The most important part (to me) is LINQ usage and model-first development, since it enables a wide range of different scenarios that change the way you design data access.

Have been using EF for a couple of years now and although it seems to work pretty well it's not without it's faults. I'm interested in exploring NHibernate as an alternative ORM - there seems to be a lot more community support and real-world usage of it over EF. Nearly all the .NET CVs I read are listing NHibernate as a skillset these days.

What interest me the most about this book is to learn what's new and improved with NHibernate version 3.

I've been using EF, LINQtoSQL and Massive which seem to work well but I always get the nagging feeling I'm not doing things 'properly'. The community for NHibernate seems fantastic, I think I want in.

If I don't win this I'm going to make a case to my boss to buy it. My NHibernate knowledge is a little patchy, and based on blogs, tutorials, and learning from other developers. Which is fine, but it's also nice to have a book that provides a logical step-by-step discussion of how to start using NHibernate to back up my knowledge. It also sounds like a good starting point for a couple of developers here who are new to NHibernate.

Topics that interest me are unit and integration testing the data access layer, monitoring and profiling, and common pitfalls.

For me the most important part would be "Test, profile, and monitor data access to tune the performance". It's unfortunatly often overlooked by developers (sorry to say, me included some times) as many devs might think "that's the DBA's concern" (once again, been there, thought that).

Definitely the testing and profiling piece. I work in a fast paced environment with limited resources and testing is often an afterthought and then badly managed. I'm trying to push us in a TDD/BDD direction so we build testing in from the ground up and this will be an important piece in the puzzle.

I got my boss to get this book for the office, it's really good, it's helped lots. Really really good book.

After loving the "mapping in code" that FluentNHibernate offers. Since Nhibernate 3 has such a feature as well, this has my main interest.

"If you are a new or seasoned developer of .NET web or desktop applications who is looking for a better way to access database data..."

Always looking to improve ... let the book convince me in believing that nhibernate is a better way to access my data :-)

I also have been using Entity Framework in couple of small applications. I took code first approach. I think EF CF is really nice for small projects, but as model is getting bigger and bigger it may become problematic. I've heard many good things about NHibernate. I'm especially interested in unit and integration testing (easy mocking of framework objects etc.).

I want to learn how to easily build mappings and use complex domain model and relation schema from my application (configuration, mappings), and to optimize SQL generation and queries (linq, hql, common pitfalls chapter, unit testing). Also, getting functional DAL with least amount of code looks like dream to me. Hope this book can provide that dream:)

By "drop a line via the comments below" you mean the comments here, or on the paktpub site?

Anyway, what I am interested in such a book is a task-based approach, the common pitfalls that could be encountered, and how to easily test and profle the code.

Ayende, can't find any comments section under the link you provide. if this is an IQ test, I already failed :'/

LOL Phillip, a real developer would have brought this book himself and not made his 'boss' buy it.

I am very much interested in the following:- "Test, profile, and monitor data access to tune the performance and make your applications fly"

For me the most interesting part is where and when to create sessions.

Hi Ayende,

I'm a student from France. After studying EF a lot I would like to get into NHibernate world for a more professional/mature technology. Beyond the fact I'll learn NH, I would also like to learn how to organize code with this technology. In one word, I want to learn the most powerful ORM solution, and this book seems perfect for a beginner like me :)

For me most important thing is to know how to configure system for use of NHibernate in a clear and concise way. Also methods for avoiding common pitfalls are very interesting.

Hi Ayende,

In general there are very interesting chapters in this book

Just to say something different than previous comments, I would choose chapter about Unit and Integration tests. It's not always clear how to write unit test for the data layer or even worst prepare mockups of the data layer components for testing the rest of layers.

Having used NHibernate indirectly via other projects for over a year, I really like it but would like to dig deeper and start to write my own software with NHibernate. I've read through a lot of the documentation and some getting started guides online, but what interests me about the book is that I can read it on the bus on my way to work in the morning :-)

Frank, I am sorry, just got clarification back. It is the comments here, not there

To me, the most interesting part would be about testing and profiling a NHibernate application followed by the common pitfalls one can get into. The last project where I was involved used NHibernate and although things were working, they were not scaling very well so profiling along side automated integration testing is something I'm really interested.

Chapter 11 - Things to avoid. Always love that. Like to ask similar kinds of questions in interviews.

And then under 11: CQRS. O rly?

Sounds interesting!

Ah, and Pop Quiz answers, that'd be cool for a nice geeky Pub night.

"where do you instantiate the Sessionfactory in your request lifecycle?" - "Trick question: You do it once on application startup!" :)

As someone who is about to venture into the world of ORM the step-by-step directions to get you up and running quickly will be the most interesting.

I am excited to learn more about unit testing and integration testing the data access layer. Nhibernate has been part of our stack for years, and that is something I have struggled with.

I am interested in integrated validation and avoiding common pitfalls. advanced usages would also make for great reading, but this is a beginners guide.

I'm new to ORMs and database. The sections on creating the domain model, creating unit tests for the data access layer, and doing entity data validation sound the most interesting to me.

I am excited to learn how to better implement reusable queries and possibly to learn more about how to make my queries more strongly typed.

Looking forward to seeing what they have to say about unit & integration testing.

Congratulations on the new book!

On a project that has been using NHibernate for over a year, but have always felt somethings were not being done correctly or they could be done better. Looking forward to almost every subject in the book. Very interested in the integration testing.

As a java developer interested in keeping up with the changes in the .NET world, I'm interested in tracking the similarities and differences between Hibernate in the Java world and nHibernate in the .NET world.

This looks like the book that I have been looking for. I have been developing .Net applications for a couple of years and have been using LinqToSQL, Entity Frameworks, and ADO.NET to handle my database interactions.

This book will be the perfect way to start working with NHibernate.

I am very interested in modelling complex many-to-many relationships. Of course they can be simplified but will be interesting to see examples of something bit more complex than the simple examples :)

For me it would have to be the LINQ to NHibernate section. I have to work with an Oracle DB and this would be great for the apps I have to develop at the moment.

Common pitfalls. It's always nice to learn how to shave on on someone else beard. Not that you not going to cut yourself, but at least it won't be too deep.

It's been a while since I've used NHibernate actively, and that was version 2. I'm interested in seeing what's new in NH3, more specifically LINQ, but also refreshing my knowledge on how to get NH to work on legacy databases. A beginners guide is perfect as I'm no expert.

I'm interested to see what's new in version 3 and more specifically how I can use it better in my unit tests.

I am most interested in custom hydration of objects via injectors and implementations of the IUserType interface.

Chapter 7: Testing, Profiling, Monitoring, and Logging Chapter 9: Writing Queries Chapter 11: Common Pitfalls—Things to Avoid

I never used Nhibernate. So because it is a beginner's book, everything in that book would be interesting for me

What interests me the most is how to quickly get up and running with NHibernate (last time I looked a while ago, documentation was pretty sparse) and the chapter on test, profiling, and monitoring data for performance is a HUGE interest to me right now.

NHibernate's documentation is so short and weak that having a good book at hand is definitely a blessing.

NHibernate is such a huge part of my daily cycle, never can have enough to read about it and everything it does.

I prefer this to nhibernate cookbook because is most simply, clear and effectivity

I'm particularly interested in the chapters that I missed in the NHibernate 3.0 Cookbook by Jason Dentler or chapters I found not comprehensive enough. Specifically this would be Writing Queries and some parts of the Common Pitfalls like CQRS.

I've never had the chance to use NHibernate in a project, but I've often heard friends and colleagues tell me interesting things about it.

My favourite part about it is that it does not impose any rules on your entity classes (like having a base class or something); the object world and the relational world may evolve separately and NHibernate provides the tools to bridge the gap between them.

My favourite topic would be "Configure your system for use of NHibernate in a clear and concise way"

I am using NHibernate in a WPF app, it has been a lot research and testing that i have made to make my app literally flies, i'm interested in get better in NHibernate and make better apps and i'm pretty shure that this book it'll be a great help.

I have some friends who have been burned by badly setting up nhibernate in the past, and this book would be a great "reeducation". For me, I'd love to see more about performance tuning nhibernate applications.

I'm primarily an Entity Framework programmer and am sick and tired of hearing my boss continually say "Well, we could do that with NHibernate." =)

I'm very much interested in seeing how NHibernate handles certain pain points I've encountered when working with EF (particularly POCO support). This book would be an excellent, guided introduction to the world of NHibernate.

I'm most interested in Loquacious configuration. We currently use Fluent NHibernate, and it would be nice to see how else it's done.

Nice to see more books on NHibernate.

I'm interested in the book because my past attempts at adopting NHibernate failed and I'd like to try it out again.

As a current user of NHibernate, the things I'd be interested in are things that have maybe changed a bit or been improved/expanded since I started. So I think that's things like the loquacious configuration stuff, and the querying ability.

The common pitfalls section looks like it would be good as well.

Even though I've been succesfully using NHibernate for years now, I'm still a beginner on a lot of aspects of it, and I should be treated as such.

I've wanted to learn Nhibernate for a while now. Looking at the description, the most interesting thing I see is that there's now Linq-to-Nhibernate. I didn't know that existed and sounds like it would make Nhibernate easier to use.

"Clear, precise step-by-step directions to get you up and running quickly"

When I first looked at nHibernate, I found that were were a lot of different conflicting articles on the net, especially regarding sessions for web apps, I would have liked to have had some "best practice" guidance.

"Reduce hours of application development time and get better application architecture and performance"

This is a a key one for me, if I am going spend time getting up to speed then I want to ensure that I am getting that time back in the future by speeding up development time in future projects.

I already have the NHibernate cookbook, which is awesome. I wish this was published before that book was.

I am intersested in "Write unit and integration tests for your data access layer".

Congratulations for the book!!!.

I'm interested in the whole object to relational database mapping. My company will be moving to SOA and I want/need to understand all the features and benefits of NHibernate so that I can get them to use NHibernate to save us time and money.

Hi, I'm very interested about possibilities of mapping the domain model to the underlying database and how to use the best of the NHibernate and to accomplish good design, flexibility and modularity of the application.

Looks like a good place to start with nHibernate - I like that you can get both for 50% off.

For me all the book is essential and for just 1 reason. With this book i will be sure to be able to setup up quickly and in the right manner the architecture of my application and avoid lot of time in 'Proof of concept'.

So 32€ is a small investissement compared to a huge time saver !

But if i can get it free and with Ayende's dedications, this would be awesome ! ;-)

Mapping by code, undoubtly the most interesting part of nh 3 ;)

I need to learn tuning and profiling

I got to say that I am interested in the LINQ provider.

By the look at the topics covered, this could be the book that finally fills the gap for first-time users. Would be sharing this with the team as soon as I get hold of it.

There's two interesting topics I'd like to learn with this book : First it's the various mapping techniques and then it's the Linq queries.

I've been using NHibernate as a dilettante for some time now, either by skimming the internet for information (SO, this blog and others) but i never sat down with a book on the subject to really delve in. I've only watched 3.0 from a distance, not really taking time to see what's new but i'd like to read this book to have a solid base from which i could expand.

For example i've always relied on this post (http://ayende.com/blog/1671/measuring-nhibernates-queries-per-page) to integrate rough tuning to my applications. I'm curious to see what the book covers on this subject and what new options may be available in 3.0

If I don't win it Ill buy it anyway :D

GE

Well, I'm have never been using NHibernate and want to meet some other ORM than Entity Framework. This book would be great opportunity to start with NHibernate.

I'm using NHibernate 2.xxx for some time now, and I'm most interested in the new features of NH3.

What interests me the most:

• How to create a domain model: I dare to say that I'm quite good at creating domain models, after reading Evans' book and applying the techniques he describes. However, I'm always interested in this topic. Other authors might come up with new ideas ...

• LINQ to NHibernate Up untill now, I've always been using the ICriteria API and HQL query language. I'd love to get up to speed with Linq to NH.

• Unit testing the data layer I've my own techniques for unit-testing my NH repositories, but I'm sure there are better ways. :)

My answer:

"Absolutely no knowledge of NHibernate is required to read this book"

would be interesting to have some kind of appendice. For example, an appendice about NHibernate + Lucene.Net, and one about Envers... would nice.

Hi Ayende! Is that book the one you'd recommend to the people starting with NHibernate today? I'm preparing for the new project and wanted to consider NHibernate instead of Entity Framework, but I need a good book to get me off the ground quickly and with best practices in mind. I found three books focusing on NHibernate 3 (http://itbookratings.com/Search?q=nhibernate+3) As a NH guru, can you recommend one of those books? Thanks in advance!

Common Pitfalls - Things to Avoid.

Every programming book should have a section called that.

Will this book help me get over my extreme frustration at trying to get NHibernate to work with DB2? I got spoiled by the ease of use and the "it just works" nature of Entity Framework 4.0. NHibernate is like a foreign land to me.

And yes, I am a human.

Having a clear sum up of the best practices and common pitfalls would most interesting for me. Usually i have a gut feeling my code can be more clear and pragmatic but because of my limited experience with NH the sum up would certainly help a lot!

Looking the "what you´ll learn" of the book, I'm most interested in:

• Learn about the common pitfalls that should be avoided
• Implement data validation on the entity level
• Monitor and profile your data access

I'd love to learn about how to write efficient unit tests using nhibernate. I'd love to learn about an alternative to ER.

I am most interested in learning how to configure my application in a clear and concise way as well as learning about the common pitfalls to look out for. You can scour the web and find a number of examples to get you started, but it's always nice to learn from the experts what are the gotchas.

despite the steep learning curve for NHibernate it's by far the best ORM in .NET world ! however, Transactions and session handling is always hard to completely understand. so this is the part I will be interested in.

I found chapter 4 really interesting "Defining the Database Schema". In what ways are nhib there for you. Should you create the schema yourself or let nhibernate do it for you. Something really important and interesting in my opinion.

Two of the more interesting features are (a) the introduction of different ways to map the entities, beyond the xml files, and (b) the use of Linq as an alternative to HQL. Looks like some interesting development in NH3.

"Write unit and integration tests for your data access layer"

Write unit and integration tests for your data access layer

@Mike - I bought the book for myself :) I made my boss buy it for the company for everyone else to read after I bought it.

I also bought the NH3 cookbook which I don't recommend.

Can I use LLBL Gen Profiler by configuraion file, not code like this LLBLGenProfiler.Initialize();

because in some case, I need to trace LLBL Gen's output sql, but in some case, there is no need to do so. so,I want to know, can I use LLBL Gen Profiler by change configruration file like this:

<trace autoflush="true" indentsize="4"> <listeners> <add name="myListener" type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener" initializeData="C:\logs\TraceSample.csv" /> <add name="EventLog" type="System.Diagnostics.EventLogTraceListener, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" initializeData="sample application"/> </listeners> </trace>

Hello Ayende! Chapter 11 (Common Pitfalls - Things to Avoid) looks definitely very interesting from what I can read in the books description. I am also interested in ways of performing entity auditing without the direct use of triggers, or other database specific stuff, if this is covered by the book. Regards!

The two areas in the book that interest me are those on showcasing common pitfalls and applying different techniques to perform database mappings.

I'm extremely interested in integration tests, I've only done them in Java, and now that I've been dumped into the .net world, I'm sort of all over the place in getting integration tests going...

Hey Ayende,

I think I'm most interesting in learning about both implementing data validation on the entity level as well as common pitfalls to avoid!

Thanks, Ryan

I'm primarily an Entity Framework programmer and am sick and tired of hearing my boss continually say "Well, we could do that with NHibernate." =)

I'm very much interested in seeing how NHibernate handles certain pain points I've encountered when working with EF (particularly POCO support). This book would be an excellent, guided introduction to the world of NHibernate.

The chapter on common pitfalls sounds interesting.

Would I also win the time to read it? :)

Seems to me that the most interesting part would be "using LINQ to NHibernate".. I use nhibernate daily in my work project but we did not yet start using LINQ to nhibernate and this is probably the most valuable part for me..

I am especially interested in Chapter 9: Writing Queries. By writing bad queries you can loose so much performance.

I've used EF, LINQ to SQL, Massive, and Dapper, but never had the pleasure of NHibernate. Would be nice to see how it compares. I've heard good things about the latest versions.

I am really looking forward to read Chapter 6: Sessions and Transactions!

The part that interests me the most is "Efficiently query the database by using LINQ to NHibernate" (not HQL!). Actually I would like to know the limitations of LINQ2NH compared to HQL.

Hi, I'm very interested in testing and the Common PitFalls. Thanks Peter

What interests me the most about this book is that it's free if I win. :)

Very honest answer! There are a few other reasons as well but you asked "the most".. :)

To me what interests me the most in the book is the complete sample (and comparison to ADO.NET), followed by the common pitfalls.

Holy Crap, 44 bucks is quite a bit for a book. I need it for free!

I tried, but haven't found any commnets section on http://www.packtpub.com/nhibernate-3-beginners-guide/book... Do I have to create an account there?

I've never used NHibernate, so a beginners book is perfect for me. I've taken a brief look at Entity Framework and have been planning on using that for an upcoming project, but it would be nice to get this into guide and compare the benefits of both systems before picking one to use.

The most interesting chapters to me are

Chapter 7: Testing, Profiling, Monitoring, and Logging Chapter 11: Common Pitfalls—Things to Avoid

because I'm least familiar with those aspects.

easiest way to learn about bridging the gap between object-oriented .NET applications and the relational database

What interests me the most about the book would be having a complete guide that covers the basics all the way up to the advanced topics as there's certain things I haven't had much experience with. The different collection mapping types and when to use them would be the most useful for me.

I'm most interested in unit testing, and the common pitfalls

I'd love to have a copy! I've been learning Entity Framework and would like to compare the two ORMs.

I have started digging around more ORM stuff after being exposed to some EF, SubSonic, and most recently NHibernate. For me, the interesting chapters would be: Chapter 6: Sessions and Transactions; Chapter 7: Testing, Profiling, Monitoring, and Logging; and Chapter 10: Validating the Data to Persist.

concerning the question, it wasn't clear to me if you meant "what interests you the most about this book (of things which are covered in the book)" or "what interests you the most about this book (without knowing what is in it)" so answer to "things that are covered": "Write unit and integration tests for your data access layer" - as a test engineer, I would not get as many out of that compared to some other readers, but I would be really interested in the way you approached the design to make everything testable

answer to "things i would like to see (and maybe are covered)": I would be interested in how well NHibernate compares to it's commercial competitors (MindScapes LightSpeed and DataObjects.NET come into mind), but I would be surprised if something like that is covered ;)

The book seems to be great source of information about NHibernate showing how to start using the framework and helping to migrate from some other ORMs, telling the longer story how to write better solution based on NHibernate and avoiding common pitfalls in the NHibernate world.

I'm interested in learning how to best map against an existing 3rd party vendor schema to write programs which can consume and transform the data into other meaningful elements.