NHibernate associations have the following properties:
Ends
End 1
Specifies the property of the child class that references the associated parent class.
Access
Specifies the strategy used to access the property values. Can accept the following values: Default (Property), Property, Field or Nosetter.
Attributes
Specifies attributes of the object.
Cascade
Specifies which operation should be cascaded from the parent object to the associated object. Can accept the following values: Default, None, All, SaveUpdate, Delete.
Constrained
(available for one-to-one associations) specifies that a foreign key constraint on the primary key of the mapped table references the table of the associated class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Documentation
Long Description
Detailed description of the property.
Summary
Brief description of the property.
Fetch
Makes it possible to choose either outer-join fetching or sequential select fetching. Can accept the following values: Select, or Join.
Generate
Determines whether the corresponding property should be created in the class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Generate Data Member Attribute
Specifies whether the association should be serialized. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Getter Modifier
Specifies the getter accessibility level. Can accept the following values: Public, ProtectedInternal, Internal, Protected, Private.
Insert
Specifies that the mapped columns should be included in SQL INSERT statement. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Join Table
Specifies the name of the table this property belongs to.
Multiplicity
Specifies the multiplicity for this end of the association.
Name
Specifies the name of the member property of an association.
Not Found
Specifies how foreign keys that reference missing rows will be handled. Acceptable values are: Exception, or Ignore.
Optimistic Lock
Specifies that updates to this property do or do not require acquisition of the optimistic lock. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Separate FK
(available for one-to-one associations) specifies that the mapped table has separate foreign key column(s).
Setter Modifier
Specifies the setter accessibility level. Can accept the following values: Public, ProtectedInternal, Internal, Protected, Private.
Property Ref
Specifies the name of a property of the associated class that is joined to this foreign key. If not specified, the primary key of the associated class is used.
Unimplemented
Determines whether to exclude the definition and initialization code of the property from the class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Unique
Enables or disables the DDL generation of a unique constraint for the foreign-key column. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Update
Specifies that the mapped columns should be included in SQL UPDATE statement. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
End 2
Specifies the property on the parent that is a collection or reference to child records on the foreign key side of the association.
Access
The strategy used to access the property value. Can accept the following values: Default (Property), Property, Field, None, or Nosetter.
Attributes
Specifies attributes of the object.
Batch Size
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies the batch size for lazily fetching instances of this collection.
Cache
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies second level cache settings.
Region
Specifies the name of the second level cache region.
Usage
Specifies the caching strategy, acceptable values are ReadWrite, NonStrictReadWrite and ReadOnly.
Cascade
Specifies which operation should be cascaded from the parent to the associated object. Can accept the following values: Default, None, All, SaveUpdate, Delete, DeleteOrphan, AllDeleteOrphan.
Collection Type
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies the type of the collection. Can accept the following values: Set, Bag, Map, List, or Array.
Constrained
(available for one-to-one associations) specifies that a foreign key constraint on the primary key of the mapped table references the table of the associated class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Documentation
Long Description
Detailed description of the property.
Summary
Brief description of the property.
Fetch
Makes it possible to choose either outer-join fetching or sequential select fetching. Can accept the following values: Select, or Join.
Filter
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies the filter to be used when retrieving or removing the collection.
A filter criterion allows you to define a restriction clause similar to the existing "where" attribute available on various collection elements. These filter conditions, however, can be parameterized. The application can then decide at runtime whether certain filters should be enabled and what their parameter values should be. Filters can be used like database views, but they are parameterized inside the application.
In order to use filters, they must first be defined and then attached to the appropriate mapping elements, for details see Filtering Data.
Generate
Determines whether the corresponding property should be created in the class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Generate Data Member Attribute
Specifies whether the association should be serialized. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Generic
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies whether to use a generic collection type. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Getter Modifier
Specifies the getter accessibility level. Can accept the following values: Public, ProtectedInternal, Internal, Protected, Private.
Index Type
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies the type of the collection index. Can accept the following values: AnsiChar, AnsiString, Binary, BinaryBlob, Boolean, Byte, Char, CultureInfo, Currency, Date, DateTime, DateTime2, DateTimeOffset, DbTimestamp, LocalDateTime, UtcDateTime, Decimal, Double, Guid, Int16, Int32, Int64, Object, SByte, Serializable, Single, String, StringClog, Ticks, Time, TimeAsTimeSpan, TimeSpan, Timestamp, TrueFalse, Type, UInt16, UInt32, UInt64, YesNo, Classes, Complex types and Enum types.
Inverse
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) marks the collection as the 'inverse' end of a bidirectional association. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Join Table
Specifies the name of the table this property belongs to.
Lazy
Enables or disables lazy fetching. For Many end can accept the following values: Default, True, False, or Extra. For One end can accept True or False.
Multiplicity
Determines the multiplicity for this end of the association.
Name
Specifies the name of the member property of an association.
Not found
Specifies how foreign keys that reference missing rows will be handled. Can accept the following values: Exception, or Ignore.
Optimistic Lock
Specifies that updates to this property do or do not require acquisition lock. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Order By
Denotes one or more table columns that define the iteration order.
Property Ref
The name of a property of the associated class that is joined to this foreign key. If not specified, the primary key of the associated class is used.
Separate FK
(available for one-to-one associations) specifies that the mapped table has separate foreign key column(s).
Setter Modifier
Specifies the setter accessibility level. Can accept the following values: Public, ProtectedInternal, Internal, Protected, Private.
Sort
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) specifies a sorted collection with natural sort order, or a given comparator class. Can accept the following values: unsorted, or natural.
Unimplemented
Determines whether to exclude the definition and initialization code of the property from the class. Can accept the following values: True, or False.
Where
(available if the End's multiplicity equals Many) an arbitrary SQL WHERE condition to be used when retrieving or removing the collection.
General
Name
Specifies the name of the association.
Join Table
Schema
Specifies the schema of a join table for the many-to-many or composite-element mapped association.
Table
Specifies the name of a join table for the many-to-many or composite-element mapped association.
Many-to-many
Many-to-Many Component
Specifies the complex type for mapping extra columns of a many-to-many association table.
