ORM (Object Relational Mapper) - what is available

Once you get familiar with ORM's you will "Love or Hate" the idea.

For a new project I write I decided to use once more an ORM Tool. There are so many ORM's outside there and because I develop it only in .Net C# and I love the idea for open source I decided I only go for an open source object relational mapper.

Microsoft comes out with some stuff called "Linq to SQL" and "Entity Framework". I could find lot of information about it but in the end I could NOT find a really working solution which is based on a n-tier architecture. Since my point of view is that applications are also applications which are based on different tiers or models I'm not satisfied with this "0815 / drag & drop" Microsoft solutions which are done in 5 minutes.

An application has to be divided into various tiers. Lets say it simple:
- Data Access Layer
- Business Object Layer
- Presentation Layer

if you need more well done but I prefer a clean architecture instead of one Website Project which contains a mix of anything. Can be that for other people it is good enough. Anyway, enough about my personal point of view.

Following criteria are important to me:

• Perspective on Performance
• Perspective on Data-source independence - access various data-sources SQL Server, OBDC etc.
• Perspective on Lazy Load of parent entities
• Perspective on Pluggable Creation Mechanism
• Perspective on Separation Of Tiers And Layering Preferences
• Perspective on Transactions Control
• Perspective on Mapping (1:1, 1:N, N:M)
• Perspective on Query Facilities

After many hours of researching, downloads, testings and clarifications I come up with the following list which could be interesting. Please note the notes beside are my personal point of views and does not need to match anything other opinion.

• http://www.ornetmapper.com/contact.aspx - Problems to generate ASP.Net Membership Tables needed to adapt code for creating first samples.
• http://www.codeplex.com/crudcodegen - Console application and doesn't display errors
• http://www.codeplex.com/IrisGenerator/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Quick%20Start&referringTitle=User%20Guide - Very nice UI but it throws an exception upon creation, after downloading the solution from codeplex I was not able to compile the solution.
• http://www.codeplex.com/ZFCGDAL - It's a Mygeneration Software Template. I loved to work in past with MyGen but the template Ver 2 does not work for some reasons.
• http://www.codeplex.com/affinityorm - It's only an attempt, currently it display tables and data but not more then that.
• http://www.codeplex.com/mitadata/ - Only contains a test project, not usable
• http://www.codeplex.com/LazyFramework/SourceControl/DownloadSourceCode.aspx?changeSetId=15856 - VB.Net - doesn't match my requirements.
  http://www.codeplex.com/netopenfwk - Don't get what this should do with ORM.
  http://www.codeplex.com/DbEntry - A huge framework and sample applications are available but how do I generate code I don't know
• http://www.codeplex.com/Sculpture - Amazing Model Driven approach - you have to watch screen casts!!!!!
• http://www.codeplex.com/jmr - not active since aug. 2007
• http://www.codeplex.com/autodbupdater - Its not an ORM Mapper (DbUpdater keeps a simple record of all scripts that have previously been run against a database and which 'version' of the database each script was run against)
• http://www.codeplex.com/normal/SourceControl/ListDownloadableCommits.aspx - not active since dec. 2007 - download is not compilable
  http://www.codeplex.com/worm - Web ORM - a mix of C# and VB.Net - no clue where to start.
• http://www.codeplex.com/nanomapper - Very nice and simple but it would need extensions e.g. save xml schema and selection of tables which have to be generated.
• http://www.codeplex.com/SimpleDAL - started project need to check in some months agian

Notice: if you have an actual ORM mapper which is not listed above post them please (Only Open Source Projects please and no shareware - comments with links to shareware application will not be approved!!).

Problems with Asp.Net ProfileCommon class?

I wanted to use built in provided profile provider which is shipped with ASP.Net. I created a Web Application Project (WAP) and figured out that ProfileCommon file is not generated anymore automatically as it has been done in previous visual studio project solution templates.

After quite a while of researching I understood that this seems to be a common problem - it's not worth to write a fully custom provider only for some profile specific settings.

The good issue is - I'm not alone with this problem.

The better thing is - it has been already solved by a project which is available on code.msdn.microsoft.com: Web Profile Builder - thanks to robolize to come up with this solution and sharing it with us.

Evaldas Jocys: Globalization Resources for Multilanguage Development

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/locale/JocysComGlobalization.aspx?msg=2760744#xx2760744xx

Introduction
This article contains MUST HAVE tables and data for proper multi language development. I highly recommend to use ISO (International Organizations for Standardization) as primary source of information, because this is the only way to go for high quality products and compatibility. Please remember that ISO usually only manages standards. Behind each ISO standard there are companies which supplies databases and updates to commercial users. Internet is also good source of information so I've collected globalization data from various resources and placed into 6 tables. If you have some suggestions then please contact me by email: Evaldas Jocys <evaldas@jocys.com>
Data for these tables are required to produce full multilingual support:

• Languages - information about all languages.
• Cultures - information about all cultures (Language + Country).
• Encodings - information about all encodings.
• Ranges - can help to get customer's culture by IP.
• Currencies - business information about each country.
• Currencies by Country- currencies used in country.

it would be very intersting to combine this with the following:

ASP.NET 2.0 Custom SQL Server Resource

ProviderBy Jeff Modzel

jQuery.com and Microsoft .Net

I think you have read and heard already about a javascript framework called: jQuery this js framework seems to grow and grow ... almost endless. Since Microsoft (Scott Guthrie http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx) announced they gone integrate this framework into Visual Studio they decided finally a takeover a community project into their environment instead to develop something new from scratch. My personal point of view, this is the right decision and they should do this with more projects.

Trivia - Chaostriva.com

do you like trivia? well I do and found finally a multiplayer trivia game - try this out: http://www.chaostrivia.com/

enjoy and lets play

would be funny to create a quiz about .net, web or anything related to development.