Manning is famous for its branded "in Action"
series of books. Their latest product NHibernate in Action is packed with plenty
of useful information for .NET developers using NHibernate for their
development work. The book consists of 10 chapters spread across three parts.
Chapter 1 examines the concept of object and relational persistence in detail.
Chapter 2 provides the complete coverage of developing a Hello World
application with the help of relevant steps and source codes. Instead of a
simple program, the authors have straight away used databases to illustrate the
concept which I hope will be useful for advanced developers.
The chapters in part 2 examine the concept of writing and
mapping classes, transactions, concurrency and caching. Moreover, the authors
have provided detailed coverage of the usage of persistent objects, and advanced
mapping concepts including the steps required to retrieve objects effectively.
The last part helps you to build a real world application
using NHibernate and the procedure to be followed to write real world domain
models. Chapter 10 examines the usage of architectural patterns including the
implementation of conversations and Enterprise Services transactions. I must
say that the authors have done a wonderful job by providing very detailed
explanation and comprehensive analysis of source codes in each chapter. I would
suggest the authors provide a list of possible error messages which may occur
while programming with NHibernate along with the solution in the next edition
of the book.
The book also includes two appendixes which provide a brief
overview of SQL and relevant links from which you can learn more about
NHibernate. The programming field is fast changing and these links will help a developer
update his or her knowledge. The complete source code of all the examples and
few sample chapters are available for download from the official website
located at http://www.manning.com/kuate/.
Even though there are few chapters in this book, the authors
have covered the concepts in an elaborate way. The book is mainly oriented for
those developers who are well versed with .NET. I do not think a beginner will
be able to grasp the advanced content detailed on the book. I feel that only
few advanced developers currently make use of NHibernate, but still the book is
a great asset for intermediate level programmers who wish to learn the nuances of
it.
