What is the correct way to use Unit of Work/Repositories within the business layer?

Question

Having built a small application using the Unit of Work/Repository pattern, I am struggling to understand how to use this properly within my business layer. My application h

Answer 1

Looks to me like you've almost got it. In our new server stack I have this setup:

WCF Service Layer  --> just returns results from my Business Layer

My business layer is called, creates a unitofwork, creates the respository
Calls the respository function
Uses AutoMapper to move returned results into a DTO

My repository gets the query results and populates a composite object.

Looks almost like what you've got there. Though we use Unity to locate what you call the business layer. (we just call it our function processor)

What I would highly suggest, though, is that you do NOT keep the UnitOfWork at the class level. After all each descreet function is a unit of work. So mine is like this (the names have been changed to protect the innocent):

        using ( UnitOfWorkScope scope = new UnitOfWorkScope( TransactionMode.Default ) )
        {
            ProcessRepository repository = new ProcessRepository(  );
            CompositionResultSet result = repository.Get( key );
            scope.Commit( );

            MapData( );
            return AutoMapper.Mapper.Map( result );
        }

We also had a long discussion on when to do a scope.Commit and while it isn't needed for queries, it establishes a consistent pattern for every function in the application layer. BTW we are using NCommon for our repository/unitofwork patterns and do not have to pass the UoW to the repository.