ORM - or why did I spend so much time with writing SQL by hand?

Some months ago I started playing around with ORM tools for ColdFusion - the two well known solutions in this area are Reactor and Transfer.
Until now most SQL code in our CFMX applications is written by hand or by a small component called "autoSQL", which is more or less a very stripped down version of an ORM tool. But as time goes by, it become more and more necessary to bring some standards in here and I am glad that I have found now a very good solution with Transfer.

If you need some arguments for using ORM, try these:

• Reduce time to write SQL
• Ability to switch to a new RDMS without touching the code
• More readable DB code
• Focus on the real important issues in your application (workflow, security)
  

How does the whole thing work?
First of all, you have to create some XML files which document your database and table structures. Transfer follows an package/object approach so that all the tables can be managed in an even more readable way.

The second step already happens in CFML - you play around with your data! Depending on the task you want to fullfill, several methods are available (Update, Save, Delete).

An example:

cfset var a_transfer = application.beanFactory.getBean( 'ContentTransfer' ).getTransfer()
cfset a_new_item = a_transfer.new( 'contacts.contact' )
cfset a_new_item.setentrykey( CreateUUID() )
cfset a_new_item.setname( arguments.name)
cfset a_new_item.setdescription( arguments.description )
cfset a_new_item.setdt_created( Now() )
cfset a_transfer.save(a_new_item)

The best way is to start with the included Blog demo application - there the whole concept is shown in a very good way. Take a look at the available presentations as well to gain a better understanding of the basic concepts.