DDD: Can I have my persistence layer object implement an interface that uses enum, with implicit conversion to int?

Question

I have a domain interface

public interface ITicket
{
...
TicketWorkflowStatus StatusId{get;set;} // Enum
}

but the linq-to-sql persistance layer on the database wants to use int, can I change it in the dbml so that the local type is TicketWorkflowStatus? What are my options?

Answer 1

Domain is supposed to be detached from persistence infrastructure and there are no excuses that this infrastructure can force such a decisions when modeling Your domain model.

You might find useful this article. In Your case it's external coupling.

Telling from experience - once You start to serve too much to Your ORM, it will bring down You to knees in no time.