This report presents a study of six different object-relational mapping frameworks, namely Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL, NHibernate, Castle ActiveRecord, MyGeneration Doodads and Subsonic. The study describes the strengths and weaknesses of the various frameworks and discusses when each framework is appropriate to use.
The frameworks that were judged to be the most interesting were NHibernate and Entity Framework, since they provide flexible mapping between the domain model and the underlying database schema as well as good availability of documentation and literature.
The study was used as a basis for deciding which of the frameworks that should be used in a rewrite of an existing application for the IT consulting company Sogeti. The framework that was considered the most appropriate for the application was NHibernate.