An entity with a static list

jmcdowall · **Joined:** Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:41 am **Posts:** 2

Hi,

I have an mapped entity like this:

Code:

class Foo
{
  public virtial int Id ...
  public virtual IList<string> SomeStrings {...}
}

I would like the SomeStrings property to return "static" data, that is the same data for every instance of Foo, and for that data to come from a table in the database with a single value column (i.e. no FK relation with Foo's Id).

Is this possible? Can I do this in Foo's mapping file?

Cheers,

John

colinjack · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:55 am **Posts:** 21

Yeah we want to do exactly the same thing. We have tables in the database with static/reference data, for example a list of countries. We want these to be automatically read into the domain class using a mapping but we haven't found a way to do it yet....

mnichols · **Joined:** Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 179

Why don't you just have the function (property) run a HQL/Criteria query and store that in a static private variable. Do a null check when it is accessed..the first time it is hit will the only time the query is run since you are storing it in a static variable.
I don't like this kind of design as I'd push this kind of thing into its own object but would that work?

Mike

colinjack · **Joined:** Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:55 am **Posts:** 21

That is essentially what we are doing but we would far prefer to be able to specify that we need all the rows from a table in the HBM file. This would give us a lot more flexibility in our designs.

jmcdowall · **Joined:** Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:41 am **Posts:** 2

colinjack wrote:

That is essentially what we are doing but we would far prefer to be able to specify that we need all the rows from a table in the HBM file. This would give us a lot more flexibility in our designs.

Yeah, exactly!

If there is no way to do this in NHibernate, do you think it would be OK to raise a feature request?