The OpenAccess Visual Designer is designed to help you build OpenAccess ORM applications. With the Visual Designer you can create a domain model from an existing database and then graphically visualize and edit your domain model. Or, you can graphically create a domain model first, and then generate a database that supports your model. In either case, you can automatically update your model when the underlying database changes and automatically generate object-layer code for your application.
However, many developers view their code as their model. Ideally these developers just want to write some class and without ever touching a designer or a piece of XML to be able to use those classes with Telerik OpenAccess ORM. Basically they want to write "Code Only". Fortunately, Telerik OpenAccess ORM provides a Fluent Mapping API, which is perfect for these scenarios.
This section contains the following topics that discuss the Fluent Mapping API:
- Getting Started - demonstrates how to create a Fluent Mapping project by using OpenAccess ORM, and then how to map the model using the default mapping functionality of the Fluent Mapping API. Also shows how to create a custom context class that provides strongly typed IQueryable end points and how to write sample code that uses the context.
- Mapping CLR Types, Properties and Associations - demonstrates how to map CLR types, properties and associations.
- Default Mapping - demonstrates how to use the default mapping functionality.
- Modeling Inheritance - demonstrates how to model inheritance by using the OpenAccess Fluent Mapping API.
- Artificial Types - demonstrates the Artificial Types/Properties feature of the OpenAccess Fluent Mapping API.
- Extending Domain Models Using Fluent Mapping - demonstrates how to extend existing domain models with new CLR classes or artificial types.
- Merging MetadataSources - demonstrates how to merge multiple metadata sources and how to control reference resolutions.