How do I get fluent nhibernate to create a varbinary(max) field in sql server

Question

How can I get fluent nhibernate to create a varbinary field in a sql server 2005 table that uses a field size of varbinary(max)? At the moment I always get a default of varb

Answer 1

You need an auto-mapping override:

public class MyFileMapOverride : IAutoMappingOverride
{
    public void Override( AutoMapping mapping )
    {
        mapping.Map( x => x.FileData ).Length( int.MaxValue );
    }
}

Since you're using Castle, you can tell it to wire up NHibernate with your mappings in your NHibernateInstaller:

public void Install( IWindsorContainer container, IConfigurationStore store )
{
    container.Register( Component.For()
                                 .UsingFactoryMethod( k => BuildSessionFactory() )
                                 .Named( "MySessionFactory" ) );

    // Do other stuff...
}

private ISessionFactory BuildSessionFactory()
{
    var mappings = AutoMap.AssemblyOf()
                          .IgnoreBase( typeof(Entity) )
                          .UseOverridesFromAssemblyOf();

    var configuration = ConfigurationUtility
        .CreateConfiguration(
            "MyDbConnection",
            ConfigurationUtility.ForMsSql,
            mappings,
            NHibernateConfiguration.GetConfigurationPath() );

    return configuration.BuildSessionFactory();
}