Object-relational mapping with dynamic relational schemas

A computer program product for implementing a method for providing dynamic strongly-typed object querying in a database software application, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising:

• an act of a database software application receiving a query from a user, wherein the database software application is configured to identify relational database schema changes as provided in portions of object-relational mapping (ORM) metadata;
• an act of the database software application receiving one or more portions of (ORM) metadata associated with the database object, the ORM metadata including an indication of object properties and database schema changes associated with the database object;
• an act of the database software application dynamically parsing the received query to perform type-checking on the query;
• and
• based on the dynamic parsing, an act of providing substantially instantaneous feedback regarding the compatibility of the received query.

A computer system comprising the following:

• one or more processors;
• system memory;
• one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for mapping relational input data into a graph of objects using object-relational mapping (ORM) metadata, the method comprising the following:
• an act of a generic database application receiving a portion of input data from a database, the generic database application being configured to communicate with the database using at least one of a variety of different database schemas;
• an act of the generic database application inferring a portion of ORM metadata from the at least one database schema, the ORM metadata being associated with the received input data, the ORM metadata including an indication of database object properties and database schema settings associated with the database objects;
• an act of accessing a generic ORM query, the ORM query being configured to provide mapping information to map the input data into a graph of objects according to the database object properties included in the ORM metadata;
• an act of mapping the input data into a graph of objects, as indicated in the accessed ORM query, using the database object properties included in the ORM metadata;
• and
• an act of displaying an ORM object view which includes the graph of objects, the object view representing at least a portion of the input data in an appropriate manner as indicated in the received ORM metadata.