Is Data Mapper a more modern trend than Active Record

Question

I\'ve come across a couple of ORMs that recently announced they are planning to move their implementation from Active Record to Data Mapper. My knowledge of this subject is very

Answer 1

Even though the post is 8 years old, the question is still valid in 2018.

Active record is Anti pattern beware of that. It creates a very tight coupling between code and database. It might not be a problem for small simple projects. However, I would strongly recommend to avoid using it in anything bigger.

A good OOP design is done in layers. Input layer, service layer, repository layer, data mapper and DB - just a simple example. You should not mix Input layer with the DB. How this can be done? For example, in Laravel, you can use a Validator rule like this:

'email' => 'exists:staff,email'

It checks whether the email exists in the table staff. This is a complete OOP non-sense. It tights your top layer with the DB column name. I cannot imagine any better example of a bad OOP design.

The bottom line - if you are creating a simple site with 2-3 tables, like a blog, Active record might not be a problem. For anything bigger, go for Data Mapper and be careful about OOP principles such as IoC, SoC, etc.