NHibernate Dynamic Component Default Value Issue - nhibernate

Question

All of my entities (that are mapped to a database table) inherit from an entity class with a dynamic component on it called Attributes e.g.:
public abstract class Entity<T> {
public virtual T Id { get; set; }
private IDictionary _attributes;
public virtual IDictionary Attributes {
get { return _attributes ?? (_attributes = new Hashtable()); }
set { _attributes = value; }
}
}
The Attributes collection allows me to add extra fields to each entity without directly changing the entity itself. This allows me to make my application more modular.
For example say I have the following entity:
public class User : Entity<int> {
public virtual string Name { get; set; }
}
Now say I have a Forum module which needs a NumPosts property against the User. I would add the field against the Users table in the database. This field is non nullable and has a default value of 0. I then map the field using the dynamic component against the User entity.
However when I try inserting the user by saying:
session.Save(new User() { Name = "Test" });
It throws an error as it's expecting me to set a value for NumPosts and the generated SQL would be something like:
INSERT INTO Users (Name, NumPosts) VALUES ('Test', NULL)
However NumPosts does not allow nulls and hence the error. Ideally I'd like it to say the following if the Attributes collection does not contain an entry for NumPosts:
INSERT INTO Users (Name) VALUES ('Test')
An alternative is to say the following which would work fine:
session.Save(new User() { Name = "Test", Attributes = new Hashtable() { { "NumPosts", 0 } } });
The problem I have is that I don't want the modules to have a dependency on each other and I can't really say this.
For reference here's a bare bones version of session factory method which maps the NumPosts field:
return Fluently.Configure()
...
.ExposeConfiguration(c => {
// Get the persistent class
var persistentClass = c.GetClassMapping("User");
// Create the attributes component
var component = new Component(persistentClass);
// Create a simple value
var simpleValue = new SimpleValue(persistentClass.Table);
// Set the type name
simpleValue.TypeName = "Int32";
// Create a new db column specification
var column = new Column("NumPosts");
column.Value = simpleValue;
column.Length = 10;
column.IsNullable = false;
column.DefaultValue = "0";
// Add the column to the value
simpleValue.AddColumn(column);
// Ad the value to the component
component.AddProperty(new Property() { Name = column.Name, Value = simpleValue });
// Add the component property
persistentClass.AddProperty(new Property() { Name = "Attributes", Value = component });
})
.BuildConfiguration();
I'd appreciate if someone could let me know if this is possible. Thanks

Answer 1

You know how to make it working as described above:
... An alternative is to say the following which would work fine:
session.Save(new User()
{
Name = "Test", Attributes = new Hashtable() { { "NumPosts", 0 } }
});
... The problem I have is that I don't want the modules to have a dependency on each other and I can't really say this...
In case, that the biggest issue is the explicit Attributes initialization ("...I don't want the modules to have a dependency...") we can use:
12.2. Event system
So, with Listener like this:
[Serializable]
public class MyPersistListener : NHibernate.Event.ISaveOrUpdateEventListener
{
public void OnSaveOrUpdate(SaveOrUpdateEvent #event)
{
var entity = #event.Entity as Entity<int>; // some interface IHaveAttributes
if (entity == null) // would be more appropriate
{
return;
}
var numPosts = entity.Attributes["NumPosts"] as int?;
if (numPosts.HasValue)
{
return;
}
entity.Attributes["NumPosts"] = 0;
}
}
Based on this doc snippet:
Configuration cfg = new Configuration();
ILoadEventListener[] stack = new ILoadEventListener[] { new MyLoadListener(), new DefaultLoadEventListener() };
cfg.EventListeners.LoadEventListeners = stack;
This should be the init in our case:
.ExposeConfiguration(c => {
var stack = new ISaveOrUpdateEventListener [] { new MyPersistListener() };
c.EventListeners.SaveEventListeners= stack;