Why Use ActiveRecordMediator instead of NHibernate

My blog post on using ActiveRecordMediator to use the Repository pattern with ActiveRecord was discussed on Castle’s Forums.  A good question was raised in that forum, and other people that I talked to about using the Mediator class: “Why use this instead of NHibernate directly”

As mentioned in the original blog, I am not a NHibernate Jedi yet.  We use it on some projects at work, but for the most part, setup and configuration was already done for me.  Using ActiveRecord took care of setup and configuration for me.  If you’re familiar enough with NHibernate, then this probably isn’t much a gain for you, but it was for me.

If you don’t need any of the advanced features of NHiberate and have simple queries, then using Mediator is a quick way to get going quickly.  When you do need more control over Nhibernate, moving off of the ActiveRecordMediator for your Repository implementation should be quick and painless.  So in that respect, prototyping with Mediator class has a definite advantage.

Hope This Helps,

John