Querying the DB using Castle ActiveRecord - NHibernate Query Generator

There are many methods to query your data when you’re on Castle’s ActiveRecord.

Thanks to Ayende, we have a new cool way of doing that, namely NHibernate Query Generator 1.5.

1. You can skip querying, fetch everything and check it in the client:

   1:  Blog[] blogs = Blog.FindAll();

   2:  foreach (Blog blog in blogs)

   3:  {

   4:  if (blog.Name== "Cool Blog")

   5:      {

   6:          firstPostTitleName = blog.Posts[0];

   7:  break;

   8:      }

   9:  }

The Good: Type safety - can catch a lot of errors in compile timeThe Bad: One should let the DBMS handle queries. It’s a total waste of resources.The Bottom line: AVOID

1. You can use direct SQL:

   1:  string firstPostTitleName = (string)ActiveRecordMediator.ExecuteQuery(

   2:  new ScalarQuery(typeof(string), QueryLanguage.Sql, @"

   3:      SELECT TOP 1 Title 

   4:      FROM Post INNER JOIN Blog ON Post.BlogId=Blog.Id

   5:      WHERE Blog.Name= ""Cool Blog"""));

The Good: Well, it’d probably work.The Bad: Joins? Blog.Id? hey - I thought we are using an OR/M !! plus it’snot type safe, The Bottom line: AVOID AT AL COST

1. You can use HQL:

   1:  string firstPostTitleName = (string)ActiveRecordMediator.ExecuteQuery(

   2:  new ScalarQuery(typeof(string), @"

   3:      select title

   4:      from Post p

   5:      where p.Blog.Name = ""Cool Blog"""));

   6:  

The Good: Working with objects, nice and readable query string.The Bad: not type safe, The Bottom line: Use only when 4 and 5 are not applicable.

1. You can use ICriteria:

   1:  string firstPostTitleName = Post.FindOne(

   2:      Expression.Eq("Blog.Name", "Cool Blog"));

The Good: Working with objects, less strings means less error prone.The Bad: not type safe, and a little less readable than HQLThe Bottom line: Use only when 5 is not applicable.

1. And now you can use NQG:

   1:  string firstPostTitleName = Post.FindOne(

   2:      Where.Post.Blog.Name == "Cool Blog");

The Good: Readable, type safe.The Bad: I do not how to invoke sql server side functions with that. And it is a little premature, so you should have solid tests. But you should have them anyway.The Bottom line: Prefer using this method. If it fails, go to 4 or 3.

So IMHO it is a great tool, and I’ve went right away to test it and play a little with the source (I’ve even found and fixed a little bug !!).

Notice that I’ve tagged it under Linq, too, since it gives us a Linq-ish way to query the DB in a typesafe elegant manner. In VB.NET the query code looks even better.