Inheritance Mapping with Fluent NHibernate

Question

Given the following scenario, I want map the type hierarchy to the database schema using Fluent NHibernate.

I am using NHibernate 2.0

Type Hierarchy

public abstract class Item
{
    public virtual int ItemId { get; set; }
    public virtual string ItemType { get; set; }
    public virtual string FieldA { get; set; }
}

public abstract class SubItem : Item
{
    public virtual string FieldB { get; set; } 
}

public class ConcreteItemX : SubItem
{
    public virtual string FieldC { get; set; } 
}

public class ConcreteItemY : Item
{
    public virtual string FieldD { get; set; }
}

See image

The Item and SubItem classes are abstract.

Database Schema

+----------+  +---------------+  +---------------+
| Item     |  | ConcreteItemX |  | ConcreteItemY |
+==========+  +===============+  +===============+
| ItemId   |  | ItemId        |  | ItemId        |
| ItemType |  | FieldC        |  | FieldD        |
| FieldA   |  +---------------+  +---------------+
| FieldB   |
+----------+

See image

The ItemType field determines the concrete type.

Each record in the ConcreteItemX table has a single corresponding record in the Item table; likewise for the ConcreteItemY table.

FieldB is always null if the item type is ConcreteItemY.

The Mapping (so far)

public class ItemMap : ClassMap<Item>
{
    public ItemMap()
    {
        WithTable("Item");
        Id(x => x.ItemId, "ItemId");
        Map(x => x.FieldA, "FieldA");

        JoinedSubClass<ConcreteItemX>("ItemId", MapConcreteItemX);
        JoinedSubClass<ConcreteItemY>("ItemId", MapConcreteItemY);
    }

    private static void MapConcreteItemX(JoinedSubClassPart<ConcreteItemX> part)
    {
        part.WithTableName("ConcreteItemX");
        part.Map(x => x.FieldC, "FieldC");
    }

    private static void MapConcreteItemY(JoinedSubClassPart<ConcreteItemY> part)
    {
        part.WithTableName("ConcreteItemX");
        part.Map(x => x.FieldD, "FieldD");
    }
}

FieldB is not mapped.

The Question

How do I map the FieldB property of the SubItem class using Fluent NHibernate?

Is there any way I can leverage DiscriminateSubClassesOnColumn using the ItemType field?

Addendum

I am able to achieve the desired result using an hbm.xml file:

<class name="Item" table="Item">

  <id name="ItemId" type="Int32" column="ItemId">
    <generator class="native"/>
  </id>

  <discriminator column="ItemType" type="string"/>

  <property name="FieldA" column="FieldA"/>

  <subclass name="ConcreteItemX" discriminator-value="ConcreteItemX">
    <!-- Note the FieldB mapping here -->
    <property name="FieldB" column="FieldB"/>
    <join table="ConcreteItemX">
      <key column="ItemId"/>
      <property name="FieldC" column="FieldC"/>
    </join>
  </subclass>

  <subclass name="ConcreteItemY" discriminator-value="ConcreteItemY">
    <join table="ConcreteItemY">
      <key column="ItemId"/>
      <property name="FieldD" column="FieldD"/>
    </join>
  </subclass>

</class>

How do I accomplish the above mapping using Fluent NHibernate?

Is it possible to mix table-per-class-hierarchy with table-per-subclass using Fluent NHibernate?

Any reason this is marked community wiki? In any case, could you clarify the mapping strategy you are using? JoinedSubClassPart implies the table-per-subclass pattern but saying concrete items are persisted to the Item table implies the table-per-class-hierarchy pattern. — Stuart Childs
I'm not sure how to change the community wiki setting. Ignoring FieldB, I can use table-per-subclass. The presence of FieldB causes me some confusion. It seems to be a mixture of the two strategies. The ConcreteItemX type inherits FieldB from SubItem. FieldB is persisted in the Item table. — Jim

Unknown Unknown · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-24T18:13:44

I know this is really old, but it is now pretty simple to set up fluent to generate the exact mapping you initially desired. Since I came across this post when searching for the answer, I thought I'd post it.

You just create your ClassMap for the base class without any reference to your subclasses:

public class ItemMap : ClassMap<Item>
{
    public ItemMap()
    {
        this.Table("Item");
        this.DiscriminateSubClassesOnColumn("ItemType");
        this.Id(x => x.ItemId, "ItemId");
        this.Map(x => x.FieldA, "FieldA");
    }
}

Then map your abstract subclass like this:

public class SubItemMap: SubclassMap<SubItemMap>
{
    public SubItemMap()
    {
        this.Map(x => x.FieldB);
    }
}

Then map your concrete subclasses like so:

public class ConcreteItemXMap : SubclassMap<ConcreteItemX>
{
    public ConcretItemXMap()
    {
        this.Join("ConcreteItemX", x =>
        {
            x.KeyColumn("ItemID");
            x.Map("FieldC")
        });
    }
}

Hopefully this helps somebody else looking for this type of mapping with fluent.

Inheritance Mapping with Fluent NHibernate

4 Answers