How do we structure the database abstractions?

[bbjubjub2494]

The code review raised some issues regarding the API of DatabaseService. If we refactor that, how should we proceed?

In my opinion they made some sensible suggestions, such as using the Repository pattern with POKOs. (POKOs in particular didn't make sense to me in the beginning, but in retrospect I cant unsee that most DatabaseService are doing two different things instead of one) I think we should do that.

I also think we could take the opportunity to offer primary keys rather than full entities when relational fields are loaded. (e.g. Set<Category.Id> instead of Set<Category>) It would be beneficial to keep some type safety on that, which I think we can accomplish with some combination of phantom type parameters and inline classes

It might be useful to turn DatabaseService into an adapter calling into the new repository objects during the transition period.