How to Map Enum in NHibernate to Properly Create DB Field on Schema Export?

Question

I've seen several questions related to properly mapping an enum type using NHibernate.

This article by Jeff Palermo showed me how to do that properly by creating a custom type. I use Schema Export to create my DB during my dev cycles, but this method breaks my export statement. Is there a way to specify the type of the column on export?

Here is my enum code:

public enum OperatorCode
{
    CodeA,
    CodeB,
    CodeC,
    CodeD
}

Here is my custom type:

public class OperatorCodeType:EnumStringType
{
    public OperatorCodeType():base(typeof(OperatorCode),20)
    {

    }
}

Here is my property in my mapping file:

<property name="OperatorCode" column="OperatorCode" type="OperatorCodeType"  />

And finally here is my class declaration for that property:

public virtual OperatorCode OperatorCode { get; set; }

Is it even possible to do this?

Answer 1

I have not tested it, but you can use the Column declaration within a property to specify the sql type. Example from the docs:

<property name="Foo" type="String">
    <column name="foo" length="64" not-null="true" sql-type="text"/>
</property>

Granted this is a string, but you may want to try it with the type of OperatorCodeType, column sql-type as text or nvarchar or whatever works.

If you try it, let me know? Not near my dev machine at the moment.