How to map a deeper hierarchy in nhibernate

Question

I have this object graph, I want to map:

• abstract Account (username, password, ...)
  • abstract Customer (shoppingcart, orders, roles)
    • IndividualCustomer (user data)
    • CorporateCustomer (different user data, company data)
  • Administrator (adminroles)

How can this be mapped against one table? (I know how to do this with an entity hierarchy that is only 1 level deep, just like in the docs, but this is different).

Anybody has an idea? I asked the same in http://groups.google.com/group/nhusers/browse_frm/thread/7a85cba0048c18d8?hl=en, but so far have not received a useful answer.

Answer 1

From what I see, it should be no different than one-level-deep hierarchy. try this:

<hibernate-mapping> 
<class                                                     
    name="Account" 
    table="..." > 
    <property .../> 
        ... 
    <subclass                                              
        name="Customer" > 
        <property ... "/> 
        ... 
    </subclass> 

    <subclass                                              
        name="IndividualCustomer" > 
        <property ... "/> 
        ... 
    </subclass> 
    ... 
</class>

I don't have NHibernate here, to check it, but it looks like it should work. You may also want to try to nest subclass elements if it doesn't.

Answer 2

hey krzysztof,

nesting subclasses is against the xml schema, so my guess is, it will not work. i probably would also have to nest the discriminator declaration, which also seems hackish.

and mapping it out flat... i pass a discriminator for an abstract class, that cannot ever be used because an abstract class cannot be instantiated. seems wrong, too.

but you are right, i will try it out some time. right now it seems like a better idea to me to let customer have an account, instead of being one.

thanks!