Can we use nhibernate with azure table storage without SQL Azure ? If yes then is it feasible ?

Question

I really need to know whether we can use nhibernate without using SQL Azure on Microsoft Azure based application with it's pros and cons.
Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,
Nhibernate is designed to work with Relational Databases, which TableStorage is not. However I am almost sure you can deploy a Nhibernate enabled web application which connects to SQL Server other than Azure - your own SQL Server. This approach however will stultify Azure deployment. In general you can use third-party libraries in your application, as long as you set the property "Copy Local" to "true" for the refences you add in your project. And as long as these thrid party libraries does not require some special security permissions.
Here is a list of supported by Nhibernate SQL Dialects: https://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/nhibernate/1.2/reference/en/html/session-configuration.html#configuration-optional-dialects
Maybe it's just a matter of time for Nhibernate to add support for Azure TableStorage.

Answer 2

Hi Rashid,

Please see the following link. http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2009/09/05/nhibernate-on-the-cloud-sql-azure.aspx As you can see, "It just works" :)

Thanks for using the service,
Dave

Answer 3

I came across the following link when I wanted to use NHibernate with Azure Table Storage;

http://cloudshaper.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/getting-started-with-nhibernate-on-azure-table-storage-services/

You will need a driver which is available from Codeplex

http://nhazuredriver.codeplex.com/

If you want logging then this link will help

http://cloudshaper.wordpress.com/2010/10/

I have not tried this yet - that fun is yet to come ;)