Overview

1.Open NuGet Package Manager and search for Xtensive.Orm

2.Install Xtensive.Orm package

The package will automatically install all dependencies.

3.Install desired data providers

Install the desired provider from the list of DataObjects.Net packages. For now we support MS SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Firebird and SQLite.

4.Install DataObjects.Net extensions (optional)

Extensions are small projects that extend standard functionality of DataObjects.Net core. For now there are 5 extensions: Bulk operations, Localization, Reprocessing, Security & ASP.NET Core integration.

1. Define domain model

First of all, you define domain model containing one or more persistent entities. Application development with DataObjects.Net follows the domain-driven design principle, so the model can be declared directly and completely in source code using attributes.

[HierarchyRoot]
public class Message : Entity
{
  [Field, Key]
  public int Id { get; private set; }

  [Field(Length = 100)]
  public string Text { get; set; }
}

2. Build domain

Next step is to configure and build a domain for the model defined above. Domain can be configured to work with different data sources, such as in-memory database (IMDB) or SQL Servers.

// Creating a new domain configuration
var configuration = new DomainConfiguration("sqlserver://localhost/MyDatabase") {
  UpgradeMode = DomainUpgradeMode.Recreate
};

// Registering persistent entities 
configuration.Types.Register(typeof(Message).Assembly);

// Building domain
var domain = Domain.Build(configuration);

3. Work with entities

After the domain is built, we open a session and transaction to work with persistent entities. DataObjects.Net transparently populates their property values from the database, as well as flushes the changes made to persistent entities back. The persistence layer also does performance acceleration like lazy loading and caching behind the scenes.

using (var session = domain.OpenSession()) {
  using (var transactionScope = session.OpenTransaction()) {

    // Creating new Message
    var message = new Message() {
      Text = "Hello World!"
    };

    // This query will be translated to ~ SELECT ... WHERE message.Text LIKE "Hello%"
    var helloMessages = 
      from message in session.Query.All<Message>()
      where message.Text.StartsWith("Hello") 
      select message;

    foreach (var message in helloMessages)
      Console.WriteLine(message.Text);

    transactionScope.Complete();
  }
}