Installing NHibernate

Before we begin, let's get our Visual Studio solution and database set up. The following information will get you up and started with NHibernate.

Getting ready

1. Install Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express (or a newer version) on your PC, using the default settings.
2. Create a blank database named NHCookbook.

How to do it...

1. In Visual Studio, create a new C# class library project named Eg.Core with a directory for the solution named Cookbook.
2. Delete the Class1.cs file.
3. In the Solution Explorer, right click the References node in the Eg.Core project and select Manage NuGet Packages. In the top navigation of the now-opened NuGet Package Manager, make sure Browse is selected. Enter the word NHibernate in the search box and wait for the results to show up:
   
4. Select the NHibernate package in the search results and click Install. This will install NHibernate and all required dependencies.
5. Add a new class named TestClass, to the Eg.Core project:

   public class TestClass
   {
     public virtual int Id { get; set; }
     public virtual string Name { get; set; }
   }

There's more…

Instead of using the graphical package manager, you can use the Package Manager Console. It provides a faster way to install or update NuGet packages. To open the Package Manager Console simply click Tools | NuGet Package Manager | Package Manager Console. In the opened window you can simply write the following:

Install-Package NHibernate -Project Eg.Core

This will produce the same effect as the main recipe.