What is fluent hibernate?

Question

What is fuentHibernate? Why is it used? What is the difference between Hibernate and Fluent Hibernate?

Answer 1

Fluent NHibernate offers an alternative to NHibernate's standard XML mapping files. Rather than writing XML documents (.hbm.xml files), Fluent NHibernate lets you write mappings in strongly typed C# code. This allows for easy refactoring, improved readability and more concise code.

Traditional HBM XML mapping

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>  
<hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2"  
  namespace="QuickStart" assembly="QuickStart">  

  <class name="Cat" table="Cat">  
    <id name="Id">  
      <generator class="identity" />  
    </id>  

    <property name="Name">  
      <column name="Name" length="16" not-null="true" />  
    </property>  
    <property name="Sex" />  
    <many-to-one name="Mate" />  
    <bag name="Kittens">  
      <key column="mother_id" />  
        <one-to-many class="Cat" />  
      </bag>  
  </class>  
</hibernate-mapping>

Fluent NHibernate equivalent

public class CatMap : ClassMap<Cat>
{
  public CatMap()
  {
    Id(x => x.Id);
    Map(x => x.Name)
      .Length(16)
      .Not.Nullable();
    Map(x => x.Sex);
    References(x => x.Mate);
    HasMany(x => x.Kittens);
  }
}