Confusion between DTOs (linq2sql) and Class objects!

Question

i have been successfully working with linq2sql and the linq DTOs (the classes that are created by linq2sql) ....

I am confused, i have the task of updating an old ap

Answer 1

I actually had a similar question on this topic although my intent was slightly different. The recommendation was to use the Linq2SQL classes as the domain objects and to take advantage of partial classes as others have mentioned. My main concern came with the shape of those objects (ie property names), and the accessibility of class members (ie private v.s. protected for example).

The shape of the objects and even the accessibility can be addressed by using t4 templates where Damien Guard has put together a T4 template to allow you to control the shape of the classes that Linq2Sql would generate for you. This can be seen here T4 template for Linq2SQL.

This is the approach that I am going to look into and see if it addresses my concerns. Additionally if your service layer can accept interfaces to method arguments you can also control what the service layer has access to through interface wrappers around your Linq2SQL DTOs.

Hope this helps.