Another NHibernate Mapping Mystery! Getting count in hbm file - nhibernate

Question

I am trying to retrieve the count of items allocated to a container in my hbm file. I've done a bit of digging and managed to get my hbm code this far (below!). I want the count to be retrieved every time a container object is queried. I could use an interceptor but I assume there's a better way. Am I on the right track or should I use a different strategy to get the count loaded up?
Thanks.
P.S. We're using NH v2.2
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" default-lazy="false" assembly="MyEntities" namespace="Entities.Containers"> <class name="Container" table="[Container]" xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2">
<id name="Id" column="Id" type="Int32" unsaved-value="0">
<generator class="native" />
</id>
<property name="Capacity" column="Capacity">
<column name="Capacity" />
</property>
<property name="Description" column="Description" length="50" type="String">
<column name="Description" />
</property>
<loader query-ref="sqCurrentContainerAllocation"/> </class>
<sql-query name="sqCurrentContainerAllocation">
<return-scalar column="AllocatedItemsCount" type="int"></return-scalar>
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [ContainerTracking]
WHERE [ContainerId] = :Id </sql-query>
</hibernate-mapping>

Answer 1

If you need to get some calculated property, you can use mapping with formula.
Let's extend your C# class:
public class Container
{
... // ID, Capacity, Description
public virtual int MyCount { get; set; }
And extend your mapping
<class name="Container" table="[Container]"
...
<property name="MyCount" insert="false" update="false" >
<formula>
(
SELECT count(*)
FROM [ContainerTracking] as ct
WHERE ct.[ContainerId] = Id
)
</formula>
</property>
the Id will be replaced with somethink like '_this.Id', the name of the column Id and its alias
This will of course load the count all the time (except projections) so think twice before use it