Question

I see heavy use of “store” objects in the web app I am working on. Is there a name for this pattern and would you say these types are in the BLL or DAL?

These stores contain fragments of what I would consider a classical DAL type, associated with a single type.

For example, we have a TabStore containing methods for the persistance and retrieval of Tabs. Within each method in the TabStore there is code to invoke the appropriate NHibernate query.

What are the pitfalls (if any) of working with this pattern? Is it really a simple attempt to separate what might once have been a monolithic Dal type into more manageable, smaller types?

Example method:

public IList<Tab> GetAllTabInstancesForUserId(Guid userId)
{
    IList<Tab> tabInstances =
                UoW.Session.CreateQuery("from Tab t where t.UserId=:userId order by t.TabOrder")
                   .SetGuid("userId", userId)
                   .SetCacheable(true)
                   .List<Tab>();

    return tabInstances;
}

Answer 1

It may be what is more commonly known as a Repository.

The abstract Repository belongs in the Domain Model, but should be implemented by concrete classes in a separate Data Access Component.