Miroslav's Code Mind

We started off by learning NHibernate. Up until then I didn't use any OR/M (I don't consider LINQ 2 SQL to be a full OR/M). Most of the time, the code I wrote used ADO.NET DataReaders, alone or inside CSLA.NET DataPortal_xxx methods.

Since there is a lot of buzz lately about OR/Ms, Entity Framework is about to be released, it already got a vote of no confidence from ALT.NET group, etc, the good learning material isn't so hard to find. When I'm learning something new, I'm trying to find and use best good practices, established by the people who have been used that technology for a longer time. The following posts/articles/screencasts really helped me and my team to get on the right track.

The NHibernate FAQ by Gabriel Schenker is a great starting point:

• Prepare your system for NHibernate
• Your first NHibernate based application
• Lazy Loading - Eager Loading
• Identity Field, Equality and Hash Code
• How to setup a new solution
• Eager loading aggregate with many child collections
• Soft Deletes
• NHibernate and the Unit of Work Pattern
• NHibernate and the Unit of Work Pattern (Part 2)
• NHibernate and the Unit of Work pattern (Part 3)
• NHibernate and Castle Active Record (Part 1)
• Create and Update Database Schema
• Loading a complex object graph
• How to map a tree in NHibernate
• Mapping Collections in NHibernate (Part 1)
• How to configure Log4Net for use with NHibernate

Steve Bohlen's excellent screencast series Summer of NHibernate.

Ben Scheirman's series of articles about NHibernate and Domain Driven Design:

• A Journey with NHibernate - Part 1
• A Journey With NHibernate - Part 2
• A Journey With NHibernate (and DDD) - Part 3
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 4
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 5
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 6
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 7
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 8
• A Journey with Domain Driven Design (and NHibernate) - Part 9

Davy Brion's NHibernate posts.

THE article NHibernate Best Practices with ASP.NET by Billy McCafferty. I'm looking forward for a chance to try his S#arp Architecture on a real project.

David Veeneman's NHibernate Made Simple article.

All of the above links will not only teach you how to use NHibernate, but also give you a start with Domain Driven Design, Unit Testing, Integration Testing, logging etc. Enjoy!