders

 Fluent API to generate SQL for insert, update and delete queries


Getting started

 Download FluentData.dll from either
• FluentData.CodePlex.com
• NuGet
 Add a reference to FluentData.dll in your Data Access Project


Model
Database

.NET


Create and Initialize the DbContext


INSERT DATA


Insert a Category

SQL

Builder


UPDATE DATA


Update a Product


DELETE DATA


Delete a Product


SELECT DATA


Select a Category


Select all Categories

Map to List<Category>

Map to CategoryCollection


Select all Products with the related Category

Auto Mapping


Select all Products with the related Category

Manual Mapping


Count the number of Products


Select All Categories + All Products


Select Products 1,2,3,4


TRANSACTIONS


Insert multiple products within a Transaction


Road map

 Add support for more databases
• SQLite, PostgreSQL +
 Add a Select Builder with Paging support and strongly typed auto
mapping
 Simplify code
 Single Source File
 Performance improvements
 .NET intellisense for the database model


QUESTIONS?


Introduction to FluentData - The Micro ORM

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