Rich domain model with behaviours and ORM

Question

After watching NDC12 presentation "Crafting Wicked Domain Models" from Jimmy Bogard (http://ndcoslo.oktaset.com/Agenda), I was wandering how to persist that kind of domain model.
This is sample class from presentation:

public class Member
{
    List<Offer> _offers;

    public Member(string firstName, string lastName)
    {
        FirstName = firstName;
        LastName = lastName;
        _offers = new List<Offer>();
    }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public IEnumerable<Offer> AssignedOffers { 
        get { return _offers; }
    }

    public int NumberOfOffers { get; private set; }

    public Offer AssignOffer(OfferType offerType, IOfferValueCalc valueCalc)
    {
        var value = valueCalc.CalculateValue(this, offerType);
        var expiration = offerType.CalculateExpiration();
        var offer = new Offer(this, offerType, expiration, value);
        _offers.Add(offer);
        NumberOfOffers++;
        return offer;
    }
}

so there are some rules contained in this domain model:
- Member must have first and last name
- Number of offers can't be changed outside
- Member is responsible for creating new offer, calculating its value and assignment

If if try to map this to some ORM like Entity Framework or NHibernate, it will not work. So, what's best approach for mapping this kind of model to database with ORM?
For example, how do I load AssignedOffers from DB if there's no setter?

Only thing that does make sense for me is using command/query architecture: queries are always done with DTO as result, not domain entities, and commands are done on domain models. Also, event sourcing is perfect fit for behaviours on domain model. But this kind of CQS architecture isn't maybe suitable for every project, specially brownfield. Or not?

I'm aware of similar questions here, but couldn't find concrete example and solution.

Answer 1

This is actually a very good question and something I have contemplated. It is potentially difficult to create proper domain objects that are fully encapsulated (i.e. no property setters) and use an ORM to build the domain objects directly.

In my experience there are 3 ways of solving this issue:

• As already mention by Luka, NHibernate supports mapping to private fields, rather than property setters.
• If using EF (which I don't think supports the above) you could use the memento pattern to restore state to your domain objects. e.g. you use entity framework to populate 'memento' objects which your domain entities accept to set their private fields.
• As you have pointed out, using CQRS with event sourcing eliminates this problem. This is my preferred method of crafting perfectly encapsulated domain objects, that also have all the added benefits of event sourcing.

Answer 2

Old thread. But there's a more recent post (late 2014) by Vaughn Vernon that addresses just this scenario, with particular reference to Entity Framework. Given that I somehow struggled to find such information, maybe it can be helpful to post it here as well.

Basically the post advocates for the Product domain (aggregate) object to wrap the ProductState EF POCO data object for what concerns the "data bag" side of things. Of course the domain object would still add all its rich domain behaviour through domain-specific methods/accessors, but it would resort to inner data object when it has to get/set its properties.

Copying snippet straight from post:

public class Product
{
  public Product(
    TenantId tenantId,
    ProductId productId,
    ProductOwnerId productOwnerId,
    string name,
    string description)
  {
    State = new ProductState();
    State.ProductKey = tenantId.Id + ":" + productId.Id;
    State.ProductOwnerId = productOwnerId;
    State.Name = name;
    State.Description = description;
    State.BacklogItems = new List<ProductBacklogItem>();
  }

  internal Product(ProductState state)
  {
    State = state;
  }

  //...

  private readonly ProductState State;
}

public class ProductState
{
  [Key]
  public string ProductKey { get; set; }

  public ProductOwnerId ProductOwnerId { get; set; }

  public string Name { get; set; }

  public string Description { get; set; }

  public List<ProductBacklogItemState> BacklogItems { get; set; }
  ...
}

Repository would use internal constructor in order to instantiate (load) an entity instance from its DB-persisted version.

The one bit I can add myself, is that probably Product domain object should be dirtied with one more accessor just for the purpose of persistence through EF: in the same was as new Product(productState) allows a domain entity to be loaded from database, the opposite way should be allowed through something like:

public class Product
{
   // ...
   internal ProductState State
   {
     get
     {
       // return this.State as is, if you trust the caller (repository),
       // or deep clone it and return it
     }
   }
}

// inside repository.Add(Product product):

dbContext.Add(product.State);