Object Persistence Framework for .Net (OPF.Net)

The Object Persistence Framework for .Net (OPF.Net) is a complete set of classes that implement an object-relational mapping strategy for object oriented access to traditional relational database management systems and other types of persistent storage types such as XML files. OPF.Net has been designed and implemented for practical use in small to medium size projects and is currently being successfully used in several projects.

Background

The basic idea for OPF.Net and some important concepts behind OPF.Net come from "The Design of a Robust Persistence Layer" written by Scott Ambler (http://www.ambysoft.com/). OPF.Net has been written to bridge the traditional gap between object oriented programming and relational data storage. While Object-Databases have made a big progress, relational database management systems are still unrivalled in terms of performance and represent the de facto standard for most new software development projects. Accessing a relational database from an object oriented application can be implemented in two basic fashions:

	use a persistence mechanism that maps the applications business objects to the database tables and vice versa
	directly access and manipulate database tables and records using data access layers and components provided by most modern RAD programming environments

The first approach generally leads to well designed, real object oriented applications with a clear separation between user interface and business logic implemented through reusable business objects.

The second approach generally leads to poorly designed applications breaking the object oriented programming style with no clear separation of user interface, business logic and data storage and no encapsulation of business logic in business objects.

OPF.Net implements a simple and robust mechanism for building applications using persistent business objects by completely encapsulating database access and thus helping to build well designed software.

An article about OPF.Net has been published on CodeProject. For further information about OPF.Net and a short introduction please visit http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/opfnet.asp or the OPF.Net homepage.