A question of ColdFusion ORM
We are using ColdFusion 9 for the past 6 months and while we've used some of the new features, ORM is something we've avoided because we usually work on the same very large website. Over the years we've used Apache OBJ but then we moved back to CF and used our own DAO objects generated from tables to handle basic CRUD. These objects are basic and need to be regenerated manually for schema changes and do not model table relationships at all. To supplement these we have a set of gateway classes for multi-table queries. While all this is very bespoke, these DAOs and gateways do, however, give us great control over the SQL we execute, for example using locking hints and optimiser hints. Our site is busy but our database is very efficient.
So much for the history lesson: the point of this is that we have a new site upcoming soon that will be written from scratch to handle financial transactions. We would normally use our aforementioned DAO objects to handle CRUD and then the usual set of gateway objects for multi-table joins but I thought we might investigate using baked-in CF ORM...
So with that in mind, I'd love to hear of the lessons, tips and tricks others might have to share in regard to using ORM on a busy financial site. For example:
What's the best way to flush your SQL ? What tips do you have for transactional ORM? How do you setup development and live sites for ORM? What about HQL? When should we just do the SQL ourselves by hand?!
Thanks in advance!