Free O/R Mappers for Data Access Discussion at Sarasota .NET Developer Group Meeting
by David Hayden ( Microsoft MVP C# ), Filed: O/R Mappers
Joe Healy presented Silverlight at the Sarasota .NET Developer Group Meeting last night. Great turnout. I don't think there was an empty seat at the place.
Afterwards, I was asked some questions regarding O/R Mappers for newbies, which turned into a good conversation on the application being targeted, the data access needs, and the various O/R Mappers on the market. As it turns out, the database in question was an Oracle Database with about 800 tables ( not normalized ), but the needs were specifically targeted at simple CRUD ( not reporting ). The developer seemed to want something free so that always limits the field a bit :) He was also very new to O/R Mapping and .NET in general, so the key is simple to use here, too.
For such simple CRUD needs, you could probably go with anything. Although we discussed a lot of O/R Mappers, here are in my opinion some of the more simpler ones we discussed that are FREE:
- LINQ To SQL - This was brought up but is a SQL Server only solution and won't work with Oracle. Also still in beta but has go-live license. However, for those looking for a free SQL Server O/R Mapper it is certainly an option. I am developing with it now and overall happy with the experience.
- Data Access Guidance Package - The Data Access Application Block in the background supports both SQL Server and Oracle, but I haven't tried to use the recipes against Oracle. Assuming it works with Oracle, this is a decent solution for simple CRUD. I have used it with SQL Server with good results.
- MyGeneration - Brought up by another developer who is very happy with the results. I haven't used it, personally, so I can't talk too much about it. I need to download and try it out. My guess is that it is similar to CodeSmith and perhaps .netTiers, but CodeSmith isn't free.
- Subsonic - Easy to generate classes and collections for CRUD and can use via build provider while developing and testing. Can support both Oracle and SQL Server using the Data Access Application Block. Uses an ActiveRecord Pattern. I have used it with SQL Server with good results.
We talked about many more O/R Mappers and the pros and cons, but these pretty much are the ones I could think of off the top of my head that are free, work with Oracle ( except LINQ To SQL ), and very simple to use.
Source: David Hayden ( Microsoft MVP C# )
Filed: O/R Mappers